Freeport Press Release CSEA Layoffs Averted

For information: Inc. Village of Freeport Public Relations Office, (516) 377-2246

For Immediate Release

Freeport Mayor, CSEA Pen Agreement; Layoffs Averted

With 3-2 vote, Village Trustee Board also passes next year’s $62.4-million budget

Freeport, N.Y. – Friday, January 15, 2010 – After several days of marathon contract negotiations, Freeport Village Mayor Andrew Hardwick and leaders of the Freeport unit of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) reached agreement on several major points. Highlights include a four-year contract and no layoffs in the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Both sides announced the news during a joint press conference Friday, Jan. 15, in the Village Trustees Boardroom at Village Hall. After a brief exchange, they all shook hands and signed a Memorandum of Agreement. Hardwick was the first pen his signature to the four required copies of the document, followed by Peter Reinke, president of the Freeport CSEA; Freeport Village Attorney Howard Colton; Freeport CSEA vice-president Ted Forker; and Stephanie Teff, a labor relations specialist in the CSEA’s Long Island Region Office in Commack.

The Memorandum of Agreement now must be ratified by the Village Board of Trustees and Freeport CSEA membership.

After spending cuts from each department’s budget and other cost-cutting measures failed to close a $3-million deficit in the proposed $62.4-million barebones budget for fiscal year 2010-2011, Village officials deemed it necessary to reduce the municipality’s workforce by 14 employees.

Under the CSEA’s agreement with the Village, however, there will be no layoffs. Instead, the CSEA accepts a four-year contract with no pay raises in the first year, followed by annual increases of 2.5 percent, 3 percent and 3 percent in the next three years, respectively. The agreement also contains a switch from the Village’s self-funded healthcare coverage to the New York State Health Insurance Plan (NYSHIP).

For his part, Mayor Hardwick said that, like their union counterparts, he and managerial employees in the Village’s administration also will be required to forego any pay raises in next year’s budget. In addition, the trustees have agreed to rollback their compensation to 2008 levels.

“Because of the agreement we have worked out together with the union, we feel confident that the Village will be able to deliver a balanced budget that is both efficient and compassionate,” the Mayor said.

“It’s a fair deal that was reached by mutual agreement,” the CSEA’s Reinke said. “The CSEA executive board unanimously endorses the tentative agreement because, in the end, fairness prevailed.”

During Friday’s press conference, Reinke also announced that union members have committed to donating $1,000 to the Village’s relief efforts to aid earthquake victims in Haiti.

After the press conference, the Mayor and Village Trustees entered in the Main Conference Room at 5:30 p.m., where a standing-room-only crowd awaited the start of the reconvened budget hearing, adjourned from Monday, Jan. 11. After listening to several speakers, the board voted 3-2 to approve the proposed $62.4-million budget, which calls for a 5.5-percent property tax increase. Mayor Hardwick, Deputy Mayor Robert T. Kennedy and Trustee Carmen Piñeyro voted in favor of the budget; Trustees Jorge Martinez and William H. White Jr. voted against it.

The budget takes effect March 1.