City seeking unspecified cuts from contracts
Jesse B. Gill, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/25/2010 08:06:43 PM PDT

REDLANDS – Although the City Council has said it wants contract concessions from the unions representing city employees, union leaders say it hasn’t specified what is needed.

A council subcommittee manned by Jon Harrison and Mick Gallagher is conducting informal discussions with both unions about items in their employment contracts they could give up to save the city money. The discussions come after a budget season in which the council eliminated 47 full-time city jobs and was still left with a deficit of $877,500.

“One way of cutting costs is eliminating positions. One other way is continuing to work with the bargaining units to further look at how we can achieve concessions,” Harrison said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “I think it’s another option that we have to continue to explore. If it goes nowhere, it goes nowhere, but to not have it on the table I think does a disservice to employees and the community.”

The unions are open to talking, but so far the discussions haven’t gone anywhere.

Derick Ohlson, president of the Redlands Police Officers Association, said the union has met with the subcommittee twice with representatives from all of the city’s employee unions. He said the discussions went well until the union representatives asked the council members what kind of concessions they’d like to see.

Neither Gallagher nor Harrison had an answer to the question, Ohlson said.

“Yes, we’ve been talking, and talking is good,” he said. “But when they’re asked specifically what the city is looking for, it goes out the window.”

The council members could not answer questions on how much money the city needs to recoup from each union, he said.

“We really don’t know what they’re asking for,” Ohlson said.

Phone messages left Friday for Harrison and Gallagher were not returned.

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