Closed Session (8)
Public Comment
From:Heather Fuller
Sent:Tuesday, February 9, 2021 12:09 PM
To:Public Comment
Subject:Comment on Closed Session Item re: AFSCME MOU
Please give consideration to the request for an MOU being made by the Confidential and Management employees
belonging to the AFSCME union. We are all working hard to keep the city running during these difficult times, even
knowing that because of the financial difficulties faced by the city, we had to stop negotiating the raises that our
members deserve and have so patiently been waiting for. I worked here during the last financial crises and took a pay
cut at that time that put me in financial difficulties that I have not fully recovered from. Now I see all the other
employees in the city continuing to get raises but I get nothing and it is getting harder and harder to meet the rising cost
of living. Knowing that the city would have trouble with raises, we are asking that we be given a promise to not have
furloughs or layoffs of even more staff. Not only would furloughs reduce our ability to get work done in a timely manner,
but it would be like getting a pay cut, which is adding insult to injury after being left out of the rounds of raises that
everyone else has received. We are already working with a smaller workforce than it takes to run the city efficiently. To
reduce the workforce even more through layoffs or the amount of time the smaller force would have to get necessary
work done through furloughs would be asking too much of a workforce already stretched thin and not being given
adequate respect for the work that they do.
Heather Fuller
Confidential Unit
AFSCME member
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