 
March
2002
| PERB
The First Three Days |
Dear
Member:
The
PBA began presenting its arbitration case last week in the opening
round of testimony before the State Public Employment Relations
Board (PERB). A summary of the three day arbitration session follows
below.
The
sessions were held last Monday, March 18; Tuesday, March 19; and
Wednesday, March 20. The union's negotiators argued for comparability
with other police jurisdictions and against the pattern-bargaining
philosophy that has left New York City police officers' salaries
lagging so far behind those of officers in surrounding jurisdictions
and other big cities when adjusted for cost-of-living.
A
second round of testimony, scheduled for April 22 and 23 will
focus on two of the Taylor Law's criteria; the city's ability
to pay, and the interest and welfare of the public.
April
29 and 30 have been set aside for rebuttal arguments and closing
statements, with post hearing briefs to follow. May 6 and 7 have
been reserved for additional rebuttal arguments, if necessary.
We
will keep you updated of important developments.
Fraternally,
Patrick
J. Lynch
| Arbitrator
Dates: |
March
18, 19, and 20, 2002 |
| Arbitrators: |
Dana
Eischen — Neutral
Ronald Dunn — PBA Pick
Gary Dellaverson — City Pick |
| PBA
Law Firm: |
Kaye
Scholer, LLP |
| City
Law Firm: |
Proskauer
Rose, LLP |
This
first session was for Comparability and Pattern Bargaining.
-
PBA) — Opened Hearing with NYPD "Heroes" video
-
(PBA)
— Robert Linn (PBA Lead Negotiator) testified
to multi-jurisdictional and historical analysis of police officer
compensation locally and across the nation, pattern bargaining,
market-based adjustments in pay, consumer price index (CPI)
and its effect on police salaries across the nation. N.Y.
Civ. Serv. Law Sec. 209.4(c) vs. N.Y.C. Admin. Code Sec. 12-311c(3).
-
(PBA)
— Professor David B. Lipsky and Professor Harry
C. Katz
| David
B. Lipsky is Professor, School of Industrial
and Labor Relations, Cornell University and Director of
the Institute on Conflict Resolution. He served as Dean
of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations from 1988
to 1997. He is co-editor of Labor Management Relations
in Government Employment at the Dawn of the 21st Century,
forthcoming, Illinois University Press. He received his
PhD in Economics from MIT in 1967. |
Harry
C. Katz is the Jack Sheinkman Professor of
Collective Bargaining, School of Industrial and Labor
Relations, Cornell University. He held a joint faculty
appointment in the Economics Department and Sloan School
of Management at MIT from 1977 to 1985 before moving to
Cornell University. He received his PhD in Economics from
the University of California at Berkeley in 1977. His
PhD thesis examined the determination of municipal employee
pay and city budgets in the city of San Francisco. |
Professors
Lipsky and Katz testified jointly on the appropriate adjustment
of police compensation to address inter-city differences in
cost of living using the index that they developed in reliance
on Bureau of Labor Statistics data that city police officers
are grossly underpaid in relation to a variety of comparators,
that reliance on pattern bargaining generally is declining,
particularly where imposition of a lockstep pattern would lead
to pay inequities as it would for N.Y.C. police officers, and
NYPD retention and recruitment difficulties.
-
(PBA)
— Eva Jacobs (Labor Economist)
 Ms.
Jacobs has a B.A. in economics from Brooklyn College and,
over the years, has taken a variety of graduate courses
in statistics, econometrics and survey methodology at
George Washington University. She
is a fellow of the American Statistical Association
and has served on the Board of Directors of the Association.
She also has been co-chairman of the economics section
of the Washington Statistical Association.
From
1972 to 1993, Ms. Jacobs was Chief of the Division of
Consumer Expenditure Surveys of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. As such,
Ms. Jacobs was responsible for the conversion of the
Surveys from a decennial activity to an ongoing project.
The Surveys collect information from 5000 households
annually, including expenditures, demographic and geographic
information.
From
1972 to 1982, Ms. Jacobs also was responsible for the
BLS Family Budget Program, which was an estimate of
the cost of an adequate standard of living for a U.S.
urban working family in various cities using hypothetical
family budgets.
Between
1997 and 2001, Ms. Jacobs was the editor of annual editions
of the Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics, published
by Bernan Press, which contains historical data for
most of the statistical series produced by the BLS.
Currently,
Ms. Jacobs is Senior Advisor to the Safe Harbor Working
Group, which consists of representatives of Federal
employees in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico and the
Virgin Islands who, together with representatives of
the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, were responsible
for recommending a methodology for determining the cost-of-living
adjustment for the salaries of these employees. Ms.
Jacobs is the neutral member and chair of the tripartite
Technical Advisory Committee, which provides technical
assistance to the full group and assists OPM in implementing
the recommended methodology.
Ms.
Jacobs also has acted as adviser and expert consultant
to other government agencies and private groups, all
on the necessity for, the feasibility of, the methodology
of, and the construction of price indices. For 5 years,
she has been a consultant to Linn & Green Consulting,
Inc. whose President, Robert Linn, was the PBA's first
witness.
In
fact, there can be no dispute as to Ms. Jacobs's expertise
as she was the City's expert on the subject of inter-city
cost-of-living differences in the 1996-97 impasse proceeding
between the City and the PBA to set the terms of the
PBA's collective bargaining agreement for the period
August 1, 1995 - July 31, 2000. |
Ms. Jacobs
testified in support of the methodology and calculation of
the Lipsky/Katz inter-city cost-of-living index and that inter-city
cost-of-living must be taken into account.
In
total, the first day's testimony took approximately 12 hours.
-
(PBA) — Eli B. Silverman, PhD, Professor at John Jay College,
Department of Law and Police Science testified about pay
discrepancies, NYC police officers leaving for better paying
jobs, attitude of NYC police officers devalued feelings leading
to low morale.
-
(PBA)
— Former 1st Deputy Police Commissioner John Timoney,
testified on a wide range of police topics: Police department
tactics, strategy, culture, stress on police officers, pay,
tourism, comparisons with other police departments, regional,
national and world wide, recruitment and retention problems
facing the NYPD.
-
(CITY) — City began the presentation with opening statements from
their Attorney Carol O'Blenes consisting of, but
not limited to, the following topics: pattern bargaining, pay
parity, cost effects that the PBA's proposal would have on city
finances.
-
CITY)
— Deputy Mayor Marc V. Shaw read a prepared statement
touching on a range of topics that covered, but was not limited
to, city budget gaps, budget reduction proposal, elimination
of 1,600 uniformed positions through attrition and the hiring
of 800 lower-paid civilians who will assume clerical and maintenance
work now being done by police officers and the proposed borrowing
of $1.5 billion to cover current operating costs, and pattern
bargaining.
-
CITY)
— Pamela S. Silverblatt, First Deputy Commissioner New
York City Office of Labor Relations read from a prepared
report and used PowerPoint visual graphics, spoke on several
topics including police officer benefits, comparisons with other
police departments, retirement benefits and health benefits.
In
total, the second day's testimony took approximately 12 hours.
-
(CITY)
— James Hanley, Commissioner New York City Office
of Labor Relations: PowerPoint presentation, spoke on
several issues regarding, but not limited to, the history
of police contract negotiations, pattern bargaining, pay parity
and the parity wars, the deviation of pattern bargaining would
result in nuclear meltdown of labor negotiations, overtime,
retirements, variable supplement fund, I.T.H.P. benefit, pension
tiers, and other N.Y.C. employment benefits.
-
(CITY)
— Chief of Personnel, James Lawrence (who was
just hired as new Police Commissioner for Nassau County) read
from a prepared statement that there was no problem with police
officer morale, recruitment and retention. And in response
to cross examination, agreed that New York City police officers
are the best trained and finest police officers anywhere and
stated "they should be paid as much as the city could possibly
pay them."
-
(CITY) — Commissioner Gary McCarthy read from
a prepared statement concerning COMPSTAT Program, supervisors
responsible for implementing police department initiatives,
police officers responsible for being proactive to achieve
COMPSTAT goals. In response to cross examination, he stated
that a police officer's job is "Labor Intensive" and that
he believes that "officers should be paid as best we possibly
can."
In
total, the third day's testimony took approximately nine hours.
|
