Tentative labor agreements between the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and its employees will be available for review by the public at least 15 calendar days before the district board votes to ratify or reject them at a public meeting — a significant change in the “sunshine” practices of the district.
The district board voted 4-1 on Tuesday, Dec. 16, to adopt the policy introduced by board member Peter Carpenter, who maintained that the district’s practice of making the terms of tentative agreements available to the public only days before ratification was inadequate.
Board member Rex Ianson voted against the policy, raising concerns about changing the district’s practices during the middle of current negotiations, according to board President Bart Spencer.
Mr. Spencer said he shares that concern, as do several other board and staff members. But in the end the board majority accepted the staff and legal counsel’s recommendation to approve the policy “to allow for adequate review and comment by the public prior to final board action” on labor agreements.
The labor negotiations will still take place behind closed doors; the policy changes only the length of time the terms of a tentative agreement, which will have already been reviewed by members of the firefighters’ union, will be available for public review.
John Wurdinger, president of the Menlo Park Firefighters’ Association, said the new policy won’t require that things be done “that much different from how we’re doing it now,” because the information has been available weeks before the board has ratified agreements. “This is just putting it in writing,” he said.
Mr. Carpenter noted earlier this month, however, that although the information might technically have been available, it was unlikely that a member of the public would know when a tentative agreement had been reached, and the district hadn’t made that information public until just days before board ratification, when it published the meeting agenda.
He said he would push the district to make a vigorous effort to inform the public about the terms of the tentative agreement during the 15-day “sunshine” period, including posting it on the district’s Web site.
Mr. Wurdinger said the discussion at last week’s meeting about public access to information had an unexpected side benefit. The firefighters’ association, he said, has been asking the district to post the ratified labor agreement between the district and unrepresented employees — including the fire chief and top officers — on the Web site for about two years, to no avail.
But when, during the meeting, association vice president Mike Sweeney requested that the information be posted, Mr. Carpenter questioned why it wasn’t on the Web site, Mr. Wurdinger said. The agreement has since been posted, he said, “and we’d like to thank Peter Carpenter for that.”
He said the represented employees’ contracts have been posted on the Web for many years.
The employees represented by the Menlo Park Firefighters’ Association have been working without a contract since June, and have been in negotiations with the district since early this year.
Menlo Park changes?
Spurred by Mr. Carpenter’s efforts, Menlo Park Councilman John Boyle submitted a letter to the City Council, calling for more transparency when the council meets in closed sessions.
He offered a number of options to discuss at a future meeting, including making more information available to the public after closed sessions, within the limits of what is legally allowed.
The issue was discussed at the council’s Dec. 16 meeting, and the council agreed to add it to the list of possible topics for a future study session.
