{"id":36683,"date":"2020-12-17T10:21:59","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T15:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/?p=36683"},"modified":"2020-12-17T10:47:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T15:47:08","slug":"city-will-have-to-pay-estimated-800000-in-back-wages-after-state-high-court-denies-arbitration-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/city-will-have-to-pay-estimated-800000-in-back-wages-after-state-high-court-denies-arbitration-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"City Will Have to Pay Estimated $800,000 in Back Wages After State High Court Denies Arbitration Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"17327\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/150000-settlement-reached-in-connection-to-2014-case-of-jail-co-having-sex-with-inmate\/court-gavel\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,384\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Court Gavel\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright wp-image-17327\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?resize=392%2C251&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"392\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?resize=300%2C192&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>JAMESTOWN \u2013 The ongoing legal battle involving an arbitration ruling between the city of Jamestown and its police union appears to finally be over. As a result, the city will have to pay union members over $800,000 in back wages.<\/p>\n<p>This week the <strong>New York State Court of Appeals<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nycourts.gov\/ctapps\/Decisions\/2020\/Dec20\/DecisionList121720.pdf\">denied a motion<\/a> by the city to appeal a lower court&#8217;s ruling involving a 2018 arbitration ruling, in which an arbitration panel ruled the city must give the <strong>Jamestown Kendell Club<\/strong> police union police union a 2% salary increase as part of its 2016-2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).<\/p>\n<p>The city <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/sundquist-jamestown-will-try-to-appeal-police-arbitration-ruling-in-states-highest-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed the motion in the state&#8217;s highest court in late June<\/a> after the State <strong>4th Appellate Division in Rochester<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/state-appellate-court-upholds-arbitration-ruling-favoring-city-police-union\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released a unanimous ruling on June 12<\/a> that upheld a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/supreme-court-upholds-arbitration-ruling-on-city-police-union-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2019 State Supreme Court Decision<\/a> allowing the arbitration ruling to stand.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/in-split-decision-arbitration-panel-rules-city-police-union-will-receive-2-percent-raise-for-2016-and-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">arbitration ruling originally came in 2018<\/a>, after the city and police union reached an impasse in contract negotiations for the years covering 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.perb.ny.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/IA2016-005.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>READ COMPLETE 44-PAGE ARBITRATION RULING<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Upon its release, city officials \u2013 led at the time by then-mayor <strong>Sam Teresi<\/strong> \u2013 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\u2019s financial position and ability to pay for any increase in salary. The city contends the arbitrators didn\u2019t place enough focus on that aspect of state law when ruling in favor of a pay raise for the union members.<\/p>\n<p>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 <strong>Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association<\/strong>,\u00a0which 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.<\/p>\n<p>The Albany-based law firm of <strong>Bond, Schoeneck &amp; King<\/strong> represented the city in the legal dispute, while the Jamestown law firm of <strong>Fessenden, Laumer &amp; DeAngelo<\/strong> represented the police union. The cost of the court proceedings for the city \u2013 including taking it to the State Court of Appeals \u2013 has totaled $50,000.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JAMESTOWN \u2013 The ongoing legal battle involving an arbitration ruling between the city of Jamestown and its police union appears to finally be over. As a result, the city will have to pay union members over $800,000 in back wages. This week the New York State Court of Appeals denied a motion by the city [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":17327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[9198,8639,2975,1122,7939,2977,1662,1682,1984],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3YlJ4-9xF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34895,"url":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/state-appellate-court-upholds-arbitration-ruling-favoring-city-police-union\/","url_meta":{"origin":36683,"position":0},"title":"State Appellate Court Upholds Arbitration Ruling Favoring City Police Union","author":"WRFA Radio","date":"June 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"ROCHESTER - A State Appellate Court in Rochester has unanimously upheld a lower court's ruling involving the arbitration decision between Jamestown police union and the city. On Friday, the Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division: Fourth Judicial Department released its decision that has at least an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Local News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Local News","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/category\/news\/local-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35051,"url":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/sundquist-jamestown-will-try-to-appeal-police-arbitration-ruling-in-states-highest-court\/","url_meta":{"origin":36683,"position":1},"title":"Sundquist: Jamestown Will Try to Appeal Police Arbitration Ruling in State&#8217;s Highest Court","author":"WRFA Radio","date":"July 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Local News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Local News","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/category\/news\/local-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Sundquist-1.jpg?fit=494%2C310&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36856,"url":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/city-will-pay-1-1-million-in-arbitration-settlement-with-police-union\/","url_meta":{"origin":36683,"position":2},"title":"City Will Pay $1.1 Million in Arbitration Settlement with Police Union","author":"WRFA Radio","date":"January 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"JAMESTOWN - Mayor Eddie Sundquist tells WRFA that the city of Jamestown will have to pay an estimated $1.1 million in back pay to members of the Jamestown Kendall Club police union, following the announcement last month that the highest court in New York State has refused to hear the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Local News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Local News","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/category\/news\/local-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/JamestownSeal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28707,"url":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/as-jamestown-fights-arbitration-ruling-similar-case-ends-in-defeat-for-plattsburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":36683,"position":3},"title":"As Jamestown Fights Arbitration Ruling, Similar Case Ends in Defeat for Plattsburgh","author":"WRFA Radio","date":"February 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"JAMESTOWN - As Jamestown City officials await their day in court to challenge a recent binding arbitration decision involving the city police union, a court in another region of the state has already made a ruling in a similar case, favoring the union over the municipality. Last month the New\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Local News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Local News","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/category\/news\/local-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Teresi-Nov-26.jpg?fit=772%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Teresi-Nov-26.jpg?fit=772%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Teresi-Nov-26.jpg?fit=772%2C534&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Teresi-Nov-26.jpg?fit=772%2C534&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29347,"url":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/supreme-court-upholds-arbitration-ruling-on-city-police-union-contract\/","url_meta":{"origin":36683,"position":4},"title":"Supreme Court Upholds Arbitration Ruling on City Police Union Contract","author":"WRFA Radio","date":"March 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"MAYVILLE - The State Supreme Court in Chautauqua County has upheld the arbitration decision involving the labor contract with the Jamestown police union covering the years 2016 and 2017. Last October a three-member arbitration panel ruled 2 to 1 that the city must provide a retroactive, 2 percent salary increase\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Local News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Local News","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/category\/news\/local-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Court-Gavel.png?fit=600%2C384&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29801,"url":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/jamestown-city-council-votes-to-challenge-supreme-court-ruling-on-police-union-arbitration\/","url_meta":{"origin":36683,"position":5},"title":"Jamestown City Council Votes to Challenge Supreme Court Ruling on Police Union Arbitration","author":"WRFA Radio","date":"May 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"JAMESTOWN - The legal battle over a 2-year contract between the city of Jamestown and its police union is not over. 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Local News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Local News","link":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/category\/news\/local-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/JamestownSeal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36683"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36690,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36683\/revisions\/36690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrfalp.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}