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Record of Proceedings

Personnel Committee Meeting - July 30, 2026: Rejection of WPCA Collective Bargaining Agreement Fails

Board of Representatives — Thursday, July 30, 2026

BodyStamford, Connecticut

SessionBoard of Representatives

DateThursday, July 30, 2026

StatusFILED

Video Record

0:00 / 36:41

Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it

0:01

This is the uh July 30th meeting of the personnel committee of the 32nd uh Board of Representatives.

0:10

It's 7.01 p.m.

0:11

I'm Chair Carl Weinberg.

0:13

I'll start by taking uh a roll call of our of the committee members.

0:19

Uh so please um you're in attendance.

0:26

Um uh Virgil Taylor Cruz.

0:37

Well, I take it you can hear the echo also.

0:43

I think I'm going to ask uh Barbara to come back.

0:51

Well we got to mute your mic when you're not speaking.

0:57

Mute, Virgo.

1:14

Okay, can you hear me?

1:20

I can hear you.

1:21

Oh interview before, Virgil.

1:24

Why for some reason or other I was signed twice, and there was an echo.

1:33

Okay.

1:33

Well, I think it's good now.

1:35

Yeah.

1:56

Okay, let's continue taking the role.

1:59

Um Theo Gross.

2:02

Present.

2:03

Thank you.

2:04

And you will uh um uh Bobby Pavia.

2:08

Present.

2:10

Thank you.

2:10

Maureen Pollock is excused.

2:13

Our Curtis Salas.

2:15

Present.

2:17

And I am here.

2:19

So um uh six or seven committee members present.

2:24

I hereby declare a quorum.

2:27

And let's see if there are other, I don't see any other uh ex officio any ex officio members of the board in attendance.

2:36

If there are, please unmute yourself and let me know.

2:42

Okay.

2:43

And uh we have uh as best as I can tell, we've one invited guest online, and that's Paula Russell, uh director of HR for the city.

2:52

Welcome, Paula.

2:57

Thank you.

2:58

And uh let's move on to the business at hand.

3:02

We have one item on the agenda.

3:05

It is P32.01, a rejection item of a rejection of a collective bargaining agreement between the City of Stanford Water Pollution Control Authority and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30.

3:23

Um this was submitted by uh by Miss Ms.

3:27

Russell.

3:28

Uh we also received a positive advisory opinion uh by the Board of Finance.

3:34

Um and with that, uh Ms.

3:37

Russell, would you like to take us through the materials?

3:40

Sure.

3:41

Good evening, board.

3:42

Thank you for having me tonight.

3:44

So before you is the tentative successor collective bargaining agreement between the City of Stanford and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30, IUOE 30 WPCA for short, and that represents the employees within the water pollution control authority, also known as WPCA.

4:04

Um, in summary, this is a three-year agreement that covers um July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028, and it covers approximately 26 employees within the WPCA bargaining unit.

4:17

Just to give you a brief history about this particular unit.

4:21

This unit consists primarily of skilled operational employees who are responsible for maintaining and operating the city's wastewater treatment system.

4:30

Their compensation is generally modest and relative to like the other um city bargaining units.

4:38

So moving over into the economic terms of this agreement.

4:41

The agreement does provide for general wage increases of 2.75 effective July 1st, 2025.

4:47

So that would be considered retroactive.

4:49

Then we have a 3% increase effective July 1st, 2026.

4:54

And then finally, a three another 3% effective July 1st, 2027.

5:00

The economic terms before you, they were negotiated to maintain consistency with the economic framework that we that was actually previously approved by the board for the IUOE highway or operations bargaining unit back in September of 2025.

5:17

One approach that we have is that we want to maintain a consistent bargaining pattern among similarly situated bargaining units, and that was really important for us and as a very important objective for us during the negotiations.

5:31

And it also is a way for us to promote equity across comparable employee groups.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting

Personnel Matters█████████████████████████████████████████████74%

Procedural██████████16%

Pension Benefits████7%

Health and Human Services██3%

Summary of Proceedings

Personnel Committee Meeting - July 30, 2026

The Personnel Committee of the Stamford Board of Representatives met on Thursday, July 30, 2026, at 7:04 PM (adjourned at 7:38 PM) to consider a single agenda item: the rejection of a tentative collective bargaining agreement between the City of Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) and International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 30. After discussion, the motion to reject the agreement failed by a vote of 0-6-0, meaning the agreement is accepted by default.

Discussion Items

Overview of Collective Bargaining Agreement: Paula Russell, Director of Human Resources, presented the three-year agreement covering approximately 25–26 employees at the WPCA. Key economic terms include:
- General wage increases: 2.75% effective July 1, 2025 (retroactive), 3% effective July 1, 2026, and 3% effective July 1, 2027.
- Health insurance premium contributions: increase from 18% to 18.5% effective July 1, 2026, then to 19% effective July 1, 2027. Projected additional employee contributions of $13,182 over the final two years.
- Retirement: For post-2011 employees not in the defined benefit pension, the defined contribution plan match remains at 50% but the maximum employee contribution eligible for match increases to 4% in FY2026–27 and 4.5% in FY2027–28. The city’s matching formula does not change.
- Health insurance waiver: phased out for future employees; current participants grandfathered.
- Management operational improvements: clarified work scheduling, voluntary shift swap procedures, overtime eligibility after sick leave, updated probationary language, and CDL requirements.
Committee Questions:
- Vice Chair Pavia asked about shift start time reporting and grace period (7-minute grace period confirmed).
- Representative Gross asked about standby pay definition and retirement plan structure (401a equivalent).
- Chair Weinberg clarified opt-out requirements for health insurance and noted only 4 of 25 employees currently opt out. He expressed concern about high family health insurance premiums (over $50,000 annually under the state partnership plan). Director Russell committed to sharing a soft market check report from the city’s broker, Lockton, with the committee.
- Discussion on the retirement match assumptions (worst-case scenario of all employees contributing at the new max) and vesting schedule (progressive vesting, details in contract).

Key Outcomes

Motion to reject Item P32.011 (rejection of the CBA) was made by Rep. Hill, seconded, and failed by a vote of 0-6-0. All six committee members (de la Cruz, Gross, Hill, Pavia, Salas, Weinberg) voted "no" (against rejection), with Rep. Pollack excused. The agreement is therefore accepted.
The meeting adjourned at 7:38 PM.

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