North Adams Firefighters Getting Retroactive Raise
 Councilor Lisa Blackmer questioned the need for raises to settle the retroactive contracts. |
Mayor Richard Alcombright said he had reached a retroactive agreement with International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1781 that was similar to that recently reached with North Adams Police Association Local 382 with the exception of one language change.
"Occasionally, the firemen are called out to work detail work ... the police receive $32 an hour for road detail work and the fire [fighters], for whatever reason, receive $22 an hour so what we did is we made that comparable to the police rate of $32," said the mayor. "It's rarely used and those rates are not paid by the city ... They're picked up by whoever contracts them."
The cost for the retroactive raises is between $45,000 and $48,000 because the Fire Department salaries are slightly higher. The funds will come out of the same $90,000 used for the police salaries that was transferred from last fiscal year for that purpose.
Councilor Lisa Blackmer, while voting for the compensation plan, reiterated her disappointment that the settlements for both police and fire required more funding in light of the city's fiscal woes.
"I want to state again as I did with the police contract, that as we go forward with settling these contracts that we hopefully will come up with some nonmonetary compensation," she said, adding that just because the contracts were retroactive didn't mean they had to include raises. "The state employees frequently settle their contracts with no retro for part of the term for not settling.
"These organizations or unions were offered contracts in the past — they chose not settle."
The mayor responded that he understood the prior offers to have been been higher. The city is in or entering negotiations for new contracts with all of its seven unions. "We are looking at many different avenues outside of the true, hard dollars to settle," he said. "There's a lot of language we're talking about."
The council approved both years of the compensation plan to move to a second reading and be published and, by roll call vote, unanimously finalized the changes in compensation plan for the police officers.
 Mayor Richard Alcombright said language is being discussed as talks for future contracts move forward. |
The mayor said the city had been contracting services in excess of $33,000 for maintenance and $9,000 in plumbing inspection services. The individual being considered is the same person who has been contracted for much of the work and who holds a contractor's and plumber's license.
Councilor Marie Harpin questioned why the job was not being posted.
"This person has all the qualifications we're looking for, already knows our buildings, knows our infrastructure and has worked in virtually every building on heating systems, cooling systems and much of the carpentry," said Alcombright. "Quite honestly it would be a waste of resources and time [to post it.]"
He added that the city rarely posts jobs because it has so many resumes with two or three added a day; at least 100 applications are on file for the Department of Public Works.
Blackmer, however, said it would behoove the city to at least post open positions on its website since it would cost nothing and provide a level of fairness and transparency.
In other business:
- The council also moved to a second reading changes in classfication and compensation for the veterans agent. The position is full time but up to $9,000 will be reimbursed by sharing the agent with Williamstown and Adams.
- Approved the reappointment of Councilor Marie Harpin to the Mobile Home Rent Control Board (Harpin abstained from the vote); Mary Ann Caproni to the Board of Registrars; and Nancy Bullett to the Windsor Lake Recreation Commission.
- Approved taxi licenses for Linda F. Jarvis of North Adams to drive for Lori Smith and Todd Plumley of Adams to drive for Candy Tripodes.
- Set the next meeting for Wednesday, Sept. 15, to avoid the Sept. 14 primary.
- Heard from Emily Baker-White and Helen Merrigan about UNITY's pursuit of a $250,000 Pepsi grant for skate park.
- National Grid, represented by Bonnie Brown, reguested the replacement of support wires for poles 54 and 55, about 1,427 feet northeast of Union Street intersection on city land. Brown said the trees used to support the poles had rotted and fallen over. Approval was given but Councilor Gailanne Cariddi questioned whether an ordinance passed a year ago that charges the utilities a fee of $25 for working with city departments had been used. Brown said she wasn't aware of the ordinance; the mayor said his office would work on communicating the ordinance to the utility companies.
The entire agenda, including the compensation plan changes, can be found here.
