The Continuing Saga related to police union negotiations…
The accusations of “bad faith bargaining” have come from both sides, back in January of this year:
The charge against the City of Toledo claims Mayor Finkbeiner engaged in bad faith bargaining by publicly disclosing matters from private negotiation sessions.
The two sides have gone back and forth on the accusations, but there is a pattern of Dan Wagner making public statements that the City then denies. Let’s flash back to April of this year specifically:
Mr. Wagner attacked the mayor and his staff Wednesday night.
“After what transpired [Wednesday], we know they are not men of their words, and there is no point in bargaining with those men,” Mr. Wagner said.
And:
The mayor said Mr. Wagner “irresponsibly mischaracterized the labor negotiations between the city and TPPA” for the better part of the year and called him an “actor [who] loves the stage — and is accomplishing little for his fellow union members by so betraying this historic labor-management guidepost.”
He said “the city simply cannot trust Mr. Wagner to abide by long held labor guidelines — that participants should keep conversations confidential and negotiate a contract behind closed doors — not in the media.”
Now today, several of our local media outlets are reporting that Dan Wagner is stating that the Mayor nixed another agreement and the City Administration is stating something different. WTVG has the accusations made by Wagner but doesn’t have the response from the City, The Blade has both.
Using my favorite three letter word…How is the average citizen of Toledo supposed to know which version is true? It is the Toledo Police Union that did not want to speed this process up, the City wanted an expedited fact finding well over a month ago when City Council voted in favor of a resolution seeking expedited fact finding.
It’s also interesting to note a similar situation in Columbus where the Police Union there has filed a complaint against Mayor Coleman for releasing a memo to the media.
Sometimes I think the whole negotiation process would be better served if there was a third party present that was made up of a citizen panel there to observe what was being discussed so that when accusations are made there’d be a better chance that the truth might actually be discovered. Or if these things were at least recorded, they wouldn’t have to be released to the public while negotiations were pending, but having some sort of a valid transcript would certainly put an end to this…It’d keep everyone honest and that would be refreshing…
Lisa Renee,
Saga is exactly the right word for this ongoing melodrama. Unfortunately for the story, I am afraid that there are no longer any heroes left in the plot, there are only the citizens of Toledo cast unwillingly in the role of victims.
And while the players in this sad tale continue to write the plot on a day to day basis, the dialogue becomes more shrill and less believable at every moment.
While part of me likes your concept of a citizen being present to act as a witness (or maybe a critic), I suspect that having one would merely add to the posturing and pandering going on. I also suspect that the job of “watching as sausage is made” would also be true here, and the such a witness would require a strong stomach.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:58 amTim, that’s why I offered an alternative suggestion, recording it.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:59 amYou know, Lisa, there might be something about having a 7 panel “subpoenaed” committee, like a jury, to oversee issues pertaining to the charter, from a pool drawn from Toledo volunteers.
*cough*
Having the community involved in a format resembling this holds both sides of the negotiations accountable, provides an insight outside the “normal political channels”, and setting the hours for thse gatherings in the evening, opens the opportunity for more of the community to become involved, just to keep crap like these two and their issues from being drug out of incredible amounts of time and being judged in the press instead of the table.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:43 pmThere you go again. Why would anyone want to inject a rational solution into this situation? Geesh.
June 28th, 2009 at 4:49 pmkateb…lol… I so agree
June 28th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
That’s Lisa – always the stick in the spokes with the rational bit.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:05 amI think recording the meetings is a very good idea. I think it might keep both sides somewhat honest. But, IMO, I don’t think either side truly wants that.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:26 pm