NORWICH – Chenagno County law enforcement deputies and corrections officers have been working without a contract for two and a half years, and the end appears nowhere in sight.
It could be another two months before a three-person panel meets for the first time to go over evidence and records from an arbitration hearing that was held in late January for the Law Enforcement Association. The panel may meet in more than one executive session depending upon the diverse opinion on what should or should not be contained in the deputies’ award.
Post hearing briefs have been submitted to panel members representing Chenango County, the LEA and the panel chairman. The latter member was selected using what’s called a ‘strike’ method based on a list of possible candidates provided by the NYS Public Employment Relations Board, or PERB. The process took some time, said New York State Union of Police Associations President Anthony V. Solfaro.
“The chairman is in the process now of scheduling an executive session. It is the next step. It takes time to coordinate people’s schedules. It (the session) will be sometime in the near future,” he said, later clarifying, “a couple of months.”
The lengthy union contracting system is far from perfect, the official admitted. First there are negotiations, then mediation, and finally, if necessary, arbitration. The third piece of the impasse procedure requires Sheriff’s deputies to ensue a waiting period before filing. Then, the PERB selection process, and then scheduling hearings and executive sessions with all parties involved.
The LEA and Chenango County Sheriff’s Employee’s Association (CCSEA), which covers corrections officers and all other corrections staff, has been without a contract since December 1999. Several callers and writers to The Evening Sun’s ‘30 Seconds’ reaction line, who identify themselves as public safety officials or their representatives, have lamented the wait and rumored 1 percent pay raise offers from the county. In comparison, Civil Service Employees working in other county departments received increases last year anywhere from 3 to 4.5 percent through 2013.
The next step for the CCSEA, which covers corrections officers and corrections staff, is fact finding. The CCSEA is awaiting a PERB-appointed fact finder. The mediator would then set their own hearing date, have a hearing and then issue a final and binding award. The fact finder is independent; he or she doesn’t have to worry about additional people’s calendars, and there are no follow-up meetings.
Disputed contract items have had more to do with workers’ schedules, holiday time off and shift differentials than establishing wages and benefits amounts, said Solfaro, explaining that the Sheriff’s Office and jail run around the clock, seven days a week throughout the year.
“Not anywhere else, but maybe a nursing situation, do you have this. The Sheriff’s office is running three times around the clock, not shutting down on holidays. Public safety dispatchers will be on the desk ... the only people who might be off is civil and administration clerks doing business for the county,” he said.
Solfaro pointed to the county’s economic record as evidence of its fiscal health. A sworn document distributed by a financial investigative expert during the hearings should be a major factor in the arbitration and fact finding phases for the two contracts, he said.
Treasurer William C. Craine reported at a meeting of the Finance Committee yesterday that the amount of county surplus increased from $18.6 in 2010 to $20.3 last year. In addition, $1.3 million is held as encumbrances within various departments, nearly half of which is within the Department of Social Services.
Craine said the surplus represents about a 90-day cushion after all $85 million in budget obligations are paid and if no revenues at all were coming in to the county. The towns get paid their respective tax distributions early in the year, then the county’s school districts on April 1 and then the employees’ retirement packages on Dec. 1.
“Most people say, like families, they should have six months worth of emergency money. With no more revenues coming in, in 90 days we would have no money left for emergencies. We can’t preclude the state government from shutting down. It has before,” he said.
The surplus prevents the county from having to borrow to meet obligations like many other counties do, he added.
When asked to comment on the labor union contract, Chenango County Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Lawrence Wilcox, R-Oxford, would only say the county “is still in negotiations.”
Sheriff Ernest Cutting said, “Everything’s at a standstill.”