10082024 Board of Public Works meeting

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REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 8, 2024 212 Ms. Dale stated that the City has to be careful on the Ignition Circle site to make sure it doesn't move into a recreational type, so the Troyer Group will help us with that. It is like navigating the storm water capacity at the retention basin. We want to make sure that we are adding capacity, not taking it away. We may add some structures at different sites to make them not only places that are good for growing these trees, but also green space for folks in the neighborhood to engage with. AGREEMENT/CONTRACTS/PROPOSALS/ADDENDA City Attorney Jenna Throw was present to discuss item 9. D.: Contract with Teamsters Local Union No. 364 Collective Bargaining Agreement Covering 2025-2028. She advised that this item sets forth an agreement between the City and the Teamsters Union, which represents a variety of the employees throughout Public Works, Venues Parks & Arts, Community Investment, and Administration and Finance. Throughout the summer, after engaging in successful negotiations with the Teamsters, we've arrived at a four (4) year agreement and the wages that were agreed to will be approved by Common Council in a forthcoming substitute salary ordinance that will be filed in the coming days. It will be up for a reading on October 14th. We would ask that when the Board goes to consider the agreement on Tuesday that any approval will be subject to Council's consideration of the wages. She explained that she served as the lead negotiator through this process and along with representatives from different departments throughout the City that employ the Teamsters and different administrative departments. Some of the primary changes in the main agreement reflect additional efficiencies and clarity and a variety of operational elements in incentivization for employees to build sick time banks and clarifying some PPE elements for employees. Throughout the supplemental agreement, you'll see that there are several supplemental agreements. There's a separate supplemental for each subgroup within the Teamsters Union, and we engage in separate conversations with each work group, and so the adjustments that are made in those agreements are based on specialized conversations with each group on items that are unique to those group circumstances. This will be a four-year agreement to ensure stability for the the workers over the next four (4) years and then the wages will be filed in a substitute bill with Council in the coming days and will be heard by Council on the I4th. Mr. Gilot stated that contract covered wages, benefits and working conditions. He noted some job classifications for which we had to make significant adjustments to pay in order to attract people to occupy those positions. He recalled over the years having some positions that needed more than the cost -of -living adjustment in order to attract talent. City Attorney Throw noted that she thought there were some roles where we made some adjustments like that. Most were a few situations where we included some opportunities for advancement within existing job advancement systems, like there are some roles where you have a position where there is a one (1) and a two (2) position, and then there may be additional step ups where you create a kind of job growth pathway where there is normally few situations where those kind of opportunities occur. Director of Public Works Eric Horvath added that the City felt a little bit behind, so in addition to the annual raises, there is a onetime six percent (6%) upfront raise for the positions with an exception of some equipment services that just got raises. Sometimes we'll have to do it outside of the bargaining agreement process because it is a critical need for the City to be on par with other wages in the community. A good example is the central garage as we were not able to keep our mechanics because they were not being paid competitively in the market, so before the negotiations, their wages were increased. A lot of times we will deal with those specific needs outside of the contract to try to make sure that we are paying competitively. Mr. Miller asked if there is a provision in there for the agreement to be opened up just for wages. Director Horvath answered no but stated it can always open at any time for a mutual agreement when we find a need that we feel like a salary is not where should be to be competitive. City Attorney Throw added that with wages, sometimes it is just something else that we may need to clear up in the wording of the contract or something that we could agree on. For example, since the last contract we negotiated in 2021, we incorporated CDL Premium Pay in 2022 or 2023 that has now been incorporated into the contract, so that is an example of something where all of the MOUs that this Board approved throughout the contract cycle. Attorney Schmidt noted that not only through the efforts of Attorney Throw, but also all the department heads contributing and also the administration stepped up and gave the tools and