Well it's five o'clock.

Um and thanks for everybody for coming.

Um this uh as a special meeting of the um uh civil rights commission and the Davenport City Council.

Um the discussion today is uh the open civil rights positions, um and I'm gonna answer our turn enough to please lead off.

Uh thank you, Owen Guinness.

Um my hope uh is by the end of this meeting we can we have a clear path forward that every uh everyone can agree um with for how to best get these positions filled in the most timely uh manner possible.

So just to kind of back up to kind of where we're at um or where I feel like this is at um is the commission passed uh several new uh I guess positions within the commission for employment um at least last month and then asked um for those to be posted with uh various salary ranges for each one, and those positions are the part-time civil rights mediator, the civil rights intake specialist, the part-time civil rights uh analysts or senior civil rights analyst, the full-time senior rights civil rights analyst, and then a civil rights uh legal intern.

Um the reason so far that these would not uh have been posted is uh I received a question after the city's HR department was in receipt of these about whether or not these could be posted or whether they would potentially run afoul of the current uh CBA agreement with ASME union and chapter 20.

So that's where my kind of legal analysis began.

Um what I'd like to discuss here going forward is um the the path we want to take to best get the commission's uh positions filled at the salaries they wish to have them filled at uh and while still maintaining the relationship with the union uh as the city will continue to negotiate with them on any position within the union um going forward.

So in my research, I felt uh that the new positions tendered were um well, they have different uh breakdowns of responsibilities in terms of this position is responsible for these topics.

Um I felt that there was genuinely uh material overlap with what had previously been approved as positions within the ASV union, and therefore moving forward with these positions with different salaries and not talking to the union would run us a foul of chapter 20 and also uh potentially put us in a grievance uh process with the union over these positions, which could result in if we move forward and fill up the positions, you know, extra positions.

Salaries having to be brought back down to negotiate and rates or um there could be other fines or penalties assessed to against the public employer for violations.

So, in order to try and prevent that, um I would like to know whether I I'm trying to figure out I guess what the commission's position is on whether or not they wish these positions to remain in the union and be part of the union, or and then have to be negotiate salaries having to be negotiated over through either collective bargaining or selling letters in the future going forward in the future, or if the commission wishes because of uh kind of the recent employment clarification that the resolution over the summer did, if they would wish for us to do a unit clarification with the union and seek stipulation to have these positions kind of moved out of the union and therefore no longer be uh bargained positions.

Um that's kind of the the dialogue that the rest director Lacey and I have been having over the past months.

Um I feel like maybe I've not been as super clear, and maybe that's led to some of the breakdown here.

So what I'm trying to do with this meeting is kind of get everybody's opinion or trying to seek the body's opinion on what path forward we can take to get these positions filled in the least risky uh way possible.

Um therefore uh you know getting permission back from the staff so that they can afford their vision.

So I'm happy to answer questions about the current positions or kind of my analysis uh on these things, uh but procedurally.

Um my legal advice here is that we need to work with the union to either seek um these salaries to be changed within the current marketing structure, or to have these to seek stipulation or potentially move even without stipulation for unit clarification so that the and seek them to no longer be within the union.

Um part of council's directions to me have been in this process is to make sure that the commission is kept the breast of this and that they're included in this process and not to act unilaterally, as these positions are their positions, and therefore we need to make sure that they're comfortable with how best to proceed forward.

So that's I guess my kind of opening presentation on this issue.

I'm happy to speak with any of the commission if they have questions, or council would have questions on these issues.

Um I think autumn and cutting.

So when was our last meeting?

Can I real quick just one thing?

I understand that it's being recorded, but perhaps everybody may not be in the recording.

So for clarity of a record, I would like to document who is here from the commission, who is here from the city, both as an elected official and or as an employee.

We can go around the table.

I just want to make sure that that is clearly documented.

I'll start Jasmine Newton, Alder Woman at large.

Right down first of all.

Sam Huff Corporation Council for the City.

Oh, Frank Holly.

Tim Down second rolling.

Tim Galling, Fifth War Alderman.

Etheline Boy.

Jane Burkholder, fourth four dollar woman.

Thank you.

Back to you all the mentality.

That should have been done to begin with, Phil.

I just sorry for the I roll.

But um, when was our last meeting?

I mean the summer.

So June.

So I is it okay, Automar Burkholder, that I say that me and we conversated because from the conversation that me and Audor Warmer Burkholder had the other day.

We were under the impression this is what you said.

You said that you left and um uh director Fleming.

Okay, we're having a conversation with the union.

So my question to you is you keep saying the union, the union, you what did you do as far as your homework from Zoom to now, what kind of conversations did the union have that you feel that this is a question that we shouldn't just be having these ongoing conversations with the union.

So that's why I'm just borrowed steel here.

So I I guess my my position is um that I had was meeting with the union on on several, not really union on several different topics, but when this was kind of brought to our attention, um then the positions at issue were not these, right?

So that's one thing, these positions have changed.

The set first thing, and then the the other thing that changed was the the resolution clarifying compensation being part of the duties and responsibilities of the commission per their employees, and what I felt was very strong uh direction from council that um when it came to positions within the union, the the or we came to this positions in the commission that um even though this if the city had acted in the past um with some input or no input, but going forward, make sure there's always input from the commission and their staff about things that involve their employees.

So that's I guess I did I answer the homework question?

Okay, no, you didn't.

So what I'm asking you is even though these are new positions, yeah.

What kind of communications did you already have with the union that you could have you could have now inserted these new positions?

The only conversation I had with the union is that um I the that potentially there was uh gonna be a request coming from the city uh regarding uh a salary change, and that um I still needed to converse with the commission about that more, and that we and that I would open up that in that conversation once I moved out of the direction.

So that's that's the conversation that I had.