Louisville Metro Government recently was handed a setback when the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled unanimously against them that are Louisville Firefighters are due some money--- a whole lot of money. In 2000 the Firefighters filed a labor complaint against the city stating that the city had incorrectly calculated their overtime on base pay only and that they had not figured base, longevity and other types of pay into the formula for overtime. The Firefighters had been seeking relief over this issue which began years before under the administration of Jerry Abramson who was mayor of Louisville from 1986 to 1998. Mayor David Armstrong took office in 1999 and was supposed to address many of the labor issues that had arisen under Abramson's preceding terms. Unfortunately after another year of fruitless negotiations the Firefighters were forced to file in court over this issue.
It seems that the city of Louisville and now Metro Government has always had a huge problem in picking and choosing their battles. What is common sense to the common man seems to elude those in public office. Instead of admitting their error and dealing with the issue at the time, the amount has blossomed to what many believe will be as much as $60 million that will be necessary to pay our Firefighters what they are due. Abramson plans on appealing this to the Kentucky Supreme Court, further wasting time and money that he does not have. The Kentucky Supreme Court can either choose to hear or deny the case. Either way the outcome seems imminent; Metro Government owes the Firefighters a pile of money and needs to pay up!Now that Abramson is back in office and the problem has regained the momentum of a snowball going downhill and it gets larger and larger as it rolls, he is still sticking his head in the sand and pretending that it will all just go away. The consummate politician is one of the worst tacticians that I've ever seen. Problems can be resolved if they are handled promptly.
A medical problem not taking care of can turn into a life-threatening issue just as if Jerry Abramson had taken care of this problem when it first was brought to his attention back in the mid-90s it would not be a $60 million problem now!
For those of you that don't work in Metro Government, for years the city has hidden money from other departments by telling them that department "A" (the Police) and department "B" (the Firefighters) got a 2.5% raise while telling department "C" (the Sanitation Department) and department "D" (The Health Department) that that was all the money that A and B received. What they other departments were not told was that A and B received "step pay" and "longevity pay" etc. as a way to hide money so that his other unions and bargaining units in government would not complain that they were been given less money. Unfortunately, Abramson was told that the overtime calculations were being done wrong and that it needed to be fixed long before he left office the first time. He chose to ignore it and snub the firefighters and now it will cost the city even more.
Craig Willman, president of the Louisville Professional Firefighters Local 345, said it's difficult to know how much money is involved because the lawsuit includes hundreds of firefighters of varying rank, some of whom retired under different contracts, with varying amounts of longevity and each person's time, longevity etc. will have to be calculated individually.
Now, here is the city's argument. Here is what they have based this $60 million question on: The city had argued that the incentive pay was a "production bonuses" and should not be included in base salary. What??? I think someone has been smoking crack!" I didn't even know that we had production bonuses. Does this mean that if I write more tickets I will get more money? Since it is a production bonus does this mean that it is conceivable that someone on the fire department would get more money him then someone else on the fire department because their company made more fires than the other? The Kentucky Court of Appeals disagreed with Abramson and ruled in favor of the firefighters.
The Court of Appeals stated that production bonuses are typically:
A: variable in nature and B: are conditioned upon some sort of measurable element of production," the ruling states. "None of the elements of pay in question here is either variable or conditional. ? The amount of these elements of pay does not fluctuate nor is it conditional, for example, on the number of fires extinguished or lives saved in a given pay period." The only thing the Court of Appeals did say in favor of Metro Government that clothing and equipment allowances would not be covered in this.
This brings to light the question has the police department also been guilty of this for years? We got many of the same incentives hidden on the side that the fire department did.
It is odd that the public and the news media have not given cries of outrage to this injustice that has been perpetrated by city managers on employees for years and now it will cost the taxpayers a ton of money because of the ineptitude, malfeasance and arrogance of this mayor.
The Lieutenants and Captains on the police department had been without a contract for 13 months now and there is no end in sight. The Firefighters have been without a contract for two years and there is no end in sight the Officers and Sergeants on the Police Department have been without a contract since July 1 of this year and negotiations have been scheduled for the next three months and again there is no end in sight. Is this I ask you proper management of Metro Government or is this the aforementioned ineptitude, malfeasance and arrogance of city administrator that cares not one whit for the people that keep Louisville safe?
It's not all about buying a land for parks or pet projects. The number one priority of government is and always will be public safety.