Articles

Hearing Officer Finds for EAA in DWP Disparity

The ERB will consider his recommendations in their meeting on March 16, 2009, at which time it is expected they will adopt them. For now this is the Decision and Recommendation by the Hearing Officer. The broad remedial order he recommends to the ERB includes:

• An appropriate posting of this Decision by the City.
• CAO to reimburse EAA's attorney fees.
• CAO to reimburse EAA's costs generated in connection with its effort to negotiate.
• EERC to show cause why it should not be directed to provide the CAO with instructions that allow full and complete negotiations to take place.

Calling the City's actions since the signing of the Letter of Intent "a per se failure to meet and confer", the hearing officer details the events that led to the filing and hearing of this UERP. Shown throughout is EAA's patience and willingness to allow the City ample opportunity to follow through on its various promises. The City did not. Some of the significant uncontested facts noted in the Decision and Recommendation are:

• "the Union had been assured by the Mayor's office that the topic would be addressed and that some $29 million would be used to reduce the disparity."
• "The reason the parties established that date (July 1, 2007) as a goal (our emphasis) was because they understood bargaining is not amenable to deadline dates."
• "if the Union withdrew its opposition (Prop. S), Mr. Sickler could intercede with the Mayor and resolve the parity within a month after the election." David Sickler to the EAA Board of Governors.
• "The CAO utterly failed to carry out this promise because the EERC would not allow it to do so."

You can read the entire Decision and Recommendation of the hearing officer.