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Budget, union contract split Common Council

OBSERVER Photo by Nicole Gugino Around a dozen AFSCME AFL-CIO Local 912 members representing the city’s public works, water, sewer and clerical workers showed up to Tuesday’s Common Council meeting to see if its agreement would be voted on.

Two important decisions held over from last meeting were contentious topics again at Tuesday’s Common Council meeting.

Councilmembers split their votes 3-2 on the issues of the 2017 budget, as well as a contract for the city’s largest union. They told the OBSERVER these decisions were very much linked to one another.

Where public didn’t have much to say on the 2017 budget during a public hearing, councilmembers were divided on whether the city should have raised taxes.

Bringing up a point she has made before, Fourth Ward Councilwoman Stacy Szukala said the budget does not plan for the city’s future needs.

“By passing this budget tonight, we’re only getting through another 12 months. We haven’t budgeted past 12 months for any type of catastrophe, any capital equipment needs. If there was ever a year to raise taxes, unfortunately I think this would have been the year. We have people here who are wanting a contract and who have been without a contract for some time, but the budget we have in front of us, we didn’t put a penny into any of your personnel lines — not one. So regardless if we had any retirees, solely on the 2017 raise, we don’t have it; it’s not there. … Nobody wanted to raise taxes, nobody wanted to be that council, so here we sit — we have fire halls that need to be replaced and worked on, we have roads that are crumbling. … Every vote that I put in, I think of the taxpayers that are paying the bills, as all of us do, and I just don’t think this budget works for me,” she said.

OBSERVER Photo by Nicole Gugino Dunkirk's Common Council on Tuesday voted 3-2 to pass the 2017 budget with no tax increase and keep the Local 912 agreement on the table. Pictured from left is First Ward Councilman Don Williams Jr., Second Ward Councilman Marty Bamonto, Third Ward Councilman Adelino Gonzalez and Fourth Ward Councilwoman Stacy Szukala.

Councilman-at-Large Andy Woloszyn agreed, noting this year is different for the city.

“Nobody wants to raise taxes; everyone’s tapped out in the city. … We know that, however, we are also in a unique situation, knowing that we are already in the hole approximately $300,000 to $400,000 for 2018 because our NRG payment will be going down by that much (more) next year. … Chances are NRG’s not going to be on the tax rolls by May 1 —  that’s when it needs to happen by, the taxable status date. … We (have) a unique opportunity at this time to know we’re already short for 2018 a year and a half ahead of time. We have a chance to do something about that. Unfortunately, only a couple of us out of the council agreed with the opportunity to raise taxes to be a year and a half proactive. Yes, a quarter will only raise $70,000, … but you have to start somewhere,” he said, adding he has heard complaints about taxes as a former city hall employee, but also understanding of small increases.

The vote to remove Resolution 97 from the table was unanimous, but the budget itself passed with the bare majority, with Szukala and Woloszyn opposed.

Next up for a vote was the agreement with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO Local 912. The agreement would make the union’s contract that expired at the end of 2011 current and span to 2019.

The agreement was tabled at the last meeting due to financial concerns. However, First Ward Councilman Don Williams Jr. argued that a vote would be the right thing to do to show respect for the city’s employees.

“There’s a lot of reasons why I think we should take this off the table. One of them is it’s fair to the employees. … They were here at the last meeting, thinking we were going to take action on this; we didn’t, we put it on the table. … We need to stand up and be proud of a vote, no matter how you vote on it. … I feel to keep it on the table and let it go two more weeks with no action in the attempt to get this to just die on the table is not treating the AFSCME employees with the respect that they deserve,” he said, later adding council is using the table as a way to get in on negotiations.

Second Ward Councilman Marty Bamonto said that he would vote in favor of the agreement if it came to a vote and it was him and Williams alone that voted to remove it from the table.

Third Ward Councilman Adelino Gonzalez said he hoped an agreement that was more fair to the city would be forthcoming in the time before the next council meeting on Dec. 20.

“We need to be fair to (the employees), but we also need to be fair to the city. Past administration, for whatever reason, has not put money aside for a retirement fund for these people when they retire. How it happened, why it happened, it’s hard to blame anybody, but we don’t have the funds to be able to pay up if more than two people retire at the same time. … We only ask for a small favor so that we can meet our obligations in spreading (out the reimbursement of time off) because we don’t have the funds. If more than two people retire, we will have to borrow funds and pay interest on that. We shouldn’t be doing that. It will put the city in a bad position. I think if you are not willing to extend that for at least a small time, then it is not fair to the city,” he said.

Szukala said her vote was very much linked to her view on the 2017 budget.

“We were unprepared, plain and simple. We did not prepare a budget that worked with any negotiations. It didn’t happen. There’s five councilpeople and (when) you’re outvoted on raising taxes and raising revenue, you can only do what you can do. Like I told the workers, we didn’t put a penny extra into any of the personnel lines,” she said.

Woloszyn was of the same mindset as Szukala.

“I’m in agreement with a majority of the contract. … I see the savings of the contract in years in the future, however, in order for us to get to that point, we don’t have the money at all, period,” he said.

Unlike Gonzalez, Szukala said she does not believe an agreement will be reached before the next meeting. If the agreement is not voted off the table at the next meeting, it will die on the table.

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