City, firefighters agree on contracts
Two contracts end the bitter three-year dispute between the city and its firefighters’ union.
By LESTER R. DAILEY
| Article published on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 |
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CLEARWATER – The acrimonious three-year dispute between the city and its firefighters’ union quietly came to an end last week when the union membership and the City Council ratified two contracts.
One gives firefighters a one-time bonus of the greater of $1,250 or 3 percent of their gross pay for the 2003-2004 fiscal year, when they had no contract, and comes on the heels of an earlier settlement that gave each firefighter a $1,000 bonus for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2003.
The other, and more important, contract is retroactive to Oct. 1, 2004 and runs through the end of fiscal year 2007. It provides for 5 percent annual raises during that period and reduces the number of hours that must be worked each year.
The contracts were approved 110-19 by the union members on May 18. The City Council ratified them at its May 19 meeting.
“Both of us came to a compromise position,” said John Lee, president of Clearwater
Fire Fighters Association Local 1158. “The membership ratified it and seems satisfied with it.”
“We do have a contract,” Joe Roseto, the city’s human resources director and point man in the contract negotiations, said in a telephone interview Monday. “From the city’s perspective, we’re happy about that.”
Under the new contract, Clearwater will have some of the best-paid firefighters and paramedics in Pinellas County, according to Roseto.
Also last week, the City Council decided to keep the current two-tiered system of recreation fees, whereby Clearwater residents pay one fee and all nonresidents pay another, higher, fee.
Kevin Dunbar, the city’s parks and recreation director, had proposed a three-tiered system whereby residents would pay $5 a year for a recreation card, residents of other Pinellas County cities would pay $90 per individual or $225 per family, and residents of unincorporated Pinellas would pay $161 per individual or $402.50 per family.
The rationale was twofold. Residents of other cities tend to use Clearwater’s facilities only for those services that aren’t available in their own city, while residents of unincorporated areas use Clearwater’s facilities as their primary, if not sole, source of active recreation, according to Dunbar.
Also, residents of unincorporated areas can have all but $5 of their recreation fees reimbursed by the county, while city residents must bear their own recreation costs.
But the council members agreed to have all nonresidents pay $90 per individual or $225 per family. Instead of paying the money up front and seeking reimbursement from the county, residents of unincorporated areas will only pay $5, and Clearwater will bill the county for the difference.
“We want to be your ally in this,” Paul Cozzie, the county’s parks and recreation director, told the Clearwater officials. “We don’t want an adversarial situation.”
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Although it was not on the agenda, almost a dozen people rose to speak for or against the establishment of a 300-foot-wide minimum wake zone along 1.2 miles of Sand Key gulf front. Proponents said it is needed for safety reasons, and two of them told of their sons almost being run over by personal watercraft while swimming there.
Opponents said the zone isn’t needed and the buoys that would mark it, at a cost of $25,000, would be unsightly.
The council members decided not to address the issue until it can be determined if the zone would require the prior approval of 65 percent of the affected residents, like speed humps and other safety measures, and if so, whether the affected class would include all Sand Key residents or just those west of Gulf Boulevard.
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Article published on Wednesday, May 25, 2005
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