Nahant selectmen approve union contracts

NAHANT – Selectmen unanimously ratified three-year contracts that give raises and/or incentives totaling 9 percent to fire department, police department, and public works employees. But the selectmen otherwise ended the fiscal year quietly on Thursday night in comparison with the last week which saw the failure of a $260,000 override and 17-year Town Administrator Mark Cullinan’s retirement announcement.”It’s a pat on the back to you,” Selectman Richard Lombard told Cullinan of the union contracts. “The unions have gone without raises for a year? and their sticking by us has been huge.”Cullinan reported no changes in the contracts since he presented selectmen with earlier drafts at the board’s May 19 meeting. Members of the fire department and department of public works will receive raises totaling 9 percent over three years while members of the police department will receive a total of 8 percent in raises, plus a 1-percent increase to fund increased education benefits, according to the new contracts. Cullinan said after the meeting that he did not have the total cost of the raises immediately available.The contracts sparked little discussion at the selectmen’s meeting. But at the school committee meeting Tuesday, Superintendent Philip Devaux said that the raises will make it difficult for him to renegotiate teachers union contracts – which are also in negotiations this year – particularly with the failure of the $260,000 override requiring teacher and staff layoffs. However, Selectman Michael Manning said Wednesday that the 2007 teachers union contract had offered raises similar to those to be received by town employees. Thursday night, he added that the unions representing the police, fire and public works departments had, in fact, received no raises in three of the last four years, as Lombard acknowledged he had only considered the contracts’ one-year extension.After the meeting, School Committee Chair Christine Kendall said that renegotiating the teachers union contracts was not “even on the radar” for the board this month. She said other issues required more immediate attention and drily joked, “We have to figure out how to find toilet paper.”The selectmen did address the override result. In opening comments Thursday, each selectman praised voters for their civic involvement and urged the town to move forward and figure out how to best help the school solve its funding needs.The union contracts were negotiated in 2007 and then extended for a year at the close of 2010, Cullinan said after the board’s May 19 meeting. Cullinan said Thursday that the contracts only need to be signed by Town Counsel Charles H. Riley.