2007-01-12 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

meeting at which I distributed the draft agreement and received additional feedback. The CALOP Board has requested that we ensure the participation of HECTV, which manages the airing of CALOP videos and participates on the Board. PEG access is in the agreement along with mirroring all aspects of the Charter Franchise. The one exception to the Charter agreement is the build-out requirement. While Charter states they intend to serve the entire community, they are not willing to commit to a total build out in the franchise. Minimum Wage Unintended Consequence: The recently approved minimum wage law contained language that could potentially affect the overtime calculations for police and fire personnel. If applicable to City services, we would be forced to incur roughly an increase of $700,000 annually. We are working on a more detailed analysis for the St. Louis County Municipal League. There is substantial disagreement in the legal community as to whether the new law applies to local government, but the State is taking the position it does apply. If it does apply, cities began to accrue the financial liability for overtime hours worked as of January 1. The law calls for penalties that equal DOUBLE the unpaid overtime plus legal costs if the amount paid is challenged. There will be both legislation and litigation to try to clarify the law as soon as possible. The first draft of legislation has been prepared by Senator Chuck Gross and is attached for your review. Hourly wages may be adjusted forward but not retroactively. While we have the legal right to lower the hourly rate of our employees to maintain the current hourly structure without incurring additional financial liability, I am recommending that we hold off any adjustments that would be considered detrimental by employees to await the legislature’s response to the clarifying legislation. There seems to be a growing consensus that most parties desire to see the old system for police and fire among the unions and the employees. The State Fire Union supports the proposed clarifying legislation along with other directly impacted constituencies. However, judges may rule that the new law does not allow for the current system. Our shop steward is coordinating a release of liability agreement with the Local 2665 (Fire Union) that the union lawyer drafted for all personnel to sign releasing us from paying overtime above 40 hours since January 1st. This will be a temporary fix until the initial ruling is out. The St. Louis County Municipal League identified the following Options: While you are waiting for court or legislative action, the memo suggests some options to reduce your liability: 1. Start paying overtime (or award comp time) for hours over 40 in a week (to prevent a judgment awarding 2 X the overtime). 2. Adjust your scheduling to balance hours between each week so that fewer weeks contain employees working over 40 hours. This may be easier to do for police than fire. 3. Reduce the regular hourly base salary and then pay 1.5 X the base salary for overtime so that each employee’s gross salary remains unchanged.