Recommendation to adopt resolution approving the 2019-2022 Memorandum of Understanding with the Long Beach Firefighters Association.  (Citywide)
Okay. Thank you very much. Motion carries will move on to the next item. Thank you very much. And next item is going to be the firefighter and menu item 20, please. Item 20 Report from Human Resources Recommendation to Adobe resolution approving the 2019 through 2022 IMO you with the Long Beach Firefighters Association citywide. Thank you. I'm going to have to turn this over to Mr. Modica, who will do the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the City Council, we are bringing our H.R. staff, and here they are. Alex Vasquez and her staff will give a short presentation. Good evening. Dana Anderson, who is our manager of labor relations, is going to give a short overview of this item. Excuse me, honorable mayor and members of Council over the past few months, representative from the City Management and the Long Beach Association of Long Beach Firefighters have held a number of media conference sessions regarding changes in wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment. As a result of these meetings. A tentative agreement for a successor memorandum of understanding has been reached, which is before you this evening, for adoption. The major provisions of this tentative agreement include a three year contract from October 1st, 2019 to September 30th, 2022. General salary increases of 3% in the first year. 3% at the start of the third year. And a 3% six months later. A one time payment of $2,000 in the second year in which there is no general salary increase. A reopen her to me to confer regarding potential adjustments related to CalPERS pension reform. A bilingual skill pay increase from $0.80 to a dollar 20. The creation of a new hazmat first responder operations pay. The modification to current skill pays, including emergency apparatus pay, fire prevention and battalion chief certification pay. In addition to a new parental leave program that is conducive to the recruitment retention of a qualified and diverse workforce. A Battalion Chief Additional Step six equivalent to 2.5% above step five base hourly pay of the Battalion Chief classification. An agreement to convene a Joint Labor Management Committee to discuss issues related to the behavioral health benefits and services provided to the Employee Assistance Plan. An effort to improve services. The cost for this three year agreement is estimated to be 2.17 million for the general fund group and ten point to 6 million for all funds. The total structural cost increase resulting from the agreement is estimated to be 9.37 million in the general fund and 9.4 or 5 million across all funds. This concludes my brief staff report and I am available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much. We do have a motion and a second. Let me first we'll briefly public comment on this item. Mr. Goodhue, anything? Nope. Mr. Pritchard. Richard. Here he is. Rex Pritchard, president of Long Beach Firefighters Association. I just want to thank specifically Dana and Irma. They are tough negotiators. It was not an easy process at all. But this is a fair contract for both the city and us. It's going to really help. I believe the fire chief helped retain and recruit a diverse workforce and a highly competitive Southern California market, especially with L.A. City and L.A. County. So, again, we appreciate all the support and thank you. Thank you. And before we turn over to the motion, I just want to just make a couple comments as well. I want to I want to just begin by by thanking our firefighting team. Obviously, Mr. Pritchard, his whole team and our rank and file firefighters are what we have in front of us for adoption is a fair , responsible and forward thinking contract of the process of negotiations. Negotiating is typically tough. And you certainly have in our in our case, a stellar fire department that we're incredibly proud of. I want to note that I very grateful that our negotiating team went in. I'm thinking about things that were also important to the council and our firefighters. It is very important for us to ensure that our firefighters, that entire team at the department are not just well compensated, but that they have the types of benefits and the type of support needed so that we can recruit the very best. And we should always want the absolute best for our firefighters and our public safety officers. That's why I strongly support this contract and why I'm very proud of the council for getting us getting us here. I also just want to note that one thing that's in this contract, besides some of the adjustments for some of our our firefighters so that they can receive a fair a fair, fair pay and around certain skills is I know that our parental leave program is also being added to this. And again, Long Beach is ahead of most agencies where we are offering a very, I think, forward thinking parental leave program for all of our firefighters. And and as we did for our police officers just a few weeks ago. And so, again, thank you to our firefighter team, our negotiating team. And I'm very excited to move forward and get this contract done and to ensure that our firefighters have the support that they deserve. With that, Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to take a moment and chime in to thank our negotiating team and our rank and file firefighters for coming together on a fair deal. It's smart and balanced. I recognize as quality public services, which is important to our constituents every day. And also one thing that I want to acknowledge, that, you know, a lot of our firefighters are are young folks and they're growing, you know, families. And it recognizes the importance of family medical leave. And that's important to our city. And I'm glad to see that they were able to come to terms on that. And so this is the kind of deal that helps us maintain our status as a world class city and a world class fire department. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Councilmember Ringo. I thank you better. And I think you said it all. You covered all the important points about this agreement. And I want to congratulate the fire department and Mr. Prichard for his willingness to negotiate. Negotiations like these are always tough, and they don't happen unless there's an agreement with the city. And I think I want to congratulate actually both sides, both teams working together on a tentative agreement that is going to work for the city. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes, thank you, ma'am. First of all, I want to thank our firefighters and our team and everyone else who made this item before us possible. You know, our firefighters deserve this and so much more over the years that their role and responsibility have grown. And they have came to work every day and work with our community with grace. So the bargain is never easy, but work for us is worth it. So I want to thank each and every one of you for being a big part of this. Thank you again. Councilmember Pearce. Yes. I'd also like to thank everybody that worked on this. I know that negotiations are probably some of the the toughest moments with our city. Really proud to see that we're rolling out parental leave and that they now have access to four weeks of that, that we as a municipality are really leading on that it's good to continue to see it. And what's most exciting, I think, is the mental health support that we're offering our first responders. Obviously risking your life every single day on the job and knowing that you're you're also risking an increase of having cancer by 100%. Like, these are big things. And having Long Beach be a city that people not only come to and do our training academy, but that they stay. And we know with fire that this is one of the biggest challenges that we have. And so I really think that creating a robust agreement really helps us retain those employees. So thank you, everybody, for a fair contract. Thank you. Councilman Price. I want to echo the comments of my colleagues, and I think this is an appropriate time to just share the following experience that we just had in CD3 that underscores exactly how important the work our firefighters do is. So we just had a really significant sink hole in one of our communities in the third district. It may seem like that's not that big of an issue, but we had about 40 homes, did not have water. We had a huge hole in the ground that was about eight feet deep, maybe even deeper than that and very long. And we had fire was out there first. They were out there. They were on scene the entire time, having a presence there, letting the neighbors feel that they were safe, providing refuge if needed. They set up a command center with our police department nearby. And they and also our police department was there letting residents know that they were safe and that they were being watched over and they were being cared for. This is an example of city departments, multiple city departments working together, health, public works, water, police and fire. And they work together really well. But for me, there was so much piece of mind driving up or walking up the first day to the location, seeing our fire trucks there, seeing our firefighters there and seeing our police officers there. There's just such a sense of peace and safety when you see that and to be able to support public safety in our city for things like crime, but also things like sinkholes and emergencies where people need to rely on our first responders for peace of mind. And safety is just you can't underscore to mess with words. You have to be there to witness it. So I'm glad for that for this contract, because I do think it makes our fire service and the city of Long Beach competitive so that we can continue to attract candidates that are professional and competent and represent the city well. And I thank our firefighters for their service, and I really am pleased with our city team. So thank you to our team for your negotiations and for your communications with council. You left, you know, nothing unsaid you shared with us and we felt included in the entire process. So thank you. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. I want to take this opportunity to put out a big thank you to the Long Beach Fire Department. Over the past few months, I've gotten to work more closely with the new command team, and I will say that I am thoroughly impressed with the way in which this department takes care of each other. There are departments across the region who are losing personnel at alarming rates because there's such a shortage of individuals that want to enter into this field and have the physical fitness and wherewithal to make it through an academy. And we are so fortunate that very few of our our our family fire, a family of firefighters, even consider it because they really do feel taken care of by each other. And I want to thank the city staff for their work on this contract. It is so important that we have a contract that is fair and balanced for our community and specifically for our firefighters and our police officers. So thank you. You could hear what he did. I already did. Public comment, sir. I did public comment already. Councilmember supra you actually you spoke in support. Answer your. Now, you already spoke to the sign of. Okay. Next up is Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already been said, so I won't echo anybody's comments, but I will say congratulations to our city team for negotiating a great agreement with our Long Beach Firefighters Association. I think this contract will will certainly help us recruit and retain high quality fire service professionals moving forward and maintaining quality services in the city. I will just say that that I'm. Relate it to actually have this opportunity to vote on this contract, because I've been here long enough to know that it hasn't always been been this way. And so salute to all the parties for for working to get to an amicable agreement. Thank you. Thank you. And counsel for. And I'd like to to thank the negotiators on both sides city staff and local 372. Great job to hammer out a fair deal. I just don't want this moment to pass without recognizing what took place yesterday in the history of the fire department with the restoration of E17 17 and thanks to the chief, all the command staff and Mayor Garcia and my council colleagues for supporting that. It was a great day and that is one incredible firefighting force. When 17 and 17 roll out those bays. Thank you. Thank you very much. And Mr. Good here you did. We have you on record that you did you did speak say that you supported it from your seat sir. When I called your name that per the clerk. Yes. So members of you have your you go ahead and votes. Sir. That's. Per the city clerk. As we embrace mango, I keep pressing. Councilmember Richardson. Ocean carries.