VERO BEACH — City officials confirmed Thursday morning that a closed executive session of the Vero Beach City Council has been scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday to attempt to resolve a labor dispute over employee union demands for salary increases.
A formal impasse in negotiations has been declared with both the Coastal Police Benevolent Association and the Teamsters union. The city is set to enter into mediation proceedings with the PBA on Wednesday.
City Manager Jim O’Connor called the meeting Wednesday morning, just hours after votes were tallied in Tuesday night’s election with incumbent Dick Winger and challenger Amelia Graves emerging as the victors.
Both Graves and Winger were endorsed by the Coastal PBA after being interviewed about their positions on the issues. Police officers also actively campaigned in the lead-up to Tuesday’s election and waved signs at polling places.
The previous council, which included Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll, who was defeated on Tuesday, did not include salary increases for police or other city employees in the 2013-14 during budget workshops this summer. The city’s property tax rate was set in accordance with that budget.
The “shade” meeting, as executive sessions outside the usual requirements of the Sunshine Law are commonly called, is set to take place right after a 10 a.m. public meeting in council chambers where the election results will be certified and Graves and Winger will be sworn in.
Also at that 10 a.m. meeting council will select a new mayor and vice mayor and receive a briefing from the staff on Florida law as it relates to public records and open meetings.
Councilwoman Pilar Turner said she was told the purpose of the shade meeting on Friday was to conduct a confidential strategy session regarding collective bargaining with the police union.
“Yes, it is to cover collective bargaining issues,” O’Connor confirmed Thursday by email.
The city also has reached impasse with the Teamsters Local 769, which represents utility, public works and other employees, but O’Connor said mediation has not yet been scheduled with the Teamsters.
O’Connor told the city’s Finance Commission on Oct. 31 that the remaining bone of contention with the unions was salary increases. Police salaries have been frozen for four years and proposals in the range of 5 to 9 percent increases have been floated in union negotiations to date.
PBA local representative Det. Bradley Kmetz said Thursday that he knew the city had scheduled a shade meeting on Friday, but he had no idea about what would be discussed. He confirmed that salaries and wages, plus a proposed concession to offset increased employee insurance costs, were the only unresolved issues remaining.
“We continue to work with the city to avoid having to go to mediation,” Kmetz said, adding that the PBA’s demands were not anywhere near the 9 percent high end of the range referred to by O’Connor.
Under an exemption in the state statute, the city is permitted to hold a closed-door meeting for this narrow purpose only. The public does not have the right to know about the meeting being scheduled. The public also has no right to know who was in attendance or what was decided. No minutes or transcripts are required to be taken and any work papers or handouts may legally be kept out of the public record.
“A vote on the union contracts will be taken in the sunshine as prescribed by law,” O’Connor stated in an email to VeroNews.com.
The city reached formal impasse with the PBA on Aug. 26, 2013, and is set to go to before a special magistrate if a deal cannot be hammered out. O’Connor said the cost of any mediation proceedings, where the city would be represented by its labor attorney Jason Odom, would be split between the taxpayers and the union.
There is no money currently budgeted in the 2013-14 fiscal year for police officer raises, but the city has about $140,000 in undesignated surplus, according to Councilwoman Turner.
