Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Their past hangs like smoke

Clearwater and the firefighters union begin new negotiations.

By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published June 3, 2007

CLEARWATER - The pleasantries were extreme Wednesday as representatives from the city of Clearwater and the local fire union sat down at a table to begin hashing out another contract.

Joe Roseto, the city's human resources director, thanked the union for "stepping forward" by suggesting an earlier start date for the negotiations. John Lee, the union's president, said he appreciated the city's willingness to use information from comparative cities during the process.

As the two-hour meeting at the North Greenwood Library ended, the six city officials and seven union members exchanged handshakes and smiles.

But beneath the forced cordiality is a strained relationship that has led to some of the lowest moments in recent Clearwater history.

It includes a black pumpkin effigy of City Manger Bill Horne, the suspension of an assistant city manager for inappropriate e-mails to union members and a toxic relationship between the city and the union that has cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in unsuccessful employment battles.

The question now is, with the union and city back at the bargaining table for a new round of contract negotiations, how much will such history haunt them? And will it go any smoother?

"I don't even want to talk about conflict, " Horne, Clearwater's manager, said late last month. "I'm focusing on the future. I don't want to focus on what happened in the past. I'm coming to it with a positive framework in my mind."

Union leaders also contend they start at the table fresh and say they have implemented new rules, since the last bargaining process, in hopes of keeping tensions in check. Union members are now barred from producing signs or literature that aren't approved by the executive board.

"The effigy was done by an individual and not the union, " said Lee, president of the 185-member Local 1158 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. "But the protest and carrying signs, that happens when things go bad. We are hoping things don't go bad."

Tension has a history

The past five years have been vicious.

It started with the June 28, 2002, Dolphin Cove fire. Two elderly residents died in the beach high-rise; five firefighters were injured. In the aftermath, both a private audit and a federal study questioned the department's structure and the firefighters' performance, training and ability to fight fires in high-rise buildings. The union began to press the city government for better equipment and more firefighters.

From 2002 to 2005, the firefighters union and the city were in brutal contract negotiations for a new three-year labor contract. Among the issues: Firefighters wanted more than a 2 percent increase in pay. The city thought the offer was fair.

The union picketed at the October 2003 jazz festival, one of the city's hallmark events. An unidentified union sympathizer created a Web site, the Draconian Times, that lambasted the city anonymously, even calling Horne a "donkey."

Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback was suspended for a week without pay after he sent an e-mail to the Web site calling three firefighters "worthless scumbags" and saying "you're going down" and claiming "vengeance."

But the lowest point was weeks earlier when firefighters, who'd been picketing City Hall for months, added an effigy of Horne made from a black pumpkin with red horns. A monkey and a skunk were tied to one arm and a baby wearing a diaper dangled from the other. Union officials denied knowing the insult's origins, saying it was apparently the work of an individual. But the damage was done.

It took two more years, until 2005, for the city and union to reached an agreement for 2004-07. Under the contract, firefighters would get a one-time bonus and a 5 percent annual raise for each of the three years. Also, the contract gradually reduced the work week from 56 hours to 53.

But the tensions didn't stop once the contract was signed. In 2005, the city reorganized the department's management so that a nonunion employee oversees each shift.

In May 2006, the city has accused the union of calling a sickout to avoid training; the union countered that seven of the 11 employees were scheduled to be off work.

That same month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that fire Chief Jamie Geer - who became chief in September 2004 - discriminated against a female firefighter by not allowing her to take a makeup promotion exam, though he did allow a male firefighter to do so.

On three occasions last year, state hearing officers upheld union complaints that Geer or other city officials violated members' right to conduct union business. Among the allegations upheld was that Geer and Horne had threatened to fire union leaders because they were preparing for a union vote of no confidence on Geer.

More recently, three separate federal arbitrations ruled that the city failed to follow proper procedures when firing two paramedics and a fire inspector. All three employees returned to work in the past weeks.

The city has countered that the firefighters union has riddled it with labor complaints in an effort to bog down the administration. It points to statistics that show from 2002 to 2006, workers represented by the firefighter union have filed more than double the number of complaints per capita than members of the police union.

The union says it's doing what it has to under the bargaining agreement to protect its members.

"By contract, we did everything that was permitted, " Lee said.

Will talks break cycle?

In order for there to be any success in the upcoming process, Jeff Sutton, director of personnel in New Port Ritchey, said there must be mutual respect.

"It's a necessity, in my opinion, " said Sutton, who has negotiated successful fire union contracts with Lee and 1158 for nearly 20 years. "If you don't have that respect for each other, you are automatically starting out on an adversarial footing. It does neither side any good. You have to put past negotiations behind you."

But everyone is aware of the past. They're just hoping that it will not repeat itself.

"I think both sides need to get over a lot of things, " said Mayor Frank Hibbard. "Sadly, it's out of my control. I do not expect any of that to happen ever again. It's a failed technique and not productive from either side."

Council member John Doran agreed. "I believe we can get past it, " he said. "I want to be fair and reasonable and get to a yes."

Demorris A. Lee can be reached at 445-4174 or dalee@sptimes.com.

[Last modified June 2, 2007, 19:05:07]