Last month the New York State Court of Appeals announced it would not take up the appeal by Jamestown involving the 2018 arbitration ruling, in which an arbitration panel ruled, among other things, the city must give the Kendall Club a 2% salary increase as part of its 2016-2017 collective bargaining agreement.

During an interview last week with WRFA, Sundquist said the ruling means the city is going to have to pay over one million dollars in back pay to affected union members later this month.

“The total cost to the city will be about $1.1 million in retro-pay and increased salary base pay. We will be making those payments to the officer and we are working directly with the union to make sure we have the correct calculation for each officer. Normally we’d make the payment within about 30 days from that decision by the Court of Appeals,” Sundquist said.

The Jamestown City Council hasn’t yet discussed the retroactive payment, although there is still time for it to do so before it holds its regular voting session on Monday, Jan. 25. The city will likely use money from its Fund Balance to make the retroactive payment. The council is not required to take action on the matter before the payments is made to officers.

Meanwhile, The city also has an outstanding 2016-17 contract with the Jamestown Professional Firefighters’ Association. It’s expected that the members of that union will also be seeking the same 2% retroactive salary increase that the officers received. The union – which is also represented by the law firm Fessenden, Laumer and DeAngelo – has not opted to go forward with arbitration like its police union counterpart. Sundquist said the city is currently awaiting communication from the union on how to proceed.

“The city is always open to negotiating those contractual requirements. Those are things that have to be determined at the negotiating table. We’re always willing to talk to the fire union about what that award may look like, but there is a legal process that unions have to go through in New York State in order to be awarded those, if they do not want to negotiate,” Sundquist explained.

Even after the city settles its firefighters’ union contract for 2016 and 2017, it then has to go back to the negotiating table and discuss outstanding contracts for the past three years, as well as this current year for both police and fire.

This week the New York State Court of Appeals denied a motion by the city to appeal a lower court’s ruling involving a 2018 arbitration ruling, in which an arbitration panel ruled the city must give the Jamestown Kendell Club police union police union a 2% salary increase as part of its 2016-2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The city filed the motion in the state’s highest court in late June after the State 4th Appellate Division in Rochester released a unanimous ruling on June 12 that upheld a 2019 State Supreme Court Decision allowing the arbitration ruling to stand.

The arbitration ruling originally came in 2018, after the city and police union reached an impasse in contract negotiations for the years covering 2016 and 2017.

• READ COMPLETE 44-PAGE ARBITRATION RULING

Upon its release, city officials – led at the time by then-mayor Sam Teresi – felt the arbitration ruling failed to take into full consideration the financial challenges facing Jamestown. State law indicated that the Arbitration Panel was to place a 70% weighting factor on the city’s financial position and ability to pay for any increase in salary. The city contends the arbitrators didn’t place enough focus on that aspect of state law when ruling in favor of a pay raise for the union members.

With the court ruling not to hear the motion, the original arbitration ruling will stand. As a result, the city will have to pay an estimated $800,000 in back wages to the members of the union during the time period that is covered. In addition, a similar back payment would also likely have to be made to the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association, which also never settled a contract for 2016 and 2017, but opted to wait until the police arbitration case plays out before possibly pursuing their own arbitration case.

The Albany-based law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King represented the city in the legal dispute, while the Jamestown law firm of Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo represented the police union. The cost of the court proceedings for the city – including taking it to the State Court of Appeals – has totaled $50,000.

WRFA reached out to Mayor Eddie Sundquist on Thursday morning to find out how much the city will have to pay the police union, as well as what the timeline is for the retroactive payment.

Eddie Sundquist

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown will move forward and take its ongoing arbitration battle with its police union to the state’s highest court.

During a recent interview with WRFA, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist confirmed that the city has decided to move its appeal of a 2018 split decision Compulsory Interest Arbitration Ruling to the New York State Court of Appeals.

This after the State 4th Appellate Division in Rochester released on a unanimous ruling on June 12 that upheld a 2019 State Supreme Court Decision allowing the arbitration ruling to stand.

The 2018 arbitration ruling involved the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the Jamestown Kendell Club police union. Among other things, the ruling called for officers in the union to receive a retroactive 2% salary increase for both 2016 and 2017.

• READ COMPLETE 44-PAGE ARBITRATION RULING

Upon its release, city officials – led at the time by former mayor Sam Teresi – felt the arbitration ruling failed to take into full consideration the financial challenges facing Jamestown. State law indicated that the Arbitration Panel was to place a 70% weighting factor on the city’s financial position and ability to pay for any increase in salary. The city contends the arbitrators didn’t place enough focus on that aspect of state law when ruling in favor of a pay raise for the union members.

Sundquist said the city notified the police union this week that it would seek a judgement from the state’s highest court. He added that such action would require approval to do so from the court.

“If it wasn’t a unanimous decision, we would be able to appeal by right, which means the Court of Appeals would take that case and hear it,” explained Sundquist. “Since that is not the case. Since we had a concurring decision from the Appellate Division, we will have to ask permission from the Court of Appeals to hear that case, as it’s a portion of the law that may not have been yet interpreted. There is always the risk that the Court of Appeals may not want to take the case, so we are kind of going with that process to see if they will accept it.”

Sundquist also said that last year the city council approved a resolution to challenge the local Supreme Court ruling on the matter, and that resolution included taking the case to the Court of Appeals if it was not overturned in the Appellate Division. As a result, no additional legislative action is required by the city council because no new costs are being added.

The mayor also said that in the meantime, the city is continuing to negotiate with the union.

“We are still working actively with the police union to try to negotiate a deal and try to come to an understanding, as we have many years left with that contract that are still un-negotiated. So even though we are actively moving forward with that court case, we are are still actively trying to resolve this issue at the same time,” Sundquist said.

If the arbitration decision stands, the city will have to pay an estimated $800,000 in back wages to the members of the union during the time period that is covered. In addition, a similar back payment would also likely have to be made to the fire fighters union, which also never settled a contract for 2016 and 2017, but opted to wait until the police arbitration case plays out before possibly pursuing their own arbitration case.

The Albany-based law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King is representing the city in the legal dispute, while the Jamestown law firm of Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo is representing the police union. The cost of the court proceedings for the city – including taking it to the State Court of Appeals – has totaled $50,000.

The complete interview with mayor Sundquist – which covers a variety of topics and issues – will be broadcast on WRFA this Thursday at 5 p.m. on our Community Matters program.

According to the calendar page of the State Supreme Court Appellate Division: 4th Judicial Department, attorneys Terence O’Neil from Bond, Schoeneck & King and Charles DeAngelo from Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo are scheduled to appear before the appellate division justices on Monday, March 30 to argue on behalf of their respective clients – the City of Jamestown and the Jamestown Kendall Club PBA.

The long-awaited showdown is the result of the Jamestown City Council voting in May 2019 to appeal a State Supreme Court Decision that upheld an October 2018 arbitration ruling on the 2016-17 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the city and the Kendall Club. Among other things, that ruling provided a retroactive 2 percent increase in salaries for each of those two years for police officers.

The council’s decision to appeal came after Chautauqua County Supreme Court judge James Dillon ruled in April 2019 that that arbitration panel ruling on the matter would stand.

• READ JUDGE DILLON’S DECISION

The city has long argued that it can’t afford giving officers the salary increase because it will have an impact not only on any reserve funding that has been built up, but also on all future expenses for the city. In addition they say the increase to the police union will also likely be applied to the 2016-17 Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association CBA, which is also still unsettled and has been awaiting the outcome of the police contract issue before being resolved. While still in office, former Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi had said the bottom-line impact would approach an excess of over $800,000 if the arbitration ruling where allowed to stand.

“To allow that decision to stand will have an $840,000 unbudgeted impact on the 2019 budget. And that impact is only for retroactive raises for 2016 and 2017. If that decision is allowed to stand, it could lay the groundwork for a similar retroactive payment with the fire union moving forward. And as well that $840,000 impact for the police union alone doesn’t take into account raises that might be received for 2018, 2019, and 2020 moving forward,” Teresi explained in March 2019.

The city is paying Bond, Schoeneck, and King $25,000 to handle the Appellate Division case.

Once arguments are made before the appellate division justices, they will then deliberate and deliver at some point later this year.

Last October the three-member arbitration panel ruled 2 to 1 that the city must provide a retroactive, 2 percent salary increase for all members of the Jamestown Kendall Club PBA police union for the years covering 2016 and 2017.

• READ COMPLETE ARBITRATION RULING

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• RELATED: State Law Required City to Participate in Arbitration with Police Union, Also Provided Opportunity to Challenge

In November the Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 in favor of challenging the arbitration decision. The city claims the arbitration panel didn’t follow proper state guidelines when determining the salary increase and considering the financial position of the city. As a result, it is asking the court to vacate the decision.

The arguments will take place in Chautauqua County Supreme Court with Hon. James Dillon presiding. The Kendall Club is being represented by legal counsel from Fessenden, Laumer & De Angelo while the city will be represented by Bond, Schoeneck & King.

Last October the three-member arbitration panel ruled 2 to 1 that – among other things – the city must provide a retroactive, 2 percent salary increase for all members of the Jamestown Kendall Club police union for the years covering 2016 and 2017. In November the Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 in favor of challenging the arbitration decision, saying it would be a violation of its fiduciary duty to comply with an award that city officials believe violates a 2013 arbitration statute that is supposed to weigh the ability for the municipality to pay (Civil Service Law S 209).

In an interview this week with WRFA, Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi reasserted the city’s position on the matter.

“The city’s arbitration panel member [then-clerk Todd Thomas] felt that the decision was not in compliance with the revised state arbitration law from 2013 in the fact there was no consideration whatsoever as to the city’s ability to pay, with a 70-percent weighting on the overall decision on that factor alone,” Teresi said. “If you read the October arbitration decision, there is very little that talks about that. There was three days of testimony that was virtually ignored by the panel about the city being at its constitutional taxing limit. We had one full day of testimony and cross examination about the city’s legal ability and practical ability to go in and raid its water and electrical utilities’ profits that no longer exist in sufficient supply to basically pay this raise.”

While the mayor and city council say the 70-percent weight factor wasn’t fully addressed in the arbitration panel’s decision, the the Kendall Club painted a different picture in both its arguments before the arbitration panel as well as in its pre-filing documents in the case that will go before the State Supreme Court. They say the statute was indeed fully considered and that was clearly reflected in the majority decision of the arbitration panel.

The 44-page decision by the Arbitration Panel also specifically addresses the weighting threshold.  It reads, in part:

“As Jamestown has been designated a ‘Fiscally eligible municipality,’ the Panel is required to give preponderant weight to the City’s ability to pay in making its determinations. As the City has argued that it does not have the ability to grant improvement in wages and benefits, the threshold question for the Panel is whether any increases in employee compensation can be awarded. There is certainly evidence in the record that the city faces fiscal challenges.”

While acknowledging the concerns the city brought forward in its argument, the arbitration panel also stated:

“With respect to the city’s position, however, the record contains countervailing evidence that weakens the case for a two-year freeze in police pay. Despite stresses it faced, the City’s careful and skillful budgeting resulted in a surplus of more than $1.2 million in 2017, despite the fact that, unlike in previous years, it received no profit-sharing revenue from its Board of Public Utilities. The Office of the State Comptroller, in its assessment of the City’s finances, issued ‘no designation’ of fiscal stress for 2016, and the Union’s expert witness, Kevin Decker, testified persuasively that the data available for 2017 strongly suggested an even better score from the Comptroller for that year. Also relevant is the fact that the city voluntarily agreed to 2016 and 2017 pay increases for all of its other bargaining units, a result that is difficult to square with the argument that there is simply no ability at all to grant any wage increase to the police officers.”

In addition, the arbitration decision addressed use of profits from the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities for the city’s general operating budget.

“There is no dispute that a municipality is entitled to a fair return on its investment in a utility. It is also undisputed that for several years prior to 2017 the City sought and received a profit-sharing payment from the BPU (most recently about $482,000), in addition to the payments that the BPU makes annually in lieu of property taxes. The city points out that it does not have the unfettered authority to use an unlimited amount of the BPU’s revenues for general municipal purposes… but to say that authority in this regard is not ‘unfettered’ or ‘unlimited’ is not to say that it cannot be exercised at all. In this case the City made a business decision not to seek any profit-sharing payments from the BPU for 2017, and we do not doubt that this decision was a reasoned one given the BPU’s needs. At the same time, one of the consequences was the forgoing of revenue that could have been used to help underwrite a police-pay increase of some magnitude, rather than implement a pay freeze for two years. An argument that granting a pay increase funded in part by the BPU would have involved risk is not the same as the argument that there is no ability to pay.”

After acknowledging the weighting factor and focusing on the city’s case that it wasn’t financially capable of issuing a salary increase for police, the arbitration panel still concluded “that some pay increases of some magnitude are within the city’s ability to pay, although none approaching the [5 percent] increases demanded by the Union.”

MAYOR RESPONDS TO PLATTSBURGH CASE

The Kendall Club also argues in the upcoming State Supreme Court case that a recent and similar court case from Plattsburgh, NY involving a contract with its firefighters’ union has already addressed the challenge by Jamestown officials. They claim that case set a precedent that the State Supreme Court isn’t responsible for second guessing a decision from a duly created state arbitration panel, so long as the 70-percent weighting factor, along with all other applicable state law, was considered in making a final decision.

Sam Teresi

Still, Teresi says there are different circumstances at play between the financial challenges facing Plattsburgh and those affecting Jamestown.

“Different place. Different impacts on the budget. Different court. As well as different financial abilities from that community. My guess is without knowing Plattsburgh’s numbers but being sufficiently aware of what’s happening in most cities across the state, Plattsburgh also has financial challenges on the table. I do not believe, however, that they are one of the communities like Jamestown that are at or near their constitutional taxing limit,” The mayor noted.

Teresi also provided more details on the cost associated with the arbitration ruling, saying the retroactive increase were to go forward it would cost the city an estimated $800,000 in this year’s budget. He also said that more costs could come forward if a similar increase were required for the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association, whose contract for 2016 and 17 is also at an impasse with the city and is awaiting the final outcome of the police union case.

The arguments in Supreme Court involving the police contract arbitration decision are scheduled for Monday, March 18. The Kendall Club is being represented by legal counsel from Fessenden, Laumer & De Angelo while the city will be represented by Bond, Schoeneck & King.

Meanwhile, WRFA’s full interview with Mayor Teresi, including additional comments on the arbitration case as well as the upcoming BPU substation Annexation Case, will be broadcast Thursday (March 7) afternoon at 5pm, Friday (March 8) afternoon at 2pm, and Sunday (March 10) at noon.

Shown above (Left to Right): Parks Manager John Williams, Artone Manufacturing Joette Fisher, Artone Manufacturing Kimberly Calameri, Honest John’s John Raymond, Recreation Coordinator Julia Ciesla-Hanley, Lakeshore Paving Steve Lindstrom, Lakeshore Paving Apryl Troutman, Parks, Recreation, & Conservation Commissioner John Bauer; Mayor Samuel Teresi, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Lisa Lynde, Jamestown Cycle Shop Bill Canby

JAMESTOWN – The 29th Annual Citywide Halloween Fun-Fest will be held on Thursday, Oct. 31, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the former Allen Park Ice Rink.

The event has been planned to offer a safe, fun and no-cost alternative to trick-or-treating door to door. The event is for children 12 years of age and under. Individuals over 12 years of age must be accompanied by a child, and children under 6 years must be accompanied by a parent or an adult.

The evening will feature games, a haunted house, refreshments, two costume judging contests (at 6:45 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.), and musical entertainment by Emerald City. There will be two grand prize winners who will receive bicycles donated by Jamestown Cycle Shop.

This year’s Fun Fest is presented free of charge through the generosity of the City of Jamestown, Artone Manufacturing, Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo; Honest John’s Pizza, Jamestown Cycle Shop, Kendall Club, Lake Shore Paving, Media One Group, Morton Club, R Patti Excavating & Concrete, Southern Tier Supply, and Wegmans.

Special thanks go to students from Jamestown High School Key Club and Jamestown High School National Honor Society who helped fill candy bags. Other volunteers and members of the City’s Parks, Recreation & Conservation Commission will also be adding their support to the event.