For five years, members of the Police Benevolent Association patrolled Batavia's streets without a labor contract with the city.
Recently, an arbitrator awarded back pay to the union members, which they probably would've received in cost-of-living increases if they had had a contract.
Tonight, the City Council approved unanimously, without discussion, transfer of $235,000 from the city's contingency fund to the police department budget to cover the arbitration award.
The city could have wound up owing the PBA members more than $288,000.
As part of the same resolution, the council approved transferring $23,000 to the fire department budget to repair the air-conditioning system at the Evans Street station.
Who's to blame for this whole
Who's to blame for this whole mess??? I can't believe our men in blue waited so long for a contract. I wonder how that would have worked if one of them were hurt on the job. Sounds like whomever was in charge of this dodged a bullet or two. LOL
There are a lot of people who
There are a lot of people who work without a contract for several days/months/years. They would rather work than strike and not have jobs. They still have insurance (generally) and some other protections.
I love my firefighters and
I love my firefighters and EMT's, but 23,000 to fix the air conditioning? Thats a little much, and I doubt it would be that costly. We don't live in Florida.
I think you keep trying to
I think you keep trying to find things to be angry about.
When was the last time the air conditioning was maintained/repaired? If we want to keep quality personnel, we need to offer benefits, and air conditioning is definitely a benefit in the hot and humid summers we often see. Fixing it now, as opposed to mid-summer, probably means we're spending less fixing it, and if we don't have to spend anything else on it for 5 years, isn't it worth it?
I dont know Chelsea. I think
I dont know Chelsea. I think we would need to ask the firefighters. I'm sure there are some other things that could probably use updating, and fixing in the station. I'm just shocked at the cost to repair the AC. Im not angry either, just blogging my opinion.
I would hope the money spent
I would hope the money spent on the HVAC is not only for maintenance, but to monitor the system so problems can be detected before they become major expenses.
There are three common methods by which building managers can accomplish HVAC maintenance on building systems: reactive, preventative and predictive. In the reactive maintenance mode, when something breaks, you fix it. In the second form, preventative maintenance, we perform periodic actions to reduce the likelihood of maintenance problems. We do such things as tighten belts, clean filters or change oil.But despite these two forms of maintenance, things still break. A third option offers building managers the ability to more precisely match maintenance efforts to the condition of their systems. Reactive maintenance is always too late – the problem has already occured. And preventative maintenace, while better than reactive, still offers no guarantee that the work is being done at the optimal time.
There is a third maintenance philosphy that can maximize system performance and uptime, reduce maintenance costs for both labor and materials, enhance indoor air quality and lengthen the life of your equipment. That approach, called predictive maintenance, involves ongoing, continuous measurement of key performance parameters of your equipment, such as voltage draws or vibration levels or the particulate contamination of oil to determine when equipment needs to be maintained.
Costs associated with installation of sensors and measuring equipment for maintenance tracking are capital expenses. Sometimes, “the powers that be” hesitate to approve these types of expenses because of the do-more-with-less requirement they work with every day. Maintenance can often times be viewed as an overhead line item, and overhead is something to be reduced.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings consume almost 40% of the electricity used in the entire country. It’s entirely possible that a fine-tuned HVAC system will save more money than the cost of the fine-tuning. Although the initial costs of maintenance equipment appear high, there are clear savings to be realized. Reductions in energy costs, reduced parts and labor and even increased productivity due to greater comfort and indoor air quality will readily be seen. And that should persuade management that predictive maintenance makes good business sense.
http://www.goodway.com/hvac-blog/?p=1931#more-1931
Karen, Going years without a
Karen,
Going years without a contract and going to arbitration is common in NY. This state does not allow union government and that process is very, very, slow.
As for AC repair costs. One, it’s a big system over there. Second, with all the environmental regulations now, the cost has gone way up.
If you have AC in your car, wait until you need it fixed. The cost from 10-15 years ago will come as a real shock.
Who in their right mind would
Who in their right mind would make such a big issue over hvac repair costs, what about TP. With all the trival crap flying around all the time, I want to know how much the city spends on TP. Do they use 2 ply fluffy or the cheap sand paper kind.