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Madeira Beach city workers picket for a salary increase

At a commission meeting, residents urge city leaders to grant the employees the 7 percent pay hike they want.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published August 14, 2005

MADEIRA BEACH - More than two dozen city employees - nearly half the city staff - picketed outside City Hall on Tuesday night as commissioners and residents arrived for a commission meeting.

They carried signs reading "Jobs With Justice," "We Want A Fair Wage Increase," and "We Are Not Third Class Citizens."

At issue is a breakdown in salary negotiations. The employees want a 7 percent pay hike while the city is offering a 3.5 percent increase.

When the city and the employee union, Communications Workers of America, could not reach an agreement, an official impasse was declared last month.

The CWA represents 37 city employees, not including 12 firefighters and 11 administrators. The union representing city firefighters recently negotiated a 5.4 percent pay hike, and the city has budgeted a 6.3 percent raise for nonexempt employees (mostly administrators).

"(The city negotiating team) only offered us 3.5 percent. It's just not fair. It's unjust. We didn't do anything to be punished," Stephen Sarnoff, president of CWA Local 3179, told the commission Tuesday.

"To fill up the tank with gas takes 3 hours of pay," Sarnoff added. "Most employees can't afford to live in Madeira Beach and have to commute here from other places. Fairness is what we are here about tonight."

City employees filled the back of the commission chamber and applauded as residents then rose to urge the city to grant their employees a higher raise next year.

"If we didn't have (employees), we'd have a hell of a mess in our city. They deserve top pay. Give a 10 or 20 percent raise, I don't care. We need them," resident Charlotte Varnadore said.

"I encourage the commission to give this group of workers a merit raise. These people work very hard," said Art Broderick, a resident and local business owner.

"We all know what went on in the past and why unions came into the city," former commissioner Tom Saxon said. "We're giving the appearance of punishment because they joined a union. I trust you will go back and think about this and do what is in the best interest of the city."

Madeira Beach employees elected to join the CWA in 2003, largely as a result of complaints over how employees were treated by then City Manager Jim Madden.

Several times Mayor Charles Parker tried to cut off speakers, saying that the issue would be "discussed in full" at a future meeting. "We're going to have a full-blown hearing," Parker said. "You are just spinning your wheels tonight."

It didn't work.

Pat Shontz, a 40-year resident whose Apple restaurant was a gathering place for town residents and power players alike, sharply criticized the commission.

"I'd like any one of you to work eight hours in the hot sun every day," she scolded the commission. "The percentage you people have (offered) is absolutely ridiculous. If I were these people, I would be very hurt, very crushed to think my commission thought no more of me than 3.5 percent."

Then, speaking directly to Mayor Parker, Shontz fired a final broadside: "I'd like to leave this message with you, Charlie - there can be no distress, no hard times when labor is well paid."

"These people are the backbone of the city. If they leave, we're all in a big problem, resident Stephen Kochick said.

The commission plans to resolve the dispute in a public meeting sometime in September.

Sarnoff says he hopes that meeting will be set in the evening. "What we don't want is a special meeting during the day when people can't attend," he said.

In other action, the commission appointed former commissioner Arnold Alloway to fill the seat vacated by the recent resignation of Len Piotti.

"I really didn't want to apply for this, but I received a lot of phone calls from people who were very supportive," Alloway told the commission prior to his appointment. "I know the job. It's challenging, rewarding, and a lot of times very difficult. I am ready, willing and able to take on the position."

Alloway served on the commission for 14 years until he retired in 2000. He will serve until the next municipal election in March 2006.

Commissioner Martha Boos was picked as vice mayor, a post Piotti also held before his resignation.

Michael A. Connolly, a Sarasota attorney, was selected as the new city attorney to replace Donald O'Leary, who was fired earlier this month. Connolly, the city's third attorney in the past year, also represents the city of Sarasota and serves as Special Master of the Manatee County Value Adjustment Board. In the 1980s he was state attorney for the 6th Judicial Circuit Court in Clearwater.

[Last modified August 14, 2005, 00:53:19]