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.

Jamestown mayor Eddie Sundquist discusses several issues involving the city of Jamestown, including a proposed residency requirement for city police officers. Part 2 of a 2-part interview.

Eddie Sundquist

UPDATED: AUG. 25 at 4:12 p.m. to reflect statement from Jamestown Kendall Club

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council held a work session Monday night and spent a great deal of time discussing a proposed residency requirement for city police officers.

During the half-hour discussion of the proposed local law, council members were generally in agreement that a police residency requirement would be a good thing for the city. In fact, the council felt so strongly in favor of the requirement that they increased the proposed term for how long the residency requirement would be in place, bumping it up from the original five years to ten years.

During the conversation, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist and city attorney Elliot Raimondo said that state law allows municipalities to institute a residency requirement for officers when the police force has less than 200 officers and it doesn’t have to be negotiated into a collective bargaining unit. They also explained that several communities in Western New York already have such requirements on the books.  In addition, they explained that police and fire employees are the only labor groups where some type of residency guidelines can be put in place, while other groups of workers would have to have such requirements negotiated into their labor agreements with the city.

According to Raimondo, Jamestown Police have the lowest number of members who currently live in the city, at just 24%. Fire is at about 40%, although many of the firefighters who live outside of Jamestown still live close enough to be able to respond to emergency calls in a timely fashion when necessary. All other labor groups in the city have residency rates at or above 80%.

A hearing on the local law will take place next month, with more details on the specific date, time and process to be announced.
Following the hearing, the council would vote on the proposal to put the local law on the books.

If approved, the residency requirement would only be applied to any new officer hired after January 1 of next year. Those currently on the police force would be exempt.

Both Jamestown Acting Police chief Tim Jackson, who is the former president of the Kendall Club police union, along with retired Jamestown Police officer and current city councilman Jeff Russell are in favor of the local law.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon the Jamestown Kendall Club released the following, announcing their opposition to the proposed local law:

“The City of Jamestown did not succeed in seeking a residency requirement for new hires during the last Arbitration. The Arbitration panel, including the City’s own panel member, did not rule in favor of the City’s residency requirement proposal. Two Courts have already affirmed that ruling. Once again, the City is trying to impose a requirement for which they should work with the Kendall Club, PBA to find a compromise.

The Kendall Club, PBA stands ready, willing, and able to engage in meaningful discussions with the City. As has been stated to the City, Police Officers and their families should enjoy a reasonable degree of privacy. Requiring newly hired Police Officers to live in the County (as the great majority do) as opposed to within the City, provides a fair balance. Restricting the rights of new hires will reduce the pool of qualified applicants available to the City. Addressing this issue is critical to maintaining a highly qualified work force, especially when potential applicants can obtain better wages and benefits in other local departments.

It is truly unfortunate that the City did not work with the Kendall Club to resolve this issue, but rather chose to unilaterally attempt to make this change, possibly requiring the taxpayers to pay yet more legal fees to address the inevitable legal challenges that will follow. The Kendall Club is also disappointed that it learned of the announcement through the media. The Kendall Club is disappointed the City ignored the negotiation process regarding this critical issue. “

On Friday, the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Fourth Judicial Department released its decision that has at least an $840,000 impact to the city of Jamestown’s bottom line, all though the final financial implications could be much higher.

The latest decision is part of an ongoing legal battle involving the Jamestown Kendall Club’s collective bargaining agreement covering the years 2016 and 2017.

The long-awaited decision 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.

In November 2018 the Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 in favor of challenging the initial arbitration ruling. State law requires an arbitration decision involving the police union to place a weighting factor of 70 percent toward the ability of a fiscally challenged municipality like Jamestown to pay. In challenging the arbitration process, the city felt it would be a violation of its fiduciary duty to comply the arbitration award, basing its argument on the award being in violation of the 70 percent state statute. The city’s legal argument was that the arbitration decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and did not take into account the serious financial challenges gripping the city.

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

While still in office, former Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi had said the bottom-line impact would cost the city 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 does have an option to file yet another appeal and take the case to the New York Court of Appeals – the highest court in the state – if the council so chooses.

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.

Andrew Liuzzo

JAMESTOWN – Both Republican candidates running for mayor of Jamestown agree that city police officers and fire fighters deserve every cent they are paid by local taxpayers. But both Andrew Liuzzo and David Wilfong also acknowledge that financial challenges facing Jamestown will likely prevent public safety workers from getting all they they deserve.

• [RELATED] LISTEN TO FULL LIUZZO/WILFONG INTERVIEW

In 2019 the city of Jamestown has budgeted nearly a third of its total budget – $11 million – toward police and fire salaries and other related expenses. And a larger chunk could be on the way if a state appellate court upholds a recent state Supreme Court decision involving an arbitration ruling giving the police union a 2% pay raise. City officials say any increase the police receive in salary will also likely be given to firefighters as well, so the outcome of the arbitration appeal will be a challenge facing whoever is the next mayor of the city.

Liuzzo is currently a member of the Jamestown City Council and is the only council person to vote against challenging the arbitration ruling in State Supreme Court, as well as voting against the decision to appeal the Supreme Court decision.

Liuzzo told WRFA in our recent interview that it’s not the salaries but the healthcare and pension mandates from Albany that are what the city should be focused on.

“This all goes back to our retirement benefits and our healthcare benefits, and the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendment. These laws and amendments have hurt upstate communities immensely. These were downstate laws that got applied to the whole state,” Liuzzo said. “My question would be, ‘Why hasn’t the New York Conference of Mayors, as a group, addressed this?’ Our current mayor was president of NYCOM, yet that question is still out there. Why wasn’t this addressed? These kinds of laws are what has hurt upstate New York Communities.”

Liuzzo added that he would also be willing to local at regional policing by trying to improve relationship with adjacent communities like the Town of Ellicott and Busti – which each have their own police force as well.

“Jamestown encompasses West Ellicott, Ellicott, Lakewood-Busti. What I would like to see is an inter-municipal police force. I would like us to negotiate instead of litigate with our neighbors and come to an agreement where we can use the existing police force we have outside of Jamestown to be the same police force. And to protect all of us. That’s one way I see of bringing the cost down, or at least maintaining the cost,” Liuzzo explained.

David Wilfong

Wilfong has served on the Chautauqua County Legislature since 2014 representing Jamestown. During his time in Mayville a report was completed by the Center or Governmental Rochester using over $200,000 in state money that provided a plan to consolidate the Jamestown Police Department with the County Sheriff’s office gradually, over two decades or no longer.

The consolidation would come at no additional cost to county taxpayers but would save Jamestown some money. That plan was never put up for a vote, let alone publicly discussed by Wilfong and his colleagues after it was completed.

• VIEW THE CGR REPORT

Wilfong said he agrees that regional policing may be better solution, though the push should come from the state, not the local, level.

” It would have been very difficult to put together a group of people that would have voted in favor of the consolidation. I don’t know if that would ever go off. I’ve seen it, I’ve read the document and I actually think it was a good proposal. But one of the things is, ‘Do we want a change?’ I don’t know if the Jamestown Police Department wants to merge and I don’t know if the sheriff wants to merge,” Wilfong said. “I did see the figures and the cost savings would be good for the city of Jamestown and a flat cost the county. But we’re talking about the county legislators and you’ve got to get them on board with their own districts. Because what they’re going to say is, ‘How does that benefit my district. I live in Silver Creek or I live in Findley Lake.’ It’s a hard sell.”

Instead, Wilfong said he’d prefer to see the effort to deal with police costs lead by the state representatives, similar to what former Sen. Cathy Young had worked on with school districts.

“I am not against it. I think to make change and to move our county forward and our state forward, we’ve got to start thinking consolidation. I don’t know at the mayor level what can be done there. I think that needs to be done more at the state level – maybe our assemblyman or our next senator. I think that is where that type of change has to come from,” Wilfong said.

The complete audio of our interview with Liuzzo and Wilfong can be found at our website.

Liuzzo and Wilfong will square off in the June 25 Republican Primary, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. and is eligible to all 3800 registered republicans living in the city.

• MOBILE APP USERS: LISTEN VIA SOUNDCLOUD

Originally airing Thursday, May 16 2019

WRFA’s Jason Sample talks with Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi about the recent decision by the Jamestown City Council to challenge a State Supreme Court Ruling that upheld an arbitration decision involving the Jamestown Police Union. Plus he discusses the announcement that collegiate league baseball will return to Jamestown in 2020.

Sam Teresi

On Monday night the Jamestown City Council voted 8 to 1 in favor of appealing a recent State Supreme Court Decision that upheld an arbitration ruling on the 2016-17 contract with the Jamestown Kendall Club PBA and which provided a retroactive 2 percent increase for each of those two years for police officers. City Councilman Andrew Liuzzo (R-At Large) made the only “no” vote for moving forward on the appeal. He also voted “no” on initially challenging the arbitration decision in November 2018.

The city had up to 30 days to decide on whether or not it would challenge the Chautauqua County Supreme Court judge James Dillon decision after it was officially filed by the court on April 2.

• READ JUDGE DILLON’S DECISION

City officials have said that the city can’t afford the salary increase, saying 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 fire union contract, which is also still unsettled and has been awaiting the outcome of the police contract issue before being resolved. Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi has said the bottom line impact would approach an excess of over $800,000 on the city after it was all said and done 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.

As a result of the city council’s action on Monday night the matter will now go before the Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department in Rochester.

The council also approved paying an additional $25,000 in legal fees to Bond, Schoeneck, and King to handle the Appellate Division case.

Last October a 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 for the years covering 2016 and 2017.

In November the Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 in favor of challenging that decision. State law requires an arbitration decision involving the police union to place a weighting factor of 70 percent toward the ability of a fiscally challenged municipality like Jamestown to pay. In challenging the arbitration process, the city council felt it would be a violation of its fiduciary duty to comply the arbitration award, basing its argument on the award being in violation of the 70 percent state statute. The city’s legal argument was that the arbitration decision was “arbitrary and capricious.”

On Monday, March 18, Hon. James H. Dillon ruled from the bench to deny the city’s motion to set aside the arbitration decision. The ruling came immediately after oral arguments were made by the attorneys representing the two sides. The Kendall Club was represented by attorney Charles De Angelo, from Fessenden, Laumer & De Angelo while the city was represented by attorney Terry O’Neil from Bond, Schoeneck & King.

Based on a court transcript made public this week, Justice Dillon said he felt that the 70-percent weighting factor statue was terrible,but also said it was still the law and he felt the arbitrators did follow it as required.

“This [arbitration] decision does indicate that the arbitrators took into account the 70 percent criteria, which is really a terrible statue but the legislature doesn’t care, nor does the Appellate Division care about my thought of that. Because frankly, my thought of that as a lawyer, exactly how do I present this and what do I expect from a judge on 70 percent as opposed to seventy-one, et cetera. But nonetheless, it is the law. But I think they took that into account,” Dillon explained.

Justice Dillon also said that there was evidence supported by all three arbitrators showing the statute was accounted for in the 2-1 split decision.

“I think you can see they took it into account not only in the majority opinion, but in the concurring and the minority opinion, which definitely mention it. So I can’t say — obviously, that it was considered. Otherwise you’d have nothing to dissent to… I think mathematically you can compute the cost of the arbitration from the information that I have received. So I think it’s there enough. I will at this point in time deny the motion to set aside the arbitration, confirm the arbitration, note your exceptions for the reasons you have well ably stated,” Justice Dillon explained to the attorneys on hand.

Following this week’s City Council Voting session, we asked Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi his thoughts on the case now that the ruling had been made public.

Sam Teresi

“We were disappointed to a certain extent but, quite frankly, it’s not unusual that a lower court level like this, that they would just turn it over to the appeals court and allow the parties to deal with it before a five-member appellate division panel,” Teresi said. “On the one hand we were disappointed but on the other hand it wasn’t something that was completely shocking to us. Now its a matter for the city council and I, and our legal team, to determine what steps we may want to take next towards an appeal.”

The city spent $25,000 to challenge the arbitration and if it were to appeal Justice Dillon’s ruling, the matter would then proceed to the 4th Appellate Division in Rochester, likely costing the city more money. However, Mayor Teresi notes that if the city were to accept the decision, it will have a major financial impact moving forward.

“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.

While Judge Dillon made his decision from the bench, he still provided a formal, written decision and sent it to both parties. Once that is done, the city will have 30 days to decide if it wants to accept the arbitration panel’s decision or appeal to the higher court in Rochester.

As WRFA reported in February, a similar scenario also played out recently with the city of Plattsburgh, NY and its fire union. There, the city challenged an arbitration ruling, arguing it failed to follow the 70-percent statue. A Supreme Court upheld the arbitration ruling and it was eventually appealed by the city to the state appellate division, which also eventually upheld the lower court’s decision.