Back on February 27 and again on March 1, we wrote about how City Mgr. Jim Hock’s “Labor Negotiations Guidelines” are exactly the wrong thing for the City and its taxpayers.  Those guidelines, as written, would both hamstring and gag our City officials in the upcoming negotiations with some of the City’s unionized employees. 

When it comes to dealing with the City’s unions, Hock’s been acting like he’s on their payrolls instead of drawing his $200K-plus annual compensation from the City’s taxpayers.  

First, Hock winked and nodded at Chief Mike Zywanski’s wrongheaded negotiating “Ground Rules” that drew a curtain of secrecy around the latest firefighters negotiations.  Then Hock recommended rolling over on the firefighters’ grievance that was filed to enforce the double-dip paid holiday demand, in utter disregard for the May 1, 2011 “effective date” of the new contract. 

Any doubt about whose side Hock really is on in any union v. taxpayer dispute, however, seems to have been cleared up at the February 27 Council COW meeting, when Hock reflexively branded, as an “unfair labor practice” (“ULP), Mayor Dave Schmidt’s suggestion that future collective bargaining occur in sessions open to the public – even though Hock, in typical fashion for him, couldn’t provide any legal or other precedent to support his ULP claim.     

Schmidt asked City Atty. Everette “Buzz” Hill to opine on Hock’s contention.  So far, there appears to be no word from Buzz, presumably because he’s having as difficult a time as we had finding anything in the way of statutes or court decisions that would back up Hock: our quick-and-dirty Google search, and conversations with a couple of labor law attorneys who specialize in public sector matters, turned up not even a hint of anything that would make open-session negotiations a ULP.  

Meanwhile, perhaps realizing that his bull-flop had been called, Hock has now come up with a new tactic to hamstring and gag City officials in connection with the upcoming union negotiations: he’s converted his “Labor Negotiation Guidelines” into a City Council policy – Policy No. 8 – which he wants the Council to adopt at tonight’s meeting.

Although that proposed policy is not quite as outrageous as his guidelines were (e.g., unlike the guidelines’ secrecy provisions, the policy does not require City officials to violate the Illinois Open Meetings Act), Hock has inserted revised secrecy provisions into that policy which semi-sneakily replace the “shall”s and “must”s with “should”s, effectively setting up the City for bad-faith ULP grievances by the union if the mayor or any alderman were to go public – as they are permitted to do under IOMA – about any aspects of the negotiations, such as what the unions have demanded.

We have to assume that these revisions are an intentional attempt by Hock to jackpot the City because, frankly, we’d hate to think all of us taxpayers are paying over $200K a year for somebody who would do something like this out of mere stupidity. 

So it’s time to conclude that Hock has thrown in with the unions; and that the unions, emboldened by having an ally “inside” City Hall, not only have no intention of ever taking “no” for an answer from this mayor (even if that “no” ultimately gets over-ridden by a feckless Council) but, also, now want an enhanced ability to file ULP charges against the City. 

That would explain firefighters union president Mike Isom’s comments about Schmidt in a recent TribLocal article (“Park Ridge mayor exercise [sic] veto power again over firefighters contract,” 03.09.12):

“I think he’s trying to create controversy where there wasn’t any,” Isom said.  “We’ve made multiple concessions over the years only to be lambasted.”

Not surprisingly, Isom didn’t identify any of those “multiple concessions,” or when they were made.  Maybe he didn’t think he’d get all that much sympathy from City taxpayers by claiming that a cumulative 5% raise over three years, with commensurate benefits, was a major “concession.” 

City/union negotiations shouldn’t be hostile, but make no mistake about it: they are adversarial – especially when the City finds itself in a bubbling financial stew that’s been quietly simmering for the past decade or more while previous City administrations irresponsibly spent money and made long-term financial commitments – including for regular raises and increased benefits for union employees – as if the bills would never come due.

Well, they’ve come due, even though only Ald. Rich DiPietro remains from the folks who closed their eyes and whistled while the stew simmered. 

But don’t expect DiPietro to fall on any swords if he can help it: after 16 years on the Council, he’s become a “short-timer” looking to leave next year.  Which is why he acts like he doesn’t even want to deal with the current problems, much less future ones; or to accept any accountability for previous Council failings.

But if this mayor and this City Council don’t get even more serious than they’ve recently been about managing expenses and increasing revenues, things will get a whole lot worse, starting next fiscal year when – as Schmidt pointed out in his recent State of the City address – the Uptown TIF drain on the General Fund is projected to begin its newest escalation, from the current $5.4 million indebtedness to the $9.4 million mark.

We’re guessing it’s Hock’s and the unions’ fear that the taxpayers are finally waking up to the dangers presented by all this red ink which spurred Hock to propose his guidelines, and now his new Policy No. 8.  Together, Hock and the unions may have concluded that a Council Policy is the best way to lock the City into keeping the collective bargaining process – and all the unions’ demands – hidden from public view until there’s a done deal for the Council to rubber-stamp.  And to get it done quickly, before the next round of collective bargaining begins.

Let’s see how many of the folks around The Horseshoe jump at this new chance to help Hock sell out the taxpayers…again.

UPDATE:  This matter was deferred to the March 26, 2012, Procedures & Regulation Committee meeting at the request of 2 aldermen (Maloney & Raspanti), which is a permitted Council procedure.  That was just as well, because the City Attorney had not yet completed his research into the exact nature of unfair labor practices, including (per Mayor Schmidt’s question) whether it would be a ULP for future union contract negotiations to be held in sessions open to the public and the media.

That question wouldn’t even need to be answered by the City Attorney if all the City unions agreed to open-session bargaining.  But until you see herds of pigs are doing loop-the-loops in the airspace over Park Ridge, don’t expect that to happen.

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