City Council - Ways & Means Committee Hearing on Dockets #1967-1970

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, awesome.

Worrell, District 4 City Councilor, and I'm the Chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means. Today is November 24, 2025. The exact time is 2.03 PM. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being live streamed at boston.gov backslash city-council. Dash TV and broadcasts on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and Fios Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.wm at boston.gov and be made part of the record available to all counselors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on in with the order which they signed up. We'll have two minutes to testify. Public Testimony.

If you wish to sign up for public testimony and have not done so, please email our essential staff liaison, Charisma Shohan at k-a-r-i-s-h-m-a dot c-h-o-u-h-a-n at boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list. Today's hearing is on multiple dockets as follows. Docket number 1967. Message in order for your approval in order to reduce the FY26 appropriation for the reserve for collective bargaining by $6,750,000. To provide funding for the Police Department, the FY26 increases contained within the Collective Bargain Agreement between the City of Boston and the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association. DOCUMENT NUMBER 1968 MESSAGE AND ORDER FOR SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION ORDER FOR THE BARZA POLICE DEPARTMENT FOR FY26 IN THE AMOUNT OF $6,733,196

to cover the FY26 cost items contained within a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Boston and the Boston Police Patrolsmen Association. The terms of the contract of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. The major provisions of the contract include a base wage increase of 2% and a 1% increase to hazardous duty differential. The contract also contains reforms relating to police performance evaluations and will require officers to wear name tags. Document number 1969. Message in order for your approval in order to reduce the FY26 appropriation for the reserve for collective bargaining by $506,452 to provide funding for the Boston Public Health Commission, with the FY26 increases contained within the collective bargaining agreement between the Boston Public Health Commission and the SEIU Local 888. Program Collective Bargaining Unit.

Docket number 1970. Message in order for supplemental appropriation order for the Boston Public Health Commission for the FY26 in the amount of $500 $6,452 to cover the FY26 cost items contained within the collective bargaining agreements between the Public Health Commission and SEIU Local 888 Programs Collective Bargaining Unit. The term of the contract covers October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2027. The major provisions of the contract include base wage increases of 2% along with flat dollar weekly increases totaling to an annual increase of $500, $200, $550, then $500 to be given in January of each year of the contract term. The agreement also includes amendments to the longevity slash career awards and reclassifications on lowest paid employees.

These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu who will refer to the committee on November 19th, 2025. Today, I'm joined by my council colleagues in order of arrival. Fitzgerald, Councilor Weber, and the Vice Chair of the Committee, Councilor Pepén. I'll now turn it over to the administration panel for them to introduce themselves and to provide any information or their presentation. The floor is now yours.

Thank you Chair Worrell and Councilors Fitzgerald, Weber, and Oh, and Councilor Pepén, my own City Councilor. Thank you for taking the time today. My name is Jim Williamson. I just tried to hear the City of Boston. I'm joined by Renee Bushey from the Office of Labor Relations, Lou Mandarini, who is a senior labor advisor to the mayor, David Sussex is from the Labor team at the Boston Public Health Commission, and John Wilton from the Boston Police Department, the Labor group, and I'm not sure if you're rank, John Brown from the Boston Police Department. And so we appreciate this opportunity to talk about

These four dockets and their implications for the city budget. As you just talked about in your introduction, dockets 1967 and 1968. move $6.7 million out of the collective bargaining reserve into the Boston Police Department's budget to fund The contract between the city and the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association in dockets 169, 197 move $506,000 out of the collective buying reserve into the Boston Public Health Commission budget to cover the union contract between PHC and the SEIU programs budget.

As was approved in the FY26 budget as finalized in June 2025, it included a $102.7 million collective bargaining reserve in aggregate. There have been five collective bargaining agreements that have been approved by the City Council so far this fiscal year, totaling $58.5 million. And with these four additional supplementals that total $7.2 million, The City Council has approved, will have approved $65.8 million with the review and approval of these last four dockets. With that, I will turn it over to anybody on the city panel if they want to make a statement or we can go right into questions.

Hi there, Councillors. Lou Mandarini here, Senior Advisor to Mayor Wu for Labour. I think we will mostly defer to the councillor's questions about the substance of the agreement. I'll say a couple of things up top. This is a one-year agreement, so This is essentially something that we have done here to catch our breath, to make sure that our largest police union remains under contract. I think this is the kind of thing that we want to be doing in the administration. We had a lot of stuff sort of stacked up. We sort of stitched it all together and did a one year agreement here, but I know it's sort of traditional to do three and four year agreements and The nature of this is that there are large periods of retroactivity where we subsequently settle and then go back and pay our workers. We really don't care for that. And aside from the fact that we've had to settle every contract in the city essentially twice in the first term,

This is something we really want to target now that we've got the contracts in a pretty good place, is to sort of do stuff like keep people under contract with one-year deals and this kind of a thing. It's something that we really want to promulgate. As we move forward, it's very important, we think, to keep our workers paid and make sure that they have raises at regular intervals. So that is the nature of this agreement. This is the nature of this one-year agreement. Again, we'll leave the opportunity for counselors to ask substantive questions. I won't get into that, but just wanted to give you some sense of the overall panoramic view of what we're doing here.

Thank you. Now we'll go to Councillors for questions. We'll go to Councillors in order of arrival, starting with Councillor Fitzgerald. When you see me pop back on the screen, that means your time is up. Fitzgerald, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair. Appreciate it. And thank you to everybody from the administration, Boston Police. I'll be here today. You know, I support the one year contract and understand the importance of bridging sort of Not going without a contract for too long of a time. And so, Lou, I appreciate what you said, and I think that's a good way to go forward with these contracts. I have a question about timing for it, because I think fair negotiations were made on both sides to get this done, but it being one year. I'm thinking about the schedule ahead, and do you guys know Sort of what you have as getting the next three year, four year, whatever deal comes up, multi-year deal, when that will be negotiated by?

Well, I think there's a couple of things I think that impinge on this. We have to finish the other one-year contracts with the other three bargaining units. So we have the detectives, detective superiors, the Superior Officers Federation. That will impinge on when we start again. And then I think, you know, just in fairness, a lot of the police unions are going to look at what happens with Local 718. You know, they may want to start or they may want to sort of figure out what happens with that if we go to arbitration. This is a long way of saying there are a lot of balls in the air to know when we would I would say that our goal, I think, is to take the holidays off and start as quickly as possible in the new year if we can. So that we have a fighting chance of getting most of this done by June 30th of 2026 when this contract will expire. And also, even if we don't, at least we'll have a lot done toward another contract.

Again, the other three contracts for this one-year deal, what is the fate of Local 718 and arbitration and all that, these are things that we need to sort of figure out before we go, but it is our intention essentially to stay at the table after taking a break for the holidays.

That sounds great and I would hope so because I know there are some pieces of negotiations like education and things like that that we would like to see sort of in this next one but I think a lot of people might be affected Given it, if you even were to negotiate it by a certain time, having it go into effect for folks who have the education piece to allow them to actually not wait a whole another year before they are allowed to, you know, use it to their advantage.

I'm aware of the problem you're highlighting and it is uppermost in my mind and you and I have had an exchange on that and I fully intend to honor what I promised.

I appreciate that, sir. Thank you very much. Other than that, I think it was a good job. And again, appropriate differences on both sides were made. and I'm glad that we have this going forward. It's nice to see it come together quickly, which all contracts could sort of follow the same timeline, but looking forward to the multi-year one and appreciate this gap, this bridge. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. The Chair recognizes Councillor Weber. Councillor, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. and thank you to all the panelists for being here and you know for the City workers, representatives for getting these negotiated and done. I guess just following up on that last point for Lou, you know in terms of like one the one year you know this being out of the norm here i mean it i guess in general like is that or does that give like you know one side or the other an advantage uh next time you like you know if you're going if the payment is going up and then you get a shot at like two quick bumps in short succession i mean that That seems to be the concern with the short-term contract.

Well, I mean, I would say that this is, I mean, certainly this is approved by our finance folks, so Jim is representing from that cabinet today, but I mean, I think that this is a manageable contract as against all the other contracts that we've settled. I mean, I think this is a reasonable one. We're not going to sort of overdo it. Whether the duration of a contract is four years or three years or one year, we're not going to bankrupt the city and do things that don't make sense. That's just never going to happen. Our finance folks closely look at all of the proposals, fly spec everything, and do a good, close, thoughtful analysis. So I don't think the duration affects the problem you're talking about, but... It's certainly something we can concentrate on when we move forward.

Okay. And then just And I apologize if this is just a couple of dumb questions for you, Lou. And I don't know what the difference is between this contract and the prior one on a couple of different points. So for details, it says the detail pay may overlap with regular shift pay by a maximum of two hours. Is that different than the current contract? And then can you just explain that to me? Essentially, if you sign up for a detail two hours before your shift ends, that's how I read that.

Now, I'm going to date myself a little bit with this reference, but can I phone a friend? I'd like John Wilton to... Take This, who was very helpful in negotiating this contract and has the essential details of how the detail system works much better than I do. You just get one of those each hearing.

So this is your phone a friend.

Councillor, it is a change from the last contract. We expect it to have a very minor effect just on people who work Office Shift, because now all details will be scheduled to conform to the regular contractual shifts. Most officers work 7.30 to 4, 4 to 11.45, and 11.45 to 7.30. So that is a change, but it's going to have a very, very small effect.

Okay, just a default, does that mean if I work a shift from, you know, whatever it is, like noon to seven, that I can sign up for a detail that starts at five? Before the end of my shift that I'm working?

As long as the detail is still available, but it is unlikely to be available at that time.

Okay, thank you. The other one. was just to compare this to on the sick time redemption and retirement. It just says, you know, now, It could be 40% of unused sick days. I just, I don't know what the current contract says. Do you know what Bill?

I can tell you that. So there was a little bit of a gap here that developed between the various four bargaining units and the police. We have the BPPA and then the detective unions. I think I'm correct about this, but somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. They had the ability to sell back 200 days at 40%. and then the Federation, which is sergeants, captains and lieutenants, had the ability to sell back 260 days at 40%. So this is essentially about better equalizing uh what happens between our largest police union with respect to this and the other unions that you know the union with 1600 members the union that most people interact with when they deal with the police in the city overwhelmingly by a factor of 4, 5, 6, 7 to 1. It was just closing the gap on what the rank and file patrolman could sell back versus the other units. That's what that is. So it's making it a little bit more equitable between the four unions.

Okay, thanks a lot. I guess going into, well, I mean, have you looked at the numbers for overtime spending for last fiscal year? You know, going into next contract. I mean, is it correct to say there's nothing in this contract that would lower overtime spending? Just looking at... I don't think that's correct, no.

Actually, Councilor, yeah, the expansion of the summer vacation periods, it spreads out the number of summer vacation periods across More dates. And so you have less people off at any one time. So in the case of a district of 112 patrol officers, You would expect to have 14, you would expect to have 14 now it's 14 off at any one time but prior to this it would be 16 off at any one time so it reduces the replacement hours replacement overtime during the summer months

Councilor, I would I would add to on the sick time buyback. So a phenomenon you see at the end of, you know, officers careers is that they'll sell back what they could sell back, but then use a lot of accrued unused sick time. which has a cascading effect of people being brought in to cover on overtime and all of that kind of a situation. The ability to sell back this time means less time gets used at the end of an officer's career. We're having less requirement of bringing people back on mandatory overtime to cover that. So that's another thing that potentially gets it overtime too.

Okay, well, thank you. Again, just my last quick question, Chair, on the 888 contract. Just in terms of other than the pay bumps, what else can... If I'm looking at the wrong version of this, sorry. Anything else you want to highlight in that contract that is...

Oh, sorry, Dave. Dave Susick, that's for you. It looks like we're crossing over here.

Sorry. You've already over-accented your window. Of course, David, anything you want to highlight for what this provides for our AD88 workers?

Yes, thank you. In addition to the general wage increases with which Chairman Worrell went over at the beginning, we've also focused on reclassifying some of the positions, particularly focused on the lowest paid positions. So all of the employees in the lowest two grades are being reclassified as part of this agreement. We also agreed to an employer funded legal services plan, which One of our other units has and a number of other city units has. And we also made some adjustments to the longevity award program to bring it in line with one of our other contracts.

Okay. Okay.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilor Pepén. Councilor, you have the floor.

Hey everyone, thank you Mr. Chair for hosting this space and thank you to everyone for being part of this. One, I'm just very glad that we are close to just reaching an agreement with another contract for our hard-working City of Boston Police Department. Something that I prioritize a lot and I want to ask about is are there any protections for the police officers mental health and any time regarding taking time off if they need it because of mental health needs?

Included in this contract is 30 minutes of workout and meditation time. on a regular shift based on operational need. So we're hoping officers will be able to take that if they need to decompress a little bit during a shift.

And that's per shift? Or can they also take like a day or certain time frames or et cetera?

The 30 minutes is four times a week on their regular shift. But if they need time off, we certainly They do have certain different times to use, and we have a very, very good peer support unit as well.

Okay. I appreciate that. We just had a hearing the other day of the work that the police officers do with responding to contact. They have to go with the best team, the BEST team, and just learn a lot about the things that they go through. So I wanted to make sure that this was part of it. I also wanted to know that through the process were we able to identify any savings or efficiencies as a result of a new contract for the City of Boston?

I would say that the one that I'm looking forward to the most is the summer vacation expansion. Reducing the number of people off on summer vacation during the summer when we have the most amount of replacement overtime costs will hopefully, it's designed to reduce overtime.

Reduce overtime. Okay, that's good. We're heading in the right direction there. Very good. Okay, thank you for that, John. Maybe this is a question for Lou, or maybe even the chair. In regards to timing, are we the council restricted on timing on when we need to pass this? Like do we need to listen to this in the next city council meeting? Can it go to the next year or like are we looking for a quick turnaround here?

I'm looking to bring this up for a vote at the next council meeting.

Perfect. That sounds good. Then I'm glad we're having this hearing here. I'm glad you guys answered all of the questions. Some of my colleagues already asked the other questions that I had. So, Mr. Chair, that's it for me. I'll yield the rest of my time.

Thank you. The chair recognizes Councilor Flynn. Councilor, you get the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the police and administration team that's here. Was there anything in the contract relating to Any language relating to military or veterans, that's an issue I've worked on for eight years and want to see how we're supporting veterans. or retired military that are on the police, is there anything in there that is supporting them in their unique situation?

if I may, there was nothing in the collective bargaining MOA specifically dealing with that. However, we did as an administration roll out a change to The amount of time that veterans can have on Veterans Day. Glad to brief you separately about that. That actually relates to all city workers. All veterans in all of our unions. So if we could seasonably update the record to give you the details on that, that is something we rolled out on Veterans Day that was very much targeted to exactly what you're asking about.

Thank you. Can you explain to me the increase is basically 2%? Is that accurate?

It is not. 2% is the wage or the cost of living adjustment. And then there is a 1% that is going into hazardous duty. That's a differential that everybody in the bargaining unit gets. So it's a 2% plus that 1%.

Okay, 3%. Okay. One of the issues I've focused on is Supporting police officers and giving them time off with their families. In my opinion, we don't have enough police officers in the city. Police officers are consistently working 16 hours a day. But how does this contract support police officers and their families in ensuring police officers have the ability to work their shift and then go and support their families, whether it's taking their kids to after school programs, sports programs, But the forced overtime is still a concern for me, and I'm going to continue advocating for hiring more police officers in the city.

So my question is, yeah, okay.

No, go ahead. Yeah. Councilor, there's the 30-minute workout time we would hope would allow officers to de-stress, work out in mental health. and Meditation per shift. There's nothing in the contract that would prohibit required overtime, but we are

Yeah, but John, my concern is when a police officer is working their shift, their eight-hour shift, At the sixth hour, they have another two hours left in their shift. Then they're called by their supervisor and that they have to work an extra eight hours. Even though they have to take their kid to an after-school program, they have to take their kid to a tutoring program. That's unfair to me. That hurts morale. I believe it impacts physical health. I believe it impacts mental health. It's not good for the city either. Am I describing that accurately, John?

I believe you are a counselor and we do take it seriously. We don't like requiring overtime. There are times when it might be necessary based on the staffing levels. I don't know if Deputy Brown. You might have any input on anything here on the staffing.

Well, just relative to the For the overtime, yeah, I mean, I think that the vacation, the new vacation will definitely help, especially in the summer, because those are the times we have the most requirements when we need offices around. and relative to the 16 hours I mean a lot of the overtime that is done is it's definitely volunteered while we do have the Different responsibilities that we have to cover and do we do have to order just going back to this vacation time and kind of spreading out this time like this. I think it's definitely going to be very helpful moving forward with the vacation period numbers the way they work out. I think we'll be kind of heading in the right direction anyway.

Well, that's a top priority for me. is hiring more police officers to address this issue. And I just can't accept that police officers are working 15, 16 hours a day and it's impacting their families. As city councilors, we have the ability to take time off to be with our families should other city employees enjoy that same option that we enjoy. I think the answer is yes. I can't justify that when I have the ability to do something and then a fellow city worker doesn't have the ability to do something. That's unfair to me. and I'm going to continue fighting for more police officers in the budget even though my colleagues on the City Council may not support that. I think we desperately need to hire more police officers, 200, 300 police officers every year consistently for the next 10 years. That's what I believe.

Can I add one thing, Counselor? Yeah. I think as a technical matter, There is what we can and can't do in a collective bargaining agreement. So I think it's just worth saying that things like staffing, minimum staffing, are not subjects of bargain. This is actually not something that we can solve in a collective bargaining agreement. I just want to say that for the record. I understand where you're coming from. That does not in any way detract from the importance of what you're saying. As a technical matter, I think it needs to be said.

I understand that, but I live in a neighborhood and represent a district that has a lot of police officers and they talk to me all the time. about these challenges that their family experiences. And I can't sit here as a city councilor and remain quiet. That's not my job. My job is to fight for city employees. I think it's unfair that police officers are working consistently 16 hours a day and they're not able to take their kids to an event. They're not able to spend time with their spouse because at the last minute they were called to work on another shift. That's what I believe. I believe we have to be consistent, be fair, be respectful to these fellow city workers, and they're our neighbors. They're our youth sports coaches. They're active in the community, and I think they're asking for a little bit of respect from us.

Let me ask one more question. What will the impact of this contract And I think one of my colleagues mentioned it. What will the impact of this contract have on services and support, mental health services and support for police officers and their families? What's in there?

The 30 minutes of workout and mental health time per regular shift we believe will help with mental health and de-stressing. We also have, as I mentioned, a very, very good and dedicated support, peer support unit up in the chief's office. that is there to help and assist with anything that any officer might be going through.

Thank you John.

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I have no further questions.

Thank you, Councilor Flynn. And I just want to also just say that, you know, the Council has funded for 200, what I'd like to say, super classes. What we have heard from the police department in the past is that they're not able to get the 200 recruits, but we are actively funding for these super classes and it's all about recruiting. The chair now recognizes Councilor Murphy. Councilor, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. I'm going to turn my camera off. A few things. Yes, we have supported the funding for up to 200, but I do believe that as these contracts get stronger and A more favorable, more people will apply and we will have enough offices applying to then wanna fill these classes. So it is directly related, even though it's not the language or what's part of a collective bargaining, but staffing levels will definitely be improved if more and more people see that The union leaders are fighting hard to get better contracts for their workers so just wanted to say that everything is kind of connected there. John, can I ask you a few questions about Vacation time?

Of course, Councilor.

Yeah, so there are how many vacation days does a patrol officer get?

It depends on the amount of time that they have.

Seniority?

Seniority, yes. I believe they start with 15 and it goes up to 25.

Okay, and so if you're starting out and you have 15 vacation days, do you have any sick days or is it all considered?

Yes, you do have sick days as well. It's kind of interesting from a labor perspective. The base sick time and vacation time is actually derived from statute for police officers, not the contract. And then The contract augments the vacation time slightly. It adds a week here and there based on seniority. But sick time is derived solely from statute.

And it's in addition... How many sick days a year do you get when you start out?

I believe it's 15, Councilor.

So 15 vacation plus 15 sick days per year?

Um... It's 15 sick days per year. I believe it's 15 vacation, but it depends on when the officer is on. Yeah.

Okay, but it's close. Like, yeah. Yeah, well, I don't need exact numbers. And how many of, if any, of the sick days carry over and how many of any vacation days carry over each year?

Sick days always carry over but vacation days expire at the end of the year that you're allowed to carry over up to two weeks until January 31st and then they expire for police officers.

Okay, so have we, I might know the answer, but I want to ask, have we ever, because of staffing shortages, have to deny The Office's vacation time and then not give them the opportunity to use days that then expire on them that they're not able to carry over.

Well, Councillor, I will say that we do deny vacation, especially, you know, single vacation days near to the end of the year or at... Times when the staffing need is there in the summer months. But we try very, very hard not to allow any vacation time to expire for officers. I'm not aware of any instance where it has happened, but I know we do deny vacation in specific circumstances.

Okay, and are you ever allowed to deny sick time?

I suppose if there's a question on whether the sick time is being abused perhaps, but in general, no one denies sick time.

OK. And what are the stats of a officer's cumulative Vacate days that do carry over, sick days at the end. How many offices have more than, you said you increased it, but it was 200. How many hours can they now cash out at 40% at retirement?

They can now cash out 250 days, Councilor.

And it had been 200?

Yes.

And the reason I'm assuming you increased it is because there were many offices who were True? Not true?

I think it was a proposal that we agreed to. It was a proposal put forth from the union. I'm not really, I can't speak for them as to why they put it forward.

And is there a reason, do you know? And maybe someone else. And I know I asked you, but if anyone else on the call has answers too, I don't want to make you think you're the only one, but I know you probably know these answers. I mean I was a school teacher those years and our days could accumulate as many as you wanted and many teachers like offices work you know decades of service and there was never a limit of how much you should you could cash out so it just seems counterintuitive that we offer these days and then at the end we take them back and not pay them out for it because you know you can argue that taking the day is a hundred percent and cashing it out like the city does save 60% when they are cashing out at the end. So if maybe for the record, if we could find out if there have in the past been or if anyone from the Patrolman Union knows that answer.

We've ever had officers retire and forced to not be able to cash out all of their days that they've earned.

We'll be glad to supplement the record, Councilor.

Is there a difference between sick time and vacation time? Vacation time is something you're given and we never take away. Sick time is something that we hope nobody's ever sick and they never have to use it. No, I understand, yeah. Between those two types of days?

No, I totally understand the difference, and I also understand which ones carry over and which ones they can't. like I don't know it's probably changed in the last five years but you know we would get 15 sick days three personal or four personal and three would carry over I mean there's always certain ones that you lose but Yeah, if we could find that out, it would be interesting to know. That would be helpful. And... John, you mentioned, and I'm happy to hear that there's 30 minutes per day for either physical, mental support, help. Physical, I'm assuming, is at a gym or working out. Does every station? Have a gym for the offices to access?

Yes, it is my understanding that every district station has a gym, headquarters has a gym, the academy has a gym. I don't know, Deputy, am I missing any?

No, to them in the gym right now, as a matter of fact, over here. Yeah, everyone has a gym. I know some of the gyms in around the city have also been upgraded recently. So, yeah, they do have the opportunity. There is a location at every station, including headquarters. And I know a lot of guys go over to the academy as well to use the gym there. So, yeah, there's plenty of gym facilities available.

Councilor, if I could add one more thing. There is currently, prior to this MOA, patrol officers had to pay a fee to use these gyms. We're actually waiving that now. So the use of the gyms is going to become free. That fee is going away. and the city will do the outfitting and the maintenance of those gyms directly.

And do our SEIU, I hope EMT also, but call takers have free access to those gyms also?

They do not. That's not in their collective bargaining agreement.

Maybe we can fight for it, knowing that they have high stress level also. Okay, my colleagues have asked a lot of, I don't want to ask redundant questions. I think I have all the questions I want on the record, but thank you, Chair, and looking forward to voting in support of this at the next council hearing. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Yes, all of my colleagues have asked a lot of the questions I have here. But there was a change at the bottom of page one of the MOA around The detail system describes that all details would now be type one over type two. And I believe that the civilian flag of details and would love to try to get an update on the status of the system being stood up. But I believe the civilian flag details only previously only for type three details. No? Okay. Can you talk about the change and then how that affects the civilian flag system?

Yes. So type one and type two details were enshrined in the last contract that we reached in December of 2023. So setting up the idea of prioritization on the details we need covered. The change here is that it adds a few more things to type one. So specifically, we have some garages that are very close to large sporting facilities. This has been an immense problem around the TD Bank North Garden of people sort of getting in and out of these garages that are very close to large sporting events. This is specifically providing that those are a type one and that the garage can get a detail to help get people in and out. I think one of those is on the Rose Kennedy surface greenway too. So that's a change that provides more opportunity. But the thing that I think you're asking about, Councilor, the role for civilian flaggers is limited to traffic control, but it doesn't make a distinction between Type 1 and Type 2.

When we get that system stood up, they can do traffic control under either type one or type two. We have been doing a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes standing up this project. It's been Slow going, but there are two distinct contracts that we've bid out that are relative to getting the project stood up. There is the technological aspect of it. We've hired a company from North Carolina that won the RFP called Extra Duty Solutions. and going back and forth with them for the better part of the year, developing the app. that will sort of show how the details cascade through the police and everybody else as they sign up for them. And then the second one is the actual hiring of the personnel. That's an RFP we put out in the spring. It was won by the Ed Davis Company, and we've been Going back and forth with them about how to ensure that as employees they're getting various employees are getting all of the benefits that

We're looking for we made we specifically provided in that police contract in December 2023 that the contractor would hire employees and then they would have all the benefits that come and all the protections that come with being an employee as opposed to a and independent contractor. So we've been going back and forth with that with the Ed Davis company to set it up. We anticipate progress shortly, but we're essentially reshaping a detail system that's existed as it has for 50 years. Speed is the enemy of precision and effectiveness. I hope that is enough of an update and answers your questions, though.

It does. Thank you. And then you touched on this in previous questions. I guess it might be for Jim. Can you talk about like the impacts or the effects, you know, contracts, you know, the BPPA being one of the largest unions have on our city's pensions obligation? And then when you're negotiating contracts, how does the city account for pension and OPB obligations?

That's a great question, Councilor. It doesn't like immediately directly impact the bench schedule, but when our revaluation is done periodically, the wage growth Not just the BPPA, but all city wages are factored into the liability calculation. It does, it will influence the cost of pensions.

All right, then my last question is for on the local 888 contract. Can you talk to me about, and I'm assuming your wages, but any other benefits with the reclassification from Public Health Advocate to Coordinator 1?

Yes, so the In addition to the general wage increases, we've done a series of reclassifications as part of this agreement. They're focused on the lowest paid, lowest graded workers. So, There's multiple titles who were affected by that in the lowest two grades that we use. Those folks are being upgraded. Then at the In one of our particular programs, one of our bigger programs, Healthy Baby, Healthy Child, we're changing the staffing mix there a little bit. We have We have a number of titles, both clinical titles and outreach titles. So we're going to change the mix of that a little bit where we're going to switch from

not just using public health advocates but using program coordinators which we can get a little bit more from in scope of work and so some of those public health advocate we call them public health advocate twos that's the higher of the series are going to be reclassified as coordinators with a job description change and some scope of work changes as well.

Thank you. Thank you. for answering all of our questions. Thank you for your hard work to come into this agreement. We'll now go to public testimony. And my understanding is that we have one person signed up for public testimony. For those testifying on Zoom, please accept the message asking you to be promoted to the panelists when it appears. We will go to Jamie, a union rep for the BPPA. The floor is now yours. Oh, I don't see Jamie in the room. Mr.

Chair, I don't think that Jamie is here. Yep, I'll see him. I will let you know if I see him again.

All right. Well... As we wait to see if Jamie's in the room, does any of my other colleagues by the show of hands, virtual hands, have any additional questions for the administration?

Councilor, can I just note one more thing that we haven't talked about at all in this and it just occurred to me? One of the big things that we got out of this and why I would call this the second reform contract in a row We did not dwell for a moment on the subject of name tags. That's been something that the city has been after for a very long time is to get patrolmen wearing name tags so that when our residents have interactions with the police, you know, that whole thing is It's much easier to sort of engage with a name than a badge and a number and all of that. So we consider that to be a very significant part of this package and one bit of unfinished business that we're particularly glad we were able to accomplish.

Yes, thank you for that very important step in this contract. Just got word that Jamie will not be testifying. So again, thank you to my council colleagues, IGR, central staff, the administration for all your hard work in the BPPA to get into a contract. And with that said, this hearing on docket numbers. 1967 through 1970 is adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.