Lorain reaches contract with firefighter union, eliminates automatic raises for nonbargaining employees

LORAIN — Lorain firefighters have a new contract with the city. Council unanimously passed a new contract with the Lorain Professional Firefighters Local 267 union, but not without discussion. The two-year fiscal impact offered by the Auditor Karen Shawver differed from that given by union secretary Bret Brown. The new agreement, much like the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 memorandum of understanding from 2019, rolls several incentives into firefighters' base pay. Currently, firefighters receive incentive payments for being certified EMTs, and taking a quarterly physical fitness test and 26 hours compensatory time allotted at the beginning of the year — all of which they opted to eliminate to bring base salaries in line with those of surrounding cities' fire departments. It comes after a memorandum of understanding from last year bumped firefighters' wages by about 5 percent. The new contract's wages are effective March 27. The new agreement will see the city's base firefighters making $63,486 a year, after their three-year probationary period — up from about $58,000. What came into question Monday was the costs over a two-year period. The union stated the cost to be an additional $868,000 for two years, while initial projections from the auditor's office saw that impact as about $2.1 million. The confusion came in part via a miscommunication between the administration and auditor, Shawver said, as her department only had about 16 hours to prepare the fiscal impact statement. She said she had initially been asked what the cost of three lieutenants and three firefighters were, and included those in her estimates — as the city has agreed to reinstate three lieutenant positions eliminated during the budget crunch in 2016 — and her costs were based on as if the six positions were entirely new. The union's analysis notes only three firefighter positions, brought in at the base level to replace upcoming retirements, would be new. The lieutenant positions would be promotions, so there would be a 16 percent bump to those individuals' pay — but neither of those were part of the union contract and therefore not part of the contract's fiscal impact. Eliminating those six positions from Shawver's estimate brings it closer to $1.2 million. Shawver's estimates for a new doctor's physical exam, and other costs to the city, differ from Brown's analysis as well. It is unclear what the overall cost of the new agreement is for the city — the biggest difference between the numbers, Shawver noted via text message Monday evening, is the six new positions — three lieutenants and three firefighters — were not part of the contract. The other differences are matters of "interpretation" she said, and are being worked out. 'Me too' Nonunion employees' wages in the city of Lorain will no longer be tied to the city's collective bargaining agreements. City Council unanimously approved two ordinances to strike down the "me too" clauses for managers and non-bargaining employees throughout the city's departments Monday evening, just ahead of approving the Lorain fire contract — which would have been subjected to the clause without the change. After a brief sidebar with Law Director Pat Riley, Council suspended its regular order to pull out legislation last discussed in a 2020 public hearing to eliminate basing increases to managerial and nonunion employees on the average of the raises negotiated by the city's firefighter, police and Steelworker Local 6621 unions. Commonly known as the "me too" ordinance, the clause came under fire in the fall of 2019 when those nonunion employees received a 5 percent raise following a memorandum of understanding with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 that rolled certain incentives into the officer's base pay. Councilman Josh Thornsberry, D-8th Ward, explained the removal of the "me too" ordinance will require department heads to come before council and seek raises on a case-by-case basis, but the plan is to revisit the issue in a work session or committee meeting — as there is a difference of opinion on what the final process should be. Some Council members believe the nonunion employees' wages should be tied to the Steelworker Local 6621 agreement; others were in support of tying it to a fixed cost-of-living or annual salary schedule. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.