Considering that Duluth's retiree-health-care mess was caused in part by ill-advised union contracts, many of them negotiated by city staff, why the protests last week over using an outside firm? Some city councilors balked when Mayor Don Ness and his administration proposed spending $50,000 for a private attorney with expertise to handle the talks this year with the city's five unions.
The move could help the city fulfill its stated goal of "respectful and fair negotiations," in the words of Chief Administrative Officer Lisa Potswald and a memo she sent to councilors. With relations between the administration and its employees' unions deteriorating in recent years, "respectful and fair" would be a welcome approach to what otherwise could be a contentious bout.
By contracting with Frank Madden & Associates of Plymouth, Minn., the city also could follow its policy of seeking qualified help when decisions come with multimillion-dollar consequences. The $50,000 could seem a bargain with the right deals hammered out by Madden, an attorney with 29 years of experience working on hundreds of public employee contracts. He also was an assistant negotiator for the state and a mediator with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services.
"There are some issues in which very technical expertise is valuable," Mayor Ness told the News Tribune editorial page last week. "The unions have been critical of the lack of negotiating experience from the city's perspective. This action should address that concern."
And it would allow the city's shrinking city attorney's office staff to concentrate on day-to-day duties. "We literally spend weeks of nothing but contract negotiations," Potswald wrote. "The regular work of government ... would not get done.
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"This investment will help us negotiate more modern contract terms," she continued. And by "more modern" we hope she meant deals reminiscent of the private sector, where terms hinge on the fate of the economy.
"The common presumption is that public servants forgo high wages in exchange for safe jobs and benefits," the Feb. 16 edition of Forbes magazine reported. "The reality is they get all three. State and local government workers get paid an average of $25.30 an hour, which is 33 percent higher than the private sector's $19."
With pensions and other benefits thrown in, the gap jumps to 42 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Four in five public-sector workers have lifetime pensions, versus only one in five in the private sector.
Good for public employees, right? Sure. But local governments can no longer afford such generosity. The city of Vallejo, Calif., and Orange County, Calif., are among local governments to file for bankruptcy.
And "with municipal governments under unusual stress, 2009 may see a spate of new filings," the magazine predicted.
A smart Duluth can avoid being among them. That can start tomorrow with a vote by the City Council to approve a contract with a professional negotiator.
"We cannot guarantee that this approach will be a magic solution, but," Potswald said, "it is a policy shift in an attempt to not make the same old mistakes."
