Midlands Voices: Scare tactics fueling rush for approval of fire contract

The writer is chairman and president of the Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector.

The mayor and the firefighters union seem to want the City Council to just pass the new labor contract, without the legislators (elected by the people) having any final say. If the council cannot influence the contract, why is there a hearing and a vote on it?

For too long, the council has not done its due diligence in reviewing and challenging fire contracts, and if the council had, we would not be in the mess we are in today.

The politics of past contract negotiations are surfacing again, with the mayor reaching out to Democratic Party operatives to sell a fear message to push the contract past the council. The entire team seems to be in on it.

City officials said the contract will cost the city $6.7 million if it's not passed now. The private attorney hired to negotiate the deal stated that the contract language was comparable to that of other cities. A Democratic operative stated it saves the city $16 million to pass it now and the union will sue the city for more than $300 million if it's not approved.

All of these threats are designed to scare and push approval. Threats that are geared toward fear cannot be supported by facts. No one knows how the CIR would actually rule, so any financial calculations are guesses designed to spread fear.

The $16 million number can't be supported anywhere, and the huge pension liability is already being covered by the new restaurant tax.

The Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector has researched numerous labor contracts nationwide, and we cannot find any labor contact that allows the fire chief and the mayor to modify the contract after it is approved by the council — or any language that limits the reduction of employees only through attrition.

Nor can we find language that forces a 33 percent pension contribution on the taxpayers, a contribution that assumes an 8 percent investment return. Should the return be 5 percent, the taxpayer contribution will exceed 50 percent.

There are many other areas where this agreement is way beyond what other cities are offering their firefighters. It appears the mayor's team took a very bad contract and did not measure it against that of any other cities. If they had, they would have known better than to bring this to the City Council as is.

Rather than supporting the proposed contract on its merits, the mayor's team has resorted to scare tactics and false claims to manipulate the council into passing it quickly. This type of politics has to stop.

City negotiators keep whining about how the city can't change the contract because "there's no incentive for them to renegotiate, they will just say no." Perhaps the CEO of the city should suggest some modifications to the department if they are not willing to be more reasonable — modifications that would include immediate layoffs, privatization of ambulance services, and demotions in rank. Today, there is one captain for every three firefighters. To say the least, the department is horribly top-heavy.

On OmahaAlliance.com, we have listed 10 changes we believe would bring the proposed contract in line with regional and national norms and save nearly $10 million per year. We hope the council will embrace these ideas and begin modifications to the contract that are more fair and reasonable.

We realize that the council members "rejected" the 2010 police contract on first pass, then basically passed the same contract later. This appeared to be little more than a political maneuver so they didn't look like they would simply roll over for the police union. But this time, they seem more serious.

With regard to lawsuits, firefighters had better take note. If they don't cooperate with the council and instead aggressively sue the city, the citizens will not put up with it. The hardball threats of lawsuits will prove to be a Pyrrhic victory — a victory that destroys the victor if they do anything to increase the taxes on the citizens.

If you think there is acrimony in this town now over contract wrangling at City Hall, it's nothing compared to the explosion of negative backlash against firefighters that would result from a lawsuit that would force higher property taxes.

It is time to truly bring this labor contract back within reason with other cities nationwide, and it is now up to the City Council to stand for true reform.