AN ORDINANCE, relating to City employment, to be known as the Pay Zone Ordinance; adjusting the pay zone structures for the City’s discretionary pay programs; and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.
Hearing no comments. Those in favor of granting the petition as a condition to vote i. I. Those opposed vote. No. No. Okay. The motion carries and the petition is granted as conditions. Okay. Next, we'll have, I guess, items two, three and four read together for convenience agenda items. Two, three, four. Agenda item number two cancel 118602 relating to said employment to be known as a pay zone ordinance. Adjusting the pay zone structures for the city's discretionary pay programs and ratifying confirming certain prior acts. Cancel 118603 relating to city employment providing wage increases effective December 31st, 2014 December 30th, 2015 December 28, 2016 and December 27 , 2017. For certain non represented city employees and officers providing adjustment to certain pay titles in addition to the 2015 wage increase authorizing a $15 per hour minimum wage for all non represented city of Seattle employees authorized indirect in Seattle Human Resources Director to change rates of pay for certain job titles to a minimum of $15 per hour , effective April 1st, 2015, authorizing paid leave for city employees who took furloughs in 2010 and ratifying confirming search prior acts and council Bill 118604 related to city employment. Authorizing the execution of collective bargaining agreements between the City of Seattle and certain unions in the coalition of city unions for the time period, January 1st, 2015 through December 31st , 2018, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts. All bills introduced December 14th, excuse me, January 4th, 2016. Councilmember Burgess. Thank thank you very much. And I apologize, advance this will take a couple of minutes. But these three bills together represent successful negotiations with several of our city employees, labor unions. Each of these council bills is consistent with the parameters set by the city's Labor Relations Policy Committee. The hourly wages for city employees covered by these council bills will increase by 2% in 2015. 2% in 2016. 2.5% in 2017 and 2.75% in 2018. Council Bill 118602. Adjust the hourly pay zone range for employees in the discretionary pay program. Council Bill 118603. Adjust the hourly rates for non represented employees in the step and grade pay program. Each step is increased by the wage adjustment percentage that I just cited for the first bill. The second council bill also increases wages by 3.5% for some identified non represented job titles, which the city is experiencing. Recruiting and retention challenges with the bill also provides a furlough return leave for employees who took unpaid furlough in 2010 by adding these leave days in 2016 and 2017. Council. Bill 118604 authorizes the mayor to implement four collective bargaining agreements between the city and the professional and technical employees. Local 17. Local 17 of the Probation Counselors Unit, the Seattle Municipal Court Marshals Guild and the Journeymen Apprentices of the plumbing and pipe fitting industry. Local 32. In addition to the wage adjustments and the furlough return leave program for represented employees, this council, this last council bill also creates a new tier of the Seattle City Employees Retirement System. Sears two four new employees hired on or after January 1st, 2017. The purpose of implementing the new retirement plan is to reduce financial pressures on the city and to enhance the sustainability of the city's retirement plan. The new plan is structured similarly to the current plan as a defined benefit plan. Current employees will remain in Series one. New employees will join Series two after January 1st of 2017. Currently, the city and its employees contribute 15.8% of overall payroll to fund the benefits of this plan. This will drop to 11.9% for Series two. Cost savings to the city of Seattle are estimated to be $200 million. Employees in the new plan. Will earn 1.75% of final average salary for each year worked. Employees in the current plan earn 2% for each year worked. Members of the new plan will contribute 7% of their salary toward retirement benefits. Members in the current plan contribute 10%. Employer contributions. The city government's contribution in the new plan will be 5% compared to 6% for the current plan. Are there any questions or comments? Thank you. And I would urge adoption of each of these three council bills. Okay. Councilmember Swan has a comment or question, please. Thank you. Just a couple points to note. Some council members may remember that during the 2014 budget, with the help of advocates from the City Union and the labor movement, we passed a budget amendment to increase the lowest wages for city workers to $15 an hour. The mayor had promised to do that when he first took office in January 2015, but that wasn't funded. And we put we put that money in the budget and the city unions have been fighting to have it take effect ever since. Ever since then, as they negotiate all the union contracts of the city workers. Today, I'm really delighted that we're seeing this come to pass and the struggle is paying off. The council bill does implement that minimum wage for city workers, and according to the city unions, it will be retroactive to April 1st of last year when the of 2014, when the funding in the 2014 budget was first planned to take effect. That means a lot. Sorry, 2015. That means a lot of Seattle's lowest paid employees will see a better paycheck soon. And really, it's it's a delight to vote yes on that. I also wanted to thank all the city union representatives for your tireless work. Some of you are in the chambers today on behalf of your members, and obviously you also set the benchmark for non-unionized workers. And it's very important to recognize that solidarity. It's it was unconscionable that you had to work without a contract for over a year because city negotiators were trying to play hardball with you for so long. And I know that your members are voting on the contract now, and I will absolutely support them in whatever they decide. But I also wanted to reiterate that if city negotiators were not willing to come to an agreement with city unions, I believe that the whole labor movement would have stood with you. And certainly I would have supported you. And I really think that this is an example of how when we win one victory, we also win other victories, because that sets the trend. Just to mention a couple of things, in addition to what Councilmember Burgess said, you know, of course, first of all, maintaining defined benefit plans is a significant thing. I think that to recognize the union in being able to hold on to that everywhere, public sector workers are under attack, being forced to accept what is essentially an austerity measure, going from defined benefit to defined contribution plans. And the other thing is that the wage increases are retroactive to January of last year when the old contract expired. This is particularly important because it means that union members are not penalized for holding out a good contract. It sets a good example. And lastly, I wanted to draw attention to something I mentioned in briefing this morning. The Supreme Court today is beginning hearings on Friedrich versus Friedrichs versus the California Teachers Association. The outcome of this decision, this hearing, will have a deep impact on future organizing by public sector unions everywhere around the nation, including public sector unions in Seattle. So we do have to very actively support the California Teachers Association to defend the Democratic right of workers to form a union if they have a majority. Thank you, counsel. So what are there any other comments before I move for passage? Councilmember Burgess So I just want to also thank our city labor representatives that are with us today. I remember almost four years ago when we first began discussing the need for modifications to the retirement system. And at that time, the Council insisted that Labor representatives be with us at the table and that we learned together the challenges that we face with the retirement system. So thank you for participating in that process with us. I think we've achieved a great outcome. Contrary to what my colleague just said, I think the city and our unions bargained in good faith throughout this process. There was no stalling or delaying. There were no unfair labor practices. We worked together diligently to arrive at these agreements today, and I think we can all be very proud of them. Thank you. Councilmember Burgess. Okay, so I move to pass. I would take these individual I moved to pass counter bill 118602. Is there a second? It's been moved in second that the bill passed. Are there any other additional comments? Well, the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill. Burgess Gonzalez. Herbold, Johnson. Suarez O'Brien. All right, so on. Hi. President Harrell. All right. Nine in favor. Nine opposed. The bill passed, and the chair will sign it. I move to pass Council Bill 118603. It's their second. It's been moved in seconded that the bill pass. Any other additional comments hearing none with the clerk. Please call the roll on the passage of this bill. Burgess Gonzalez. Purple Johnson. Suarez O'Brien. So what beg your president? Harrell I am favoring and opposed. The bill passed and the chair will sign it. I moved past Council Bill 118604 so moved in second that the bill passed. Are there any other comments? Young men with a card, please call the roll on passage of the bill. Burgess Gonzalez Purple. Johnson Juarez. O'Brien Sergeant Bagshaw. President Herald. I. Nine in favor nine opposed. The bill passed and the chair will sign it. Please give that an apology. Yes, I've signed all these documents. I'm just kidding. Okay, next we have the report of the planning land use. And no, do we have one more item on this report of the planning Land Use and Sustainability Committee? Please read the report.