Maybe it is time to reduce the work forces of all these union to the level of
what we can afford because of the greed.  With over 90% of the budgets of
police, fire, city and teachers unions being salaries and benefits there is no
room for any

Read today's Daily News....The Union's response. I can tell you that the FOP Bargaining Committee on at least two occasions offered the city a co-Pay towards the premium on the Healthcare. Each of these offers were in the ballpark of where the city wanted to be. In each instance we were rejected by the city manager....not the city's negotiation team. In each case he saw fit to reject the offers out of hand and did not bring the offers to the council for them to see. I have had at least two former councilors tell me the did not even know we had made an offer to co-pay. If the city manager tells anyone anything less it is a blatant lie. The FOP has the documentation to back these facts! In fact the last offer the FOP made was close to the same co-pay that department heads are now paying. The FOP is not blind to the city's fiscal issues, we have TRIED to find a common ground and do our fair share. The city manager has consistently rejected any attempt the union has made to find some common ground. Instead he chooses to negotiate in the press, threaten to violate the current collective bargaining by attempting to leave positions unfilled and make the union look greedy. Maybe Mr. Smith should try negotiating in good faith....had that been done from square one we would have a contract with a co pay for health care and avoided this very contentious and costly arbitration.

 

Rick Lombardi

Fraternal Order of Police

Negotiation Team