THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF NORTHFIELD CENTER TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE PAUL G. BUESCHER
~ KEEPING NCT RESIDENTS INFORMED SINCE 2005 ~
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#464 THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
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A REPORT and COMMENTARY ON THE EVENTS INVOLVING THE TERMINATION OF THE
NORTHFIELD CENTER-SAGAMORE HILLS FIRE DISTRICT
BY: Paul G. Buescher – September 15, 2016
In December, 2015, the AFSCME union notified the Northfield Center-Sagamore Hills Fire District that it received authorization from the firefighters to represent them in efforts to unionize the District. In early 2016, we hired attorney, Mike Harvey, a labor specialist, to work with the Fire District’s current attorney, Jeff Snell, to work together to represent the District in negotiations. Our one and only scheduled meeting with the union was held on January 27, 2016. Then, on March 14, 2016, we received a letter from the Sagamore Hills Trustees informing us of their six-month notice to leave the Fire District and contract with the City of Macedonia. The Sagamore Trustees claimed that they were doing this for financial reasons. We were all stunned by this especially since attorney Jeff Snell, who was supposed to be representing the whole Fire District, apparently negotiated their Macedonia contract without notifying or even consulting the other half of the District – The three Northfield Center Trustees!
Despite several attempts on our part to persuade them otherwise, it became clear that their decision was nonnegotiable and final. We worked feverously towards a less expensive counter offer to Macedonia’s proposal but that was rejected almost before the ink dried. We were now resigned to the fact that the Fire District would end on September 14th.
In the meantime, the union was demanding that we negotiate a full contract with them even though the District would cease to exist in September. At the same time, we had to make some quick decisions on what to do to provide Fire and EMS services for our residents beyond the September 14th deadline.
The City of Macedonia sent us a basic proposal to contract with them but we wanted more options so we began soliciting proposals from Northfield Village and the Valley Fire District (Peninsula & Boston Twp.). Once all of this became public I began hearing from many residents, some of whom were in favor of contracting with another community. The majority at that time however, wanted us to resurrect our Northfield Center Fire Department. Even the majority of those who spoke at some public meetings were in favor of the Fire Department.
At this point we could have done what Sagamore apparently did by saying to hell with what the people say, let’s just contract with Macedonia and be done with it. We felt otherwise because a large number of residents felt so strongly one way or the other that the only fair and democratic way to resolve this would be to let the people make the decision. We immediately directed the District’s CPA, Jim Honsberger, to crunch the numbers to determine the cost of resurrecting the Department and to provide the CURRENT level of service provided by the District. It was eventually determined by Mr. Honsberger, Chief Risko and other staff members, that we would need an additional 4-mills to add to the current 2-mil levy to accomplish this. We knew that this would probably go over like a lead balloon with the residents but at least THEY would be given the opportunity to make this epic decision.
Since the District would end on September 14th, we would be left without any legal or certified fire and ems coverage unless we decided to contract with another community or resurrect our own Fire Department – Both of which would cost much more than our current 2-mil fire levy was providing. To allow the residents the opportunity to decide the future of our fire and ems services and to ensure that we had a clear direction in which to pursue our options, we HAD to put the issue on the August 2nd special ballot as opposed to waiting until the regular November election, which would have been too late.
We had a legal deadline of May 4, 2016, to put the levy on the August 2nd ballot at a cost of $7,000. This deadline and the cost were mandated by the Summit County Board of Elections. On April 25th a vote was taken with John Romanik and I in favor and Rich Reville opposed. “Issue 3” would now appear on the August 2nd ballot. This simple act of giving the people a democratic choice in their future Fire and EMS coverage ushered in the most controversial and divisive issue that this Township has likely ever witnessed.
John Romanik and I came under fire almost immediately by some individuals for “raising taxes” and either not looking for or ignoring other options. We didn’t raise one cent in taxes and what options? The District would end on September 14th with no other options after that except for bypassing the people and just end it all by contracting with another community. That was NOT going to happen on my watch!
I fully understood and expected the opposition to the high cost of the levy but what I did not expect and still do not understand to this day was the unrelenting personal attacks against us in NewsLeader editorials, on social media and at the many public meetings that we conducted throughout most of the summer. Why would anyone with any semblance of intelligence, understanding and respect, personally attack their elected representatives for being so transparent and providing the opportunity for the people to participate in the democratic process involving such an important decision?
The attacks were brutal and were prompted by some of those opposed to Issue 3 when they packed meeting audiences with their people in an attempt to intimidate us, ridicule us and insult us. At our May 23rd public hearing there were over 60 people in attendance who witnessed for themselves one individual who none of us knew at the time, disrupt the entire hearing by going ballistic yelling threats and cussing at us and audience members. This same individual harassed people at the polling place on election day. Why was this happening in our small and peaceful Township?
If that wasn’t enough, the union added to their ridiculous demands by insisting that we now negotiate “effects.” We didn’t even know what that meant until our attorney had to pry it out of the union after numerous attempts to learn what they wanted. We finally learned that the union now wanted us to guarantee jobs and seniority standing in a Fire Department that does not exist and might not exist if issue 3 failed. Remember, we never signed, let alone negotiated, a contract with the union yet they were demanding that the Fire District make a binding decision on the staffing of our nonexistent Northfield Center Fire Department! The District had no authority to do this, especially when you consider that half of its Board members were the three Sagamore Hills Trustees.
Throughout the summer, those opposed to Issue 3 and those for the issue formed their own respective PACs (Political Action Committees). This resulted in hundreds of signs popping up all over town and the residents being bombarded with thousands of flyers. What most people didn’t know during this same period of time was the extent to which John and I were working with Northfield Village and the Valley Fire District to negotiate their proposals. Unfortunately, we heard little to nothing on any negotiations that might have been taking place between Macedonia and Rich Reville. And very few knew about the scores of meetings and the hundreds of phone calls and emails involving our fight with the union. We were also deeply involved in negotiations and inventory work with Sagamore Hills involving the division of the Fire Districts’ assets. We spent MANY MANY hours in these negotiations and associated work yet most of the details were confidential and attorney/client privileged and could not be made public. This is why my frustrations boiled over at some of the public meetings that we conducted when Russ Mazzola, who desperately wants to be a Trustee and former Trustee and attorney, Al Lepri along with several clueless individuals, continuously ridiculed and chastised us on just about everything that they could think of without waiting to discover what was actually occurring! There were even demands made of me to cease publication of my popular emailed TrusteeBuescher@aol.com newsletter because of comments from residents who exercised their First Amendment rights. That’s NOT going to happen!
The attacks were just as bad on social media where some of these individuals spread absolutely false and deceptive information through seemingly endless innuendos and outright lies. What troubled me the most, to the best of my knowledge, not one of these people ever attended a single Fire District meeting during its six-year existence and yet they attempted to project the false illusion that they knew it all.
Resident and Issue 3 opposition leader, Lou LaGuardia and his ‘army’ of 50, accurately reported on the high cost of resurrecting our Fire Department at the CURRENT level of service. However, they neglected to inform the public as to the true cost of contracting with their favorite pick, the City of Macedonia.
Mr. LaGuardia’s literature and electronic signage led folks to believe that the Macedonia agreement would only cost $375,000 per year. What he and his people neglected to state was the fact that the $375,000 figure was for PERSONNEL ONLY. All other costs, including but not limited to; building and vehicle maintenance, fuel, utilities, insurance, supplies, radios, etc., would be additional expenses conservatively estimated at around $120,000+. That brings the true and actual cost of this agreement to nearly $500,000 – A half-million dollars per year! After deducting ambulance billing receipts (approx. $80,000) and revenue from our current 2-mil fire levy ($313,000), we would end up with deficit spending in excess of $100,000 per year.
We have approximately $1.2 million in our Northfield Center fire fund, which is money set aside for capital improvements. With the projected deficit spending of over $100,000 per year, this fund will dwindle quickly without any source to continue its funding. Consider the fact that a new fire engine costs around $500,000 and a new rescue squad around $200,000. How long do you think that fund will last considering the fact that we already need a new squad? Now you know! This is why we warned everyone prior to the election that if Issue 3 failed, we would still need another levy estimated at around 2-mills. We were accused of using “scare tactics” on this ‘little’ and ignored tidbit of information. Really? And I didn’t even include the “additional costs associated with an increase in call volume” and “the additional cost of wage and step increases” negotiated with the Macedonia Firefighters’ union! These are a few of the exact non-negotiable quotes from the Macedonia contract that WILL cost Northfield Center taxpayers much more throughout the life of the five-year contract.
Again, at the same time that all of this was occurring, we were dealing with another headache brought on by the union. Ohio law specifically prohibits the formation or continuation of a Fire District with less than two communities. A child could understand this but the AFSCME union and S.E.R.B. (State Employment Relations Board) who collectively have shown a less than desirable degree of intelligence, did not. The union filed an “Unfair Labor Practice” charge with SERB against the Fire District and SERB accepted it even after numerous responses from our attorneys. The case went before a so called ‘fact’ finder who ruled, in a 77-page report, 99.5% in favor of the union. The bias shown against the District was so thick you couldn’t cut through it with a high powered laser!
On August 2, 2016 (Election Day), Issue 3 was soundly defeated with only 32% of the Township’s 4,022 registered voters participating. To me this was a dismal turnout for such an important issue but the ‘majority’ spoke and we now had a much clearer direction in which to proceed.
The Fire District was never its own taxing authority. Instead, the District separately billed Northfield Center and Sagamore Hills each month for its operating expenses. On August 17th, in order to comply with the equipment mandates of the contracts with Macedonia, the Fire District Board divided all the Districts’ assets. The vehicles were retitled to both individual communities and then leased back to the District until September 14th. This left the District with NO ASSESTS, which protected the vehicles and other equipment from any liens that could have resulted from any union and SERB actions against us. This was another huge and time consuming behind the scenes undertaking that very few people knew about until now.
As time continued to drag on, John and I focused hard on our negotiations with Northfield Village and the Valley Fire District. Unfortunately, and for reasons still not fully understood, both communities eventually withdrew from the process leaving Macedonia as our only contractual option.
It doesn’t matter whether you plan to negotiate a personal, business, union or public service contract, you ALWAYS look for options to enhance your negotiating position. And that’s exactly what John Romanik and I had been doing all along. For the past few months several of our critics kept demanding “apples to apples” comparisons on the proposals that we were working on. In this case we worked together with Chief Frank Risko and formulated exactly such a comparison to counter Macedonia’s proposal. We proposed a downsized resurrection of our Fire Department, which was actually less expensive than Macedonia’s. Even though this proposal was a viable one, in reality it was only a negotiating tool.
Since we still did not have an actual draft contract from Macedonia (after six-months), it was our intent to use this new proposal as a tactic to prompt a response from Macedonia at our scheduled August 24th work session. I should note that this work session could have legally been held in executive session since it involved contract negotiations and attorney/client privileged matters. However, I wanted it open to the public so that everyone could see and hear for themselves what was transpiring. Thankfully, my fellow Trustees agreed.
Once again, when word got out about our new proposal, we were blasted on social media for “going against the will of the people” and a host of other snide and ignorant remarks being passed around.
Anyway, our tactic worked as witnessed by the packed audience attending that August 24th session. I made it very clear at that meeting that since we still did not have a draft contract from Macedonia, the ONLY option on the table that we could discuss was our new proposal. Macedonia Mayor, Joe Migliorini, who was in the audience, suddenly produced a contract. Since we just received it I objected to even discussing it since this was the first time that we saw it and could not study it.
Several audience members began shouting their demands to have us discuss it. One Neanderthal even shouted “F*** You Buescher!” During this chaos, the Mayor stated that his contract was “Identical” to the contract they signed with Sagamore Hills. I jumped right into this because both John and I spent considerable time during the past month independently reviewing the Sagamore contract and found at least a dozen areas of concern that we discussed with our lawyer and had ready at hand. Once I stated this the audience calmed down and listened as John and I brought our concerns to light. We spent the next hour discussing these concerns with the Macedonia delegation and our attorney. Once some changes were agreed upon and we received acceptable answers to our questions, we were satisfied. It was clear at this point that we were in favor of accepting Macedonia’s proposal as amended, and that we would act accordingly once we worked out the final draft. The people apparently understood and agreed to what we just did because right after we adjourned, they erupted into applause.
On September 6, 2016, our attorneys met in Columbus with the union and SERB to mediate the unfair labor practice charge against the Fire District. Unless we came to some kind of settlement during this mediation, we could face the possibility of lengthy and very costly litigation with the possibility of the case going to the Ohio Supreme Court. In the end we (the Fire District) agreed to pay each member of the Fire District one thousand dollars ($1,000) which would make ALL union issues and SERB charges “Go Away.” Call it what you want but it was the least expensive way out of this mess. On the brighter side, this could be viewed as a type of severance pay for our Fire and EMS personnel! This cost will be split 50/50 with Sagamore Hills. Unfortunately, the total cost for this entire union matter, including attorney fees and the aforementioned ‘pay off’ will end up costing the Fire District nearly $50,000!
On September 7, 2016, with 23 residents in attendance and little fanfare, we finally signed the contract with the City of Macedonia. At noon on Wednesday, September 14, 2006, a nearly 100-year legacy and tradition came to an end. Following the mandate of the people of Northfield Center, the City of Macedonia has now assumed all fire and ems services. And although we are entering into uncharted territory, I feel at this time that Macedonia Fire Chief Tim Black and his fine department will provide our residents with the professional and timely services for which they are well known.
SUMMATION
This was a summer of pure Hell for many of us. The fire issue pitted neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend and some residents against some members of the Board of Trustees. None of this should have happened but with human nature as it is, it was inevitable. The primary purpose of this report/commentary was to detail the who, what, when and why behind our decisions and the tactics used to address and finally resolve this contentious issue. Another reason was to vindicate ourselves from the onslaught of all the undeserved criticism prompted by those with clear political agendas or simple ignorance of the facts.
Emotions ran high on BOTH sides and I was no exception. The job of Trustee is supposed to be part time but for the last six-months it was everything but that. Contrary to popular belief, every move and every decision was carefully thought out and planned. In retrospect, some of the criticism that we received was perhaps somewhat justified due to the fact that we could not share or divulge much of the information that we had at the time or the negotiating tactics that we employed. The personal attacks however, were not justified and being as human as the next person, I occasionally lashed out at some of the nasty personal insults and redundant criticism that I received, especially from the same people over and over again. I am not apologizing to those on the receiving end of my responses because I truly believe that they deserved it. I AM apologizing to those who had to witness this, especially at the few meetings where some shouting matches occurred.
My sincere hope is that this report will clear up some of the confusion and misinformation that involved the FIRE / EMS issue. I’ve done my best to document all of the relevant events and to show everyone that we ALWAYS had the best interests of the residents in mind during every step of the process. I also hope that the critics out there can finally see the light and come to the same conclusion.
NOTE 1:As promised, I have now released all 92 (24.8MB) individual confidential documents involving this issue to the Townhall. All requests for copies should be made to our Administrator, Sam Ciocco at the Townhall.
NOTE 2: https://nordoniahills.news/vics-corner-the-changing-of-the-guard-in-northfield-center/
Link to photos taken at yesterday’s “Changing of the Guard” at the Fire Station
NOTE 3: My regular newsletter will resume next week
