Mayor vetoes Nashua Police Patrolmen’s union contract

Sept. 20--NASHUA -- Mayor Donnalee Lozeau vetoed the aldermen's recent approval of a multiyear police contract, citing fairness to other city employees and a provision that allows about 40 percent of the Nashua Police Patrolmen's union to use accrued sick or vacation time to repay a portion of their health care premiums.

The contract, a seven-year agreement that is retroactive to July 1, 2011, includes a clause that permits 57 of the 137 bargaining unit members to use the accrued pay to satisfy a newly provision that requires union members to retroactively pay a higher share of their premiums.

The Board of Aldermen, after lengthy discussion and against Lozeau's wishes, approved the contract 13-2 at its Sept. 10 meeting. The dissenting votes were cast by Ward 3 Alderman David Schoneman and Alderman-at-Large Daniel Moriarty.

Lozeau said in her notice of veto that while she stands by her long-held concern that the "price of this collective bargaining agreement exceeds what the city has budgeted for this contract," she recognized there is a benefit to bringing the lengthy negotiations to a close.

Still, she said, she can't let stand the provision that allows the 57 bargaining unit members "to avoid the actual cost of paying back their health care premium increases using accrued sick or vacation leave."

The police contract would allow members to use their retroactive raises to repay what they owe the city under the payback clause. Lozeau takes issue with the language that allows members who exhaust their retroactive pay to then dip into their accrued sick or vacation fund.

"No other city employee utilizing a city health care plan had this opportunity," Lozeau said.

Further, she said, she assured other city employees who agreed to pay a greater share of their premiums that "I would not accept any contracts that did not require all employees to share the same costs."

Lozeau reminded aldermen in her veto statement that the board "has recognized, up to now, that all our employees should share the same cost when utilizing city health care plans.

"It was the fair thing to do, and it remains the only fair way to address this issue."

The language, Lozeau said, would cost the 57 members with accrued sick and vacation time nothing to "pay off" their remaining health care premiums "while other, less well-paid, city employees (will have) paid for their increased premiums with weekly wage deductions."

The contract, which runs through June 30, 2018, gives bargaining unit members salary increases that range from 0.7 percent the first year to 3.6 percent in fiscal 2015, with an average increase of 2.4 percent a year over the life of the pact.

The total cost of the contract per employee, including salary, insurance, retirement and other benefits, ranges from a low of 1.2 percent to a high of 8.7 percent, with an average per-year cost of about 5.2 percent.

The Board of Aldermen is scheduled to take up Lozeau's veto next week. The board also will consider a second veto she filed in response to aldermen's approval, also on Sept. 10, of an ordinance that would require the city purchasing manager to forward to the Finance Committee a copy of spending requests made by the police or fire departments if it is anticipated that the purchase would be brought before the Finance Committee for approval.

The measure, sponsored by Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess, passed 9-6.

––––

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443 or dshalhoup@nashua telegraph.com.

___

(c)2014 The Telegraph (Nashua, N.H.)

Visit The Telegraph (Nashua, N.H.) at www.nashuatelegraph.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services