A Man for All You-Know-What
City Hall chose mass negotiation for expediency’s sake, now a missed target. The policy was about one man who, in the city’s view, was special. In several-times-retired Jack Hoffman, who briefly was the Interim Personnel Director, City Hall believes it has a negotiating ace. Mr. Hoffman, in one of his sort-of retirement phases again, is consulting for the city these days at $125 an hour. His present deal ends when the contracts are satisfied. At the moment, Mr. Hoffman, circumspect as always with his comments, looks like a man for all seasons — summer, autumn, winter, spring and oops, it is summer again. Back to Mr. Raetz, who was peripherally sunning himself on the patio of a popular restaurant. “Strategically,” he said, “the city thought it was a good idea to negotiate with everybody at the same time. The trouble is this has made the decision(s) monolithic. If the city wants something, they want it from all bargaining groups at the same time. For some groups, this has become an issue. For others, it’s not, which probably is why the Fire Dept. settled. Their members were able to agree to a contract much quicker than any other bargaining unit. They had different issues that were more important to them. So they settled faster.
One Size Fits All of What?
“Some very big unions are still left, though, and they have diverse issues. To try and make a monolithic settlement is really hard.” By that, Mr. Raetz specifically meant an issue that has been a sticking point for other unions whereby all union members — especially retirees — pay 5 percent of their healthcare costs. “You may remember that last year when we were talking, my big issue was always retirees, taking care of them,” he said. “For me, this is the No.1 issue. The better we can do for retirees, the better off we will be.” Mr. Raetz was asked if it was a dealbreaker. He smiled. He explained that the union’s response to the city was issued just before he returned to the presidency for the first time since December of ’04. “It turns out,” Mr. Raetz said, “that shortly after my election, the city had backed down from the (Culver City Employees Assn.) on this subject by saying it was a moral issue, which I find interesting.”
