A proposed merger of Wauwatosa’s and West Allis’ fire departments cleared another significant hurdle this week as the Wauwatosa Common Council voted in favor of a preliminary list of terms for a final agreement, which now is on track to be finalized in February.
The council’s Dec. 16 vote came after dozens of members of the Tosa firefighters’ Local 1923 union and their supporters packed the council chambers at City Hall for a committee meeting, which had been scheduled before the main council meeting to discuss concerns raised by the union about labor uncertainty in the proposed merger.
The Government Affairs Committee heard from city officials and Local 1923 Vice President Chris Krivitz on some of the challenges facing the city and its firefighters as it considers partnering with West Allis on a consolidated department. The union had demanded written assurances that existing benefits would be preserved, but city officials countered that they were unable to make binding promises for a joint department that did not yet exist. The two cities’ unions also would need to combine as one entity as part of this process.
Krivitz referenced a statement the union released in September saying it was open to supporting a merger process built around “clarity, fairness and respect” to all stakeholders, including the firefighters, and “those sentiments remain true today,” he told the committee.
Krivitz also alluded to verbal commitments made by city official about preserving the union’s current benefits, but he warned that the union had lost trust in the process because of the city’s unwillingness to state that position in what he described as a non-binding “letter of intent.”
Specifically, the union has insisted on four points: that its current members continue receiving their current level of health care benefits, receive full transfer of accrued sick leave and maintain access to health care plans that are competitive or better than other offerings and that the city make a “good-faith exploration of an improved work schedule that supports recruitment and retention.”
City Administrator James Archambo also addressed the committee and said he was receptive to the union’s requests, but the city’s fiscal constraints have made it difficult for the two sides to reach an agreement even in their current contract negotiations. The union has been working without a contract for more than two years, and those talks are heading to arbitration in January.
A merger of the Tosa and West Allis fire departments is intended to create savings that could benefit the union firefighters in various ways, including new flexibility in scheduling, Archambo said, but those negotiations will be in the hands of the new department, which would be set up as a nonstock corporation overseen by a board made up of leaders from the two cities.
“The city cannot legally engage in collective bargaining with a merged department that is not yet created,” Archambo said. That said, he added that during the transition to a merged department the two cities’ unions would continue working under their existing contractual terms.
Wauwatosa, with about 50,000 residents, and West Allis, with about 60,000, are two of Wisconsin’s largest municipalities and the largest cities in Milwaukee County outside of the City of Milwaukee. Tosa and West Allis leaders have argued that the two neighboring cities, in addition to being about the same size, are well-suited for a consolidated fire department because the existing departments also are similar in size and levels of service.
The union’s concerns sparked a lively and wide-ranging discussion among committee members, several of whom affirmed their support for the union and its members while expressing caution about acting in a way that could handcuff city negotiators in future labor contracts for a merged department.
As a kind of middle path, Archambo suggested passing a measure that “acknowledge the concerns” of the union and “recognize the importance” to the union of the four assurances it had requested. The committee voted unanimously to accept Archambo’s suggested wording, which he said would be put in writing by city staff in a letter to the union.
Krivitz asked that the city additionally make clear its “intention” to pursue the union’s four requests, and when the full council later added that language by amendment, the change passed unanimously.
The vote on the overall term sheet for the proposed merger, however, was not unanimous. It passed by a 14-2 vote, with Andrew Meindl of District 1 and Joseph Makhlouf of District 3 restating their opposition to the fire merger as unnecessary at best and, at worst, hasty and filled with uncertainty, particularly regarding how it would affect the union and the city’s dispatch center.
But one of the council’s other vocal critics of the fire merger, Jason Wilke of District 8, voted in favor of the current term sheet after asking the union members present whether Archambo’s compromise language assuaged some of their concerns. By a show of hands, they indicated it had.
After the meeting, Wilke told Tosa Forward News that he still did not support a merger with West Allis’ fire department — and may vote against it when it returns to the committee for further review in January and February — but at least at this step in the process, he appreciated the council’s willingness to respond favorably to the union’s concerns.
Additional information on the merger proposal can be found on the city’s website, including a tentative timeline for final approval at the Feb. 24 meeting of the Common Council. The latest proposed terms and other draft documents that were endorsed Dec. 16 by the Common Council can be accessed here.
- David Paulsen, a Tosa East Towne resident and editor of Tosa Forward News, has more than 25 years of experience as a professional journalist. He can be reached at editor@tosanews.com.
