Miami-Dade mayor: No police layoffs
By Douglas Hanks and Patricia Mazzei, The Miami Herald | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The mayor's announcement at an afternoon news conference appears to remove the most contentious element of his proposed budget. Several county commissioners insisted earlier this week they would not endorse police cuts. Commissioners must approve the budget before
"I never wanted a single police officer to lose their job," Gimenez said.
Though the police union has yet to have official labor talks with Gimenez, the mayor so far has directed almost all of his new found revenue to saving police jobs. Gimenez had proposed about 300 non-police layoffs throughout the county bureaucracy, with the proviso that unions could "buy back" positions if they agreed to new labor agreements with savings for the county. A string of preliminary union deals Gimenez announced this week would rescue an unspecified number of jobs, the mayor said, provided they're endorsed by union members and county commissioners.
While other unions are negotiating in part to avoid layoffs, the county
The
Thursday's retraction of the police job-cut proposal comes two days after the police union helped
"In politics, there's no such thing as a coincidence," Rivera said, referring to
The mayor's initial 2014-15 proposed budget had called for the elimination of 228 sworn officer positions, which prompted an outcry even from police brass. About half the targeted positions were investigators or officers assigned to work cases.
The number then went down to 110 two weeks ago, with Gimenez announcing new money from unspent dollars this year, a diversion of about
Gimenez said he could forgo more reductions if unions agreed to new healthcare plans that would include higher premiums and co-pays for some workers and reduce the county's overall medical expense by about 15 percent. On Thursday, Gimenez announced the biggest agreement yet in the ongoing negotiations.
The American Federation of State,
"We got a deal," said
Madtes had been the first union leader to sit down with Gimenez's negotiators to try to hash out a settlement. The relationship between the administration and labor had eroded over the past couple of years, with Gimenez continuing to push for benefit concessions from workers instead of service cuts, layoffs or a higher property-tax rate.
This week's agreements marked what unions say is a shift in attitude from Gimenez. His administration has agreed to give workers a cost-of-living increase in 2017 if property values increase more than projected.
In
Under the deal, the county will in turn redesign its employee health insurance to offer a limited physician-network plan and increase premiums for existing plans.
By getting
Gimenez's administration is hoping to save up to
While the recent union deals could put pressure on the other units to negotiate, those units have their own specific pending grievances or contract sticking points that would first need to be sorted out. Some unions -- such as the police -- have two bargaining units.
The unions to have already settled are
"I know that working together, we can all find innovative ways to responsibly manage
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