A dispute between the county and Law Enforcement Labor Services (LELS), the labor union representing Cook County’s non-administrative police officers, was settled in the county’s favor, County Attorney Molly Hicken told commissioners at the October 20 meeting.
An arbitrator ruled for the county on August 13 in a 15-page decision.
Problems arose within the Sheriff ’s Office following the last election for sheriff when Acting Sheriff Leif Lunde lost the election to Pat Eliasen. Both Lunde and his Chief Deputy Ben Hallberg returned to the pool of deputies on January 1, 2015 and the union argued that both should lose the time they served outside of the union.
When the matter was put to a decision by law enforcement staff there was a 4-2 vote to eliminate the time during which Lunde served as chief deputy and acting sheriff. Lunde was former Sheriff Mark Falk’s chief deputy for nine years and then served six months as acting sheriff when Falk retired early.
The union also voted 4-2 to eliminate the time Ben Hallberg spent as chief deputy sheriff. Hallberg served as Lunde’s chief deputy for six months.
At the heart of the dispute, said the union’s attorney, was by giving back time to Hallberg and Lunde it affected seniority rankings which could have a negative impact on the other four deputies when it came to eligibility to work overtime and receive time off when requested.
A Step 1 grievance was presented to Sheriff Eliasen, who denied it. A Step 2 grievance was then presented to Hicken, who also denied it.
Following that decision the law enforcement labor union presented a grievance to the Cook County board asking them to decide whether it was correct or incorrect to include all of the time an employee had worked for the county when computing seniority under the current labor agreement.
During that third step the county board had three options: 1) Agree to the union’s interpretation regarding the seniority language and re-calculate the seniority dates for Lunde and Hallberg; 2) Agree with the county’s interpretation regarding the seniority language and maintain the current seniority dates and rankings or 3) Ask the union to mutually agree to submit the matter for mediation by the Bureau of Mediation, the agency that handles labor relations issues for public employment and unions in Minnesota. The county elected to stay with its policy of granting back time to employees who went into non-union management positions and then reentered the pool of union workers.
The union official representing deputies said if language in the labor agreement was to be taken literally, then Lunde and Hallberg would have been considered hired by the county on January 1, 2015, when they returned to work as deputies.
Lunde had been employed for over 16 years in the department, including time spent on a leave of absence to work as chief deputy and acting sheriff. Hallberg had been employed more than 10 years, with six months of leave to work under Lunde. When the two returned to regular duty the county credited them with all of the combined time served. Current Sheriff Pat Eliasen was chief deputy sheriff for two years under Falk and he also left management to go back to being a deputy.
Arguing for the four deputies, Law Enforcement Dispatcher Darcy Ziller, the local law enforcement union steward said the deputies who asked for arbitration had sacrificed weekends, nights, holidays, and missed Christmas dinners, family get togethers, anniversaries, holidays, and birthdays. She argued, “With high seniority you can get Christmas off. Really, because it is such a small department there is really no promotion. Nowhere for them to go. Their sacrifices should be honored.”
She also said administrators worked more normal hours and could schedule holidays and family gatherings off.
But at the end of the day the state arbitrator agreed with the county’s position.
County Administrator Jeff Cadwell said the language in the arbitrator’s decision would be used to help create better understanding in forming contract language between the county and law enforcement.
The cost for working with the arbitrator was split between the county and the union for the arbitrator’s time and travel 50/50. The total bill was $7,700.
In other business
. Following a review and support for the low airport bid by KGM Contractors by County Attorney Hicken, the board awarded the project to complete Phase Two of the airport runway extension at $2,597,777.50.
Work will include bituminous paving, mass excavation, engineered pavement sections, turf establishment, runway lighting, runway painting, and putting in erosion control.
KGM will do the work next spring/summer.
The county is responsible for paying five percent of the project from its airport fund while the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) will pay 95 percent of the costs.
Plans are to extend the airport’s main runway from 4,200 feet to 5,000 feet. At that length larger U.S. Forest Service fire fighting planes could use the runway in the event of a major forest fire.
. At the request of Auditor Braidy Powers the board approved a reduction in hours of the financial coordinator’s hours from 40 to 38 and an increase to the payroll coordinator’s hours from 30 to 32 hours.
“This will allow us to add two hours to the new payroll coordinator position to cover general office duties, including front counter activity, election duties, tax calculations, backup for other positions,” said Powers.
. A hazardous fuels reduction contract for $66,640 for work in the Two Island Lake area was awarded to Steve Scheuring, owner of Rock, Snow & Fire LLC.
. Maintenance Director Brian Silence came before commissioners on October 20 with a request to order replacement cabinets and a sink for the highway maintenance department. Silence said it would cost up to $4,000 to purchase and install the items. The board approved his request with a motion that Silence not spend more than $4,000.
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