SOME FACTS ABOUT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING WITH INTEREST ARBITRATION FOR DEPUTY SHERIFFS
FEBRUARY 16, 2010
• Cecil County’s State legislative delegation (“the Delegation”) introduced companion bills in the Maryland Senate (SB 726) and House of Delegates (HB 916)(the “Bills”), which call for a County-wide referendum during this November’s elections, in which the voters of Cecil County are to be asked to consider and approve one of two alternative versions of legislation authorizing collective bargaining for the County’s deputy sheriffs. One alternative calls for collective bargaining with so-called “binding interest arbitration,” the other with so-called “non-binding interest arbitration.”
• The Delegation introduced the Bills over the Commissioners’ strong written and verbal objections.
• For years the Commissioners have consistently supported collective bargaining for Sheriff’s deputies - but with mediation, not interest arbitration, whether binding or non-binding. The Sheriff supports this too.
• As a matter of fact, the Commissioners just supported the introduction of a bill empowering the County’s EMS staff to engage in collective bargaining, but with mediation, not interest arbitration.
• With interest arbitration, the parties are allowing an unelected third party who is not familiar with or affected by the County’s finances and who is not responsible to County voters and taxpayers to set the terms of a labor agreement which will have an impact on County finances and taxes.
• The Commissioners don’t want an un-elected and unaccountable arbitrator to tell the parties what their labor contract will be.
• The Commissioners don’t want any arbitrator to decide what salaries the County will pay; what benefit programs are provided; or what the working conditions will be if the County and the Sheriff or the FOP cannot agree on them through the normal give and take of the collective bargaining process. It’s not right for some unelected and unaccountable arbitrator to have the power to decide these issues, and to affect tax rates and the delivery of police services to Cecil County taxpayers.
• Arbitrators are not County residents and they’re not affected by their decisions. They bear no responsibility for determining how to pay for increases in wages and benefits or how to operate the Office of Sheriff.
• Cecil County voters and tax-payers elected the Commissioners to make hard fiscal and budgetary choices, and to be accountable to the taxpayers and voters for those decisions.
• Arbitration’s expensive, time-consuming and divisive. Inevitably, interest arbitration – whether binding or non-binding - will result in increased labor and other costs for the County, first through the cost of conducting the arbitration itself and then, potentially, through the award process. Either way, Cecil County taxpayers will pay that cost, and that’s unacceptable to the Commissioners.
• The County hasn’t mistreated the Sheriff’s deputies economically. In fact it has made continuous efforts to provide comparative wages and benefits to the deputies.
• The Commissioners support collective bargaining, and there’s every reason to believe that they’d bargain in good faith, without interest arbitration and without jeopardizing either the delivery of law enforcement services or budgetary control.
• The Commissioners stand by their original proposal, to have collective
bargaining with mediation, and without interest arbitration. And we don’t need a referendum in order to do that.
• If a collective bargaining process, with mediation, confirms the FOP’s apparent worst fears about the motives and intentions of the Commissioners and the Sheriff, then there’ll be plenty of time to modify the legislation later, to add interest arbitration and further protections. But interest arbitration is not needed now.
• Right now, NO Maryland commissioner-form county grants collective bargaining power with binding interest arbitration for deputy sheriffs. Allegheny County has collective bargaining with non-binding interest arbitration. And Wicomico County’s statute, which called for collective bargaining with binding interest arbitration, was just ruled unconstitutional by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, because it unlawfully infringed county government’s budgetary and fiscal powers and responsibility.
• These Referendum Bills are flawed because they present a “choice” to Cecil voters which is in fact no choice at all. Both forms of the collective bargaining legislation contained in the Bills call for interest arbitration – one binding, the other non-binding, and either form of interest arbitration is unnecessary, harmful and wrong. And neither of the proposed alternative versions in the Bills is the one which the Commissioners presented in December 2008 (which contained only mediation provisions). And nowhere in the proposed referendum is there room for a third alternative vote – for “None Of The Above.”
• Referendum on this issue is wrong in general. These issues are important and complicated, and it’s wrong for the Delegation to “punt” the issue to the voters. We aren’t so dysfunctional here in Cecil County that we have to resort to governance by referendum, “California-style.”
• What can I do?
If you support the Commissioners’ position in this matter, and think that this collective bargaining/interest arbitration referendum is bad news for Cecil County citizens and tax-payers, then call, write or email the Delegation members and let them know; and tell your friends and neighbors to do so.
Here’s how you can contact them:
State Senators
Edward J. (E. J.) Pipkin
416 James Senate Office Bldg.
11 Bladen St.
Annapolis MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3639
Fax: 410-841-3762
Ej.pipkin@senate.state.md.us
Nancy Jacobs
420 James Senate Office Bldg.
11 Bladen St.
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3158
Fax: 410-841-3400
nancy.jacobs@senate.state.md.us
House of Delegates
Mary-Dulany James
404 Lowe House Office Bldg.
6 Bladen St.
Annapolis MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3331
Fax: 410-841-3002
Mary.dulany.james_@house.state.md.us
B. Daniel Riley
326 Lowe House Office Bldg.
6 Bladen St.
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3280
Fax: 410-841-3202
Daniel.riley@house.state.md.us
David D. Rudolph
231 Lowe House Office Bldg.
6 Bladen St.
Annapolis MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3444
Fax: 410-841-3558
David.rudolph@house.state.md.us
Michael D. Smigiel, Sr.
323 Lowe House Office Bldg.
6 Bladen St.
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3555
Fax: 410-841-3434
Michael.smigiel@house.state.md.us
Mary Roe Walkup
215 Lowe House Office Bldg.
6 Bladen St.
Annapolis MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3449
Fax: 410-841-3098
Mary.roe.walkup@house.state.md.us
Richard A. Sossi
215 Lowe House Office Bldg.
6 Bladen St.
Annapolis, MD 21401-1991
800-492-7122 ext 3543
Fax: 410-841-3098
Richard.sossi@house.state.md.us
The Commissioners also want to know what you think about all this. Call, write or email us to let us know. Here’s how you can contact us:
Brian Lockhart, President
Cecil County Commissioners
County Administration Building
200 Chesapeake Blvd., Suite 2100
Elkton MD 21921
410-996-8308
Fax: 410-996-1014
blockhart@ccgov.org
Rebecca Demmler, Vice President
Cecil County Commissioners
County Administration Building
200 Chesapeake Blvd., Suite 2100
Elkton, MD 21921
410-966-8307
Fax: 410-996-1014
rdemmler@ccgov.org
James Mullin
Cecil County Commissioners
County Administration Building
200 Chesapeake Blvd., Suite 2100
Elkton MD 21921
410-996-8305
Fax: 410-996-1014
jmullin@ccgov.org
Wayne Tome
Cecil County Commissioners
County Administration Building
200 Chesapeake Blvd., Suite 2100
Elkton MD 21921
410-996-8309
Fax: 410-996-1014
wtome@ccgov.org
Robert J. Hodge
Cecil County Commissioners
County Administration Building
200 Chesapeake Blvd., Suite 2100
Elkton MD 21921
410-996-8306
Fax: 410-996-1014
rhodge@ccgov.org
Friday, February 19, 2010
SOME FACTS ABOUT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING WITH INTEREST ARBITRATION FOR DEPUTY SHERIFFS
Posted by Tim Zane at 11:31 AM
Labels: Arbitration, Cecil County Commissioners
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3 comments:
A "town hall meeting" has been scheduled by Senator EJ Pipkin, Senator Nancy Jacobs, and Delegate Michael Smigiel for Thursday February 25th at 7:00 pm at the Singerly Fire Company (across from the Elkton Library). Information on these issues is available on the Cecil County Govennment website (www.ccgov.org) I also recommend reading the actual texts of the proposed legislation before reaching a decision on these matters.
Tim,
Thank you for a very clear explanation of the FOP collective bargaining issue.
Delegate Smigiel is clearly representing a "special interest", not the taxpaying voters of Cecil County.
He should not call himself a "conservative". He advocates collective bargaining. He is a champion of the taking of property rights without representation through the advocacy of down-zoning and other land use property rights restrictions.
I see great irony in his protest of federal power at the expense of states rights while he is consolidating power to the state at the expense of the LOCAL government. Not only is it ironic, it is deplorable.
It is time to focus on the local budget and he, again, creates a circus sideshow distraction from the somber concentration of trying to cut services, including education costs, to be affordable to the pocketbooks of working class taxpayers in Cecil County.
We do not need another circus, we need a hard working, serious public official who appreciates that budget cuts will cause pain.
Now that Delegate Mike has become the representative of the FOP, he does not do service to our county.
F Gaylord Moody III
I was asked to post this for someone else - thanks for the credit anyway.
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