Town officials, Gilford police head back to bargaining table

GILFORD — Police union representatives and town officials will go back to the negotiating table at the end of this month to try, once again, to resolve their differences.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Business Manager Kevin Foley yesterday said he was not at liberty to comment about the negotiations, adding the Teamsters and the town had jointly agreed not to speak to the media unless there was an impasse.

"We are not at impasse," he said.

Patrol officers, dispatchers, detectives and clerks below the rank of sergeant are represented by the Teamsters, who successfully organized the department in 2007.

The two entered into a two-year contract for 2009 that provided a 2.75 percent wage adjustment for all covered employees for 2010. The contract expired Dec. 31. but under state law the provisions outlined in it stay in effect until a new contract is agreed to and funded by voters, including the provision that the town provide health insurance at the previously agreed to level of service.

While the reason for the stalemate is not known, one item mentioned in a statement to local media issued Tuesday by Town Administrator Scott Dunn indicates a dissatisfaction on the part of selectmen with police officers for not taking their health insurance benefits, presumably at a lower cost, provided through the Teamsters. Police, like the rest of town employees, are currently insured through the N.H. Local Government Center.

The expired police union contract did not provide for any "step" pay increases therefore is not subject to the provisions of the Evergreen Law enacted in 2008. It did include a system of merit pay increases that range from 1 to 4-percent and that provision is covered by the Evergreen Law.

Union members who receive an "unsatisfactory" rating as a result of perforance review process receive no merit pay increase.

Dunn said the 2011 salary line for the police department, approved by the selectmen and the Budget Committee, includes a sum to cover the merit increases stipulated by the expired contract.

On Tuesday, the newly elected and overwhelmingly Republican legislature took the first steps toward abolishing the Evergreen Law when the Senate Committee on Public and Municipal Affairs voted 4-to-1 to abolish it.

Advocates of the Evergreen Law say it protects public service employees who gave up the right to strike for some protection of their wages and benefits while detractors say it is tantamount to an unfunded mandate and negates the rights of voters at town meeting.

Dunn said he is not sure what would happen to the merit increases if the legislature were to abolish the Evergreen Law before the town and the Teamsters reach accord.

Dunn also said selectman's claim they may have to ask the police to reduce overtime or shifts to cover the Evergreen Law provisions of the expired contract have to do with fairness to all of the town employees by not treating any one department differently than others.

He said yesterday the town is also in contract negotiations with the employees of the Public Works Department who are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME.)

He said their contract expires in March but declined to comment further.