Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 35
is promoting. So, you know, it is through things like that, that we have been able to come up with the
money that is needed in order to support the firemen and to save money elsewhere. So | am hopeful that
this will pass. | think it is a fair contract. | think that the, | look at the parity between this group of people and
some of the other fire departments where pay is similar. We have the best Fire Department in my opinion
and because we have the best Fire Department, we need to pay them accordingly. | don’t think that what
they are asking for is too much and | don’t think that what we are going to have to pay them in the future is
going to be detrimental to our Budget.
| was on the Board of the Aldermen, | was one of the Aldermen on the Board in an economic downturn.
And not only that, but | was on the Board when there were 16 outstanding Union Contracts on the Board in
2008. And prior to that, we had a decent economy 2006/2007 it was the bubble so people were doing ok.
But we had a more conservative board then and contract after contract, and | am talking years, were
rejected and then 2008 came and the Board changed a little bit. We finally were able to get stuff done. We
did that in 2008, 2009, 2010, right in the middle of the Great Recession. And the reason we were able to
do that was because we started to look at the value that we were getting from our employee. So in other
words, what is the right thing to do as far as paying them, what is the fair compensation. How can we come
up with the money to afford to be able to pay for what they were asking?
In many cases it took creative financing like looking at the healthcare savings and applying that to other
things, looking at the end of the year, to find the money. We have always budgeted this way and we used
to do it because we were under the spending cap and we had to, we didn’t have a choice. But we had to
pay our employees and we had to pay them fairly. We were on the verge, | believe it was 2008 we were on
the verge of a strike for the Teacher’s Union; our Schools were going to shut down. And we averted that; |
was on that Board that averted that. | am very proud of that. | have seen when contracts, when it looks like
things might be too expensive. This is not too expensive, we will be able to manage this and we will be
able to do it. What this is going to accomplish is going to get the Fire Department closer in parity to where
they need to be so that in the future when they are looking for raises and they are looking for things like this
and they are looking for their next contract, they won’t necessarily have to come out with something as big
as it is right now. They might have something more reasonable.
| say that in relative terms, because | think that this contract is reasonable. But | think what we are getting
hung up on here is we are comparing it to what they have gotten in the past and what they have done in the
past. And to me what they have gotten in the past hasn’t made up that parity difference that they are
looking for. So, in my opinion, what we have here is a very fair contract, it is something that we can afford.
We have proven we can afford it for the next two years anyway out of the years that are in there because
we approved the Budget earlier for it. So next year will not be a problem for the firefighters contract. The
retro is retro so that’s not going to be a problem either. So if we are really concerned about this, we are
concerned about the out years and what | would tell some of the Aldermen who may be on the fence is that
we will figure it out. And | know that that sounds like | am looking at a crystal ball, but | have been through
this enough to know that when you put your priorities first, when you are doing a Budget you put your
employees first and you say, these are the things that are important.
We did that with the Budget this evening and we did it very well. We had to compromise, we had to cut
things, and they weren’t easy cuts. But the School Department is getting its extra employees, that’s
important. | wasn’t sold on that to begin with. | wasn’t, | had to have a lot of hard conversations and you
know what? | came around to it. It is something that | could support because | understand why they need
it. The Firemen need us now and they need this contract passed because they need this pay increase to
get them to the level where they should be in getting paid. And | think this will make up the difference and
we can afford this. So | would hope that my colleagues would take a leap of faith with me, knowing that |
have been there, that I’ve seen these things and that we will get through it and vote for this contract. So
thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
