Lexington, KY - Things have been quite busy at City Hall. In addition to dealing with one of the most difficult budgets in recent memory, Lexington's collective bargaining agreements with public safety employees are all up for renewal. Multi-year agreements with unions representing employees from police, fire and community corrections are expected to be finalized by early summer. Despite the commitment of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, the Urban County Council might not even review or vote on any of these contracts.
Since 2004, Lexington's public safety unions have opposed any vote by the Urban County Council to approve collective bargaining agreements. Remarkably, these unions submit collective bargaining agreements for approval by their own memberships but they deny the council the same right.
Most of what is spent or received by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) − from a bucket of dirt all the way to construction contracts for Clays Mill Road − requires two readings and a vote by the Urban County Council. However, since the adoption of collective bargaining by the General Assembly in 2004, the Urban County Council has not been allowed to review or vote on collective bargaining agreements. Beginning with Mayor Isaac, and continuing with a narrow vote by council members in 2008 to defeat the council's own authority, Lexington's public safety unions have argued that state law requires the mayor of Lexington to act alone in negotiating and signing collective bargaining agreements for LFUCG.
Despite this history, former Mayor Jim Newberry supported the council's review of collective bargaining agreements in 2008, and current Mayor Jim Gray plans to seek the council's approval. There is also substantial precedent in other parts of Kentucky for approval by the council. The Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government operates under a nearly identical collective bargaining statute, and Louisville ordinances require approval by the Metro Council before their mayor can sign collective bargaining agreements.
Numerous and serious financial issues affected by collective bargaining demand the attention of the Urban County Council. Between FY 2002 and FY 2011, the Department of Public Safety's total share of LFUCG's general budget increased from 45 percent to 56 percent. This has caused reductions in the funding of other LFUCG departments and partner agencies. Also, since FY 2007, average salaries have increased 17.6 percent at Community Corrections, 26.5 percent at the Division of Police and 31 percent at the Division of Fire & Emergency Services. But there are other issues tied to collective bargaining - a 39 percent disability rate for LFUCG's public safety employees (compared to 8 percent for the rest of Kentucky), a broken overtime system that the Fire Department's own leadership says results from collective bargaining, and a $325 million obligation for the Police & Fire Pension Fund.
However you choose to interpret Lexington's collective bargaining statute, we cannot afford to write a blank check to any LFUCG department, especially one that makes up 56 percent of our general budget. If expenditures from union contracts continue to rise, or if new public employee unions are formed, the council could find larger and larger portions of future LFUCG budgets beyond its control. The expenditure of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars is too great a responsibility for any mayor, and invites overwhelming political pressure from public safety unions. The Urban County Council has a fiduciary duty to scrutinize these collective bargaining contracts, and to work with Mayor Gray to get the best deal we can for Lexington's citizens.