Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said this week that although he disagrees with some Town Board members about the execution of a settlement with the local Civil Service Employees Association, he believes the deal will correct “long-standing inequities” and, in the long run, have little financial burden on the town.
The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday, March 22, to authorize Mr. Schneiderman to sign the agreement, which he said he anticipated doing this week. But in order for the deal to be finalized, Town Highway Superintendent Alex Gregor must sign off on it as well.
The settlement with CSEA resulted from a claim filed with the Public Employee Relations Board, or PERB, against the town late last year that requested clarification on whether certain employee titles not previously included should be included in the CSEA bargaining unit. Mr. Schneiderman said that while trying to work out the claim with CSEA President Laura Smith, he realized there were other issues facing union workers that he wanted to address, particularly how much they contribute to health insurance.
The settlement would reduce employee contributions to individual or family health insurance plans from 20 percent to 10 percent, and would be applied to all union members hired on or after June 10, 2014. Those hired after 1995, but before 2014, will pay 10 percent toward family plans, and those on an individual plan will not contribute. As the contract stands now, union members still pay zero if on an individual health plan, and approximately 15 percent if they are on a family plan.
Employees hired prior to January 1, 1995, do not contribute to the cost of health insurance, which will continue to be the case if the settlement is finalized.
“I thought that was too high for those at the bottom. It was too big of a hit, when I had other employees who were making $90,000, but not paying anything,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “We were having some hard times finding people for those lower-wage jobs [because of] the low salaries, plus the high contributions.”
Additionally, as per the terms of the settlement, if a full-time employee opts to reject or discontinue his or her health care coverage, the town must pay the employee 20 percent of the cost of the premium coverage per year. The supervisor explained that because the town’s health insurance policy is expensive—it costs about $25,000 for a family plan—he wanted to provide an incentive for employees to reject the plan.
The agreement also adds 34 administrative titles to the contract, a direct result of the PERB claim, although Mr. Schneiderman said CSEA did not get all of the titles it requested. It would also add six more titles to the list of employees on the step salary schedule, accelerate the pay raise schedules of employees on a step schedule from May 1 to March 1, and provide 30 minutes of overtime pay for emergency situations lasting longer than two hours.
“I was actually surprised that [some of the titles] weren’t in the union,” the supervisor said. “This is not a handout. To me, it corrects longstanding inequities and addresses basic cost-of-living concerns. I have high expectations of the workforce, and I have a very low tolerance for people who take advantage of the town. I will reward achievement and dedication, but at the same time I have a very low tolerance for abuse.”
In addition to Mr. Schneiderman, Town Board members John Bouvier and Julie Lofstad had approved authorizing the supervisor to sign the settlement. Both Republican Town Board members, Christine Scalera and Stan Glinka, however, had said they could not support it, as well as other resolutions relating to the terms of the settlement, because they viewed it as “a one-sided deal” that favors high-ranking union members and, in the end, will be unfair to taxpayers.
Ms. Scalera argued that the settlement would cost the town $500,000 in 2016 alone. This week, Mr. Schneiderman countered that claim, saying it would cost the town only about $100,000 this year, and then about $150,000 next year. “We’ll have to make budgetary adjustments, but we have a lot of revenues [coming] in,” he said. “Next year’s budget hasn’t been written yet, but I’m not anticipating increasing taxes next year. I have 16 years of not increasing property taxes [on my record]—I’m going to try to make it 17. We’ll be able to manage $150,000.
“The actual cost of this plan is roughly [the equivalent of] less than a cup of coffee per day per employee,” he added. “It’s not going to break the bank.”
Mr. Schneiderman said that he was not sure whether Mr. Gregor will sign the agreement. The highway superintendent said this week that he would not make that decision until he receives answers to a number of questions and concerns he raised in a three-page memo to the supervisor on March 21. One of the bigger concerns is that he believes the administrative titles being added to the union bargaining unit would result in the union being controlled by high-level clerical and management positions.
“I can’t really sign something if I don’t have all the answers to the puzzle. It looks like Christmas in March,” Mr. Gregor said. “I’m not going to sign anything until I get an answer to my questions. The devil’s in the details.”
Alyssa Melillo on Mar 30, 2016