Managers request one more meeting to settle labor contract dispute
By Scott Taylor
Staff Writer

AUBURN – Police labor negotiators and city management will try to restart contract negotiations, both sides said Monday.

Assistant City Manager Mark Adams said he sent a letter to union leaders last week requesting at least one more meeting before involving state mediators.

“We’re prepared to honor that,” Union President Chad Syphers said Monday. “It’s only fair to give them one last effort before calling in arbitrators.”

Syphers said last week he favored bringing in state labor mediators to help police and the city settle their contract dispute. That was in response to city councilor comments that they didn’t trust police in the wake of Mayor Norm Guay’s drunken driving arrest on Aug. 4.

“We’ve really gotten away from talking about our contract, so we’re going to try and steer discussions back to that,” Syphers said.

The city’s contract with the police union expired June 30. Union leaders say a proposed increase in monthly health insurance premiums is the biggest sticking point. Those higher costs, coupled with no cost-of-living wage increases for most city employees, would mean cuts in take-home pay.

Police began growing beards in defiance of city policy to protest the city’s contract offers and grilled hot dogs in front the Auburn City Building on Aug. 4 to call attention to their cause.

That evening ended with Mayor Guay being charged with drunken driving. A Breathalyzer test showed the mayor’s blood alcohol content was .01, about one-eighth of the legal level for intoxication.

Guay has not blamed his arrest on the labor negotiations, but some of his council colleagues said they were concerned about the timing of the arrest. The city hired Portland attorneys McCloskey, Mina and Cunniff to investigate the arrest.

That investigation came under fire Monday night. Councilor Bob Mennealy said he strongly opposed that decision.

“I cannot emphasize how strongly I disagree with the city manager’s apparrent unilateral hiring of so called independent investigators to continue the controversy surrounding Mayor Guay’s August 4 incident,” Mennealy said. “I have complete faith in our police. The incident was regrettable, but looking for scalps is not going to solve anything.”

Officer Tim Morrell said the investigation is unnecessary.

“In no way would we target any honorable members of our community,” Morrell said. “It’s a personal affront to my integrity as an officer. I would hope that you would feel safe with us. We are good friends and good citizens of this community.”

Syphers said he was eager to get beyond the issue of Guay’s arrest, but several members of the union wore new T-shirts that called attention to it. The dark blue shirts are identical on the back to shirts officers have been wearing for weeks. Those shirts depict a burly, gun toting man and the caption “You wouldn’t face him for a million dollars. We have to for much less.”

The new shirts have a caption on the front, “The truth is in the report.” That refers to the police report detailing Guay’s arrest on Aug. 4. According to copies of that report obtained by the Sun Journal, Guay stumbled several times and failed a roadside sobriety test before the Breathalyzer test showed he had a low blood alcohol level.

“Not everyone is wearing one of those shirts,” Syphers said. “You’ll notice that I’m not.”

staylor@sunjournal.com

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