BOE contract talks with union spill into new year

BY DANIELLE MEDINA
Correspondent

BRICK TOWNSHIP — Board of Education members recently extended the contract of its professional negotiator, since talks with the district’s Transport Workers Union are about to go into the new year.

“I’m sure all parties would agree that it’s going slower than we would have liked and we all expected to be further along than we are,” said board member John Talty. “But there are a lot of issues out there that we need to get resolved.”

The board unanimously reappointed Anthony P. Sciarrillo, of the Westfield firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, at the Dec. 13 board meeting. He will be paid $145 per hour, not to exceed another $6,000.

The firm has already been paid $22,000 under the terms of the original appointment, which was made in August.

The TWU has been working without a contract since their last three-year agreement expired June 30. Any future agreement that is reached will be retroactive to July 1.

Despite the negotiator’s price tag, Talty said it has been worth it having him on the talks with the TWU, which began in September.

“There are so many laws involved in contract negotiations in the public sector,” Talty said. “By having a negotiator, he tells us what we legally can and can’t do, so we don’t waste time and money.”

If the district can make significant changes to an area of the contract that will save a lot of money, then the expense will have been worth it, Talty said.

“Sometimes you have to spend money to save money,” he said.

Talty estimated that the board has met with representatives of the TWU about half a dozen times. Each meeting lasted between two and three hours, he said.

Although Talty was reluctant to comment on specific issues holding up the negotiations, he did say that there were “language issues in each side’s proposals” that they were working on.

“After we get through those, we can get into the meat of the issues,” Talty said. “The people deserve to get a fair contract as soon as possible.”

Talty doesn’t think the district’s upcoming audit of the transportation department is an issue.

“Even though a lot of other districts do it, our intention is not to privatize the department,” he said.

The board voted unanimously to hire Transportation Advisory Services, a New York-based consulting firm, in November, to conduct the audit at a cost not to exceed $15,800, after a number of complaints from parents.

“We just want to run the organization more effectively,” he said. “The auditor will be looking at routing, overtime sports runs, and making sure the buses are as full as possible.”

The auditors have already begun their work and have the district’s data on the department. They will start interviews with board members, central administration, transportation supervisors and employees in January.

The district should have the recommendations from the transportation audit before it begins its preparations for the 2007-08 school budget, he said.

The district’s next contract negotiation meeting with the TWU is scheduled for January.

TWU Local 225, Branch 4 represents 450 bus drivers, food service and cafeteria workers, groundskeepers, maintenance workers and clerical staff.