Both the Salt Lake Tribune and Standard-Examiner report this morning what appears to be a breakthough in the pay dispute that's been boiling in Emerald City since June 13, 2006, when the city council adopted its budget, incorporating Boss Godfrey's plainly "punitive" pay plan, giving public safety employees "second class status" in merit pay evaluations. From this morning's Kristen Moulton story we receive this encouraging information:
Heeding complaints from police officers and firefighters that a new pay system is unfair, Ogden City Council leaders want to throw out part of the new plan and return to the old.Whereas council leadership had earlier refused to revisit the issue, and to seriously reconsider bringing public safety employees' merit pay standards up to par with all other Emerald city employees, it appears there has now been a 180-degree council leadership change of course, if not an outright epiphany.
Council Chairman Jesse Garcia and Vice Chairwoman Amy Wicks also will ask their colleagues at Tuesday's meeting to hire a certified mediator to work with all parties to scrutinize and fix the salary-negotiation process.
"There was a breakdown this year, and it's important we make an even playing field for police and fire and make sure it doesn't happen again," Garcia said Friday.
Under the proposal, officers and firefighters can get merit raises when they score a 3 or better on a performance evaluation - as in past years and like all other classified city employees this year.The Standard-Examiner's intrepid Ace Reporter Schwebke also furnishes additional information on this sudden and heretofor publicly-unforeseen turnabout, including this quote from Councilwoman Jeske, the sole councilmember who has been publicly consistent in urging the council to restore police and firefighter pay equity:
Under the June ordinance, police officers and firefighters had to score a 4 or a 5 to get merit raises.
"I'm happy to see that it finally may happen," she [Jeske] said, "Members of the City Council have had a change of heart. We all know the salary negotiations procedures must be changed. This is one step to make that road easier to go down."We're frankly puzzled that the issue took so long to regain the council's attention. In the interim since the passage of facially defective pay ordinance, this story (and its permutations) has been widely and very negatively reported and discussed across the northern Utah media landscape. During over a month's council indecision, Emerald City government has in fact now been allowed to become the laughing stock of the state. What is now a political crisis could easily have been forestalled at the outset, had the council earler paid more careful attention to the inherent unfairness of the pay matter disposition.
As gentle reader ArmySarge wisely (and rhetorically) opined in an earlier comment section: "Why can't the council just do what's right?"
The above stories indicate the council may now be moving in that direction. Let us hope that there are at least five council members next Tuesday night who are willing to listen to, and act upon, the wisdom of ordinary folks like ArmySarge and Rudizink. We've been waiting for this new council to "find its legs," and get out from under the "Gang of Five" council's "rubber stamp" legacy. Could today's stories finally signal a more dominant posture from the council we all counted upon in November to "step up" and "stop the (Godfrey) madness?"
What say our gentle readers? Will the council, however belatedly, finally "do the right thing?" And will our gentle readers continue to do their part in this matter -- "contacts links" are available in our WCF sidebar -- to praise them for this sudden apparent turnaround, and to encourage them to "choose the right?"
Nevermind. We already know the answer to at least that last question. For the rest, we'll have to wait for Tuesday night.
The floor is now open for comments.
