Contract ruling rejected

The Sarasota Police Department union has rejected a special magistrate’s recommendation on the ongoing contract dispute with the city. In a 12-page ruling issued Aug. 23, Punta Gorda-based Special Magistrate William McGinnis Jr. stated the Sarasota Police Department’s current pension plan should be replaced with a new defined contribution plan, pending the city and the department working together to reinstate Social Security benefits for all officers.

“The (police) bargaining unit members have been sensitive to the concerns of the city for years, but they cannot agree to the replacement of their existing pension and disability plans as proposed by the city,” McGinnis wrote in his recommendation. “The members argue the city has ample funds to meet its obligations to continue the existing pension and disability programs.”

McGinnis notes the city’s proposal to end the pension plan “fails to consider that the bargaining unit members do not enjoy Social Security coverage, yet all competing area law enforcement agencies do enjoy that significant benefit.”

The city, meanwhile, “points to its lack of availability of funds, its shrinking tax base and restriction on some city funds as compelling reasons to impose its pension program,” wrote McGinnis, noting that the police pension plan has experienced actuarial losses in eight of the last 10 years.

“But the current disability benefits now in effect should be retained,” wrote McGinnis, who urges the parties to reform the current plan and reinstitute Social Security benefits for officers. “The benefit change is too drastic in the absence of Social Security coverage.”

Sarasota Police Benevolent Association President Mick McHale said Social Security, which officers declined in the 1950s when their current pension plans were approved, is the department’s biggest concern.

Without Social Security benefits, McHale said officers will have no disability safety net.

“If you mandate a defined contribution plan without any Social Security benefits, we would be the first city to do so, and officers here would leave in droves,” McHale said. “That would diminish benefits below standards offered to everyday city employees.”

McHale also expressed displeasure that the officers aren’t being afforded the same contract the city agreed upon last month with the local Teamsters union. That three-year deal gives those employees the right to keep an amended pension plan or move into a defined contribution plan.

“We realize it’s the city’s intent to drive all future employees into a 401(k) plan,” McHale said. “But the glaring difference from police officers and other employees is the officers are not being offered the same opportunity to keep an amended pension plan. That’s an extreme prejudice toward members of the police department.”

City Manager Bob Bartolotta told the Sarasota Observer that the police department has refused to negotiate with the city since Jan. 18.

“We have had ample opportunity since January to have further discussions regarding the pension issue,” said Bartolotta, noting that the union didn’t present a proposal until last Friday and that the city chose not to consider it. “The bottom line is the special magistrate agreed with our stance. This has been dragging on for three years, and we want a contract.”

In a letter dated Sept. 11, union attorney Diane Bailey Morton rejected the recommendations, noting that the city would need to hold a referendum to re-establish Social Security benefits.

Bartolotta, meanwhile, said he was unsure of the method to re-establish Social Security benefits, but agreed, “the union should absolutely go into Social Security again.”

Because the union has rejected the recommendation, the Sarasota City Commission must make a recommendation on the issues upon which neither side can agree.

The commission must now make a binding decision on the issues at hand that will establish a one-year contract that expires at the end of the month.

The decisions the commission make will become the basis for a new contract that both sides must discuss at the bargaining table once again this fall.

The goal, Bartolotta said, is to establish a multi-year contract and end years worth of delays.