Contract talks in Auburn turned positive Friday after weeks of stalled negotiations.
Scott Taylor
Staff Writer

AUBURN – Hopeful contract negotiations won’t keep the Auburn police union from filing a grievance against the city, union leaders said Friday.

Union Representative John Richardson said Friday he would file a grievance with the Maine Labor Relations Board alleging unfair practices by the city manager’s office.

Richardson, a lawyer, plans to argue that the city’s decision to investigate the police in the wake of the Mayor Norm Guay’s Aug. 4 drunken-driving arrest unfairly targeted union members.

“We consider the city’s entire investigation to be retaliatory,” Richardson said. “It’s designed to chill union actions, not find out what happened that night.”

However, complaints about the investigation were separate from union negotiations, Richardson said.

City and union officials met for more than two hours Friday, and both sides said they were pleased with the outcome.

“I think we made progress today,” Union President Chad Syphers said. “There’s nothing cast in stone yet, but they’ll bring it to the council and we’ll discuss it with our guys.”

Neither side would discuss details of the negotiations. Richardson said negotiators planned to meet again later this month and that the union is no longer calling for third-party mediation.

Assistant City Manager Mark Adams said he would present details of the meeting to councilors either this Monday or at the City Council’s Sept. 15 workshop meeting.

“Perhaps most encouraging, we have agreed to meet again and talk further,” Adams said. “We are on track now, and we’re keeping talking. I think that’s a good sign.”

The city’s contract with the police union expired June 30. Union leaders say a proposed increase in monthly health insurance premiums has been 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 state of contract negotiations. They also began attending City Council meetings to protest the lack of a contract.

The two groups last met July 25, when they discussed the contract for several hours. Adams briefed councilors about that meeting at an Aug. 4 executive session.

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. All criminal charges in that arrest have since been dropped.

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

The investigation seemed to be focused on how the Sun Journal obtained a copy of the police report of Guay’s arrest, according to Syphers.

Richardson said police have nothing to hide.

“We are confident the city’s attorneys will come back with no findings,” Richardson said. “There is nothing to find. But it still seems to have turned into a witch hunt.”

staylor@sunjournal.com