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City of Cranston v. International Brotherhood of Police Officers2/11/2005
DECISION
On June 2, 2003, the City of Cranston ("City") repealed two ordinances, one which provided pension benefits for retirees of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local 301 ("Union" or "Local 301"), entitled Ordinance 96-56, and one which provided pension benefits for retirees of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1363 ("Union or "Local 1363"), entitled Ordinance 96-54. The International Brotherhood of Police Officers, through their Union, challenged the repeal of Ordinance 96-56 as a violation of their collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") and arbitration ensued. Similarly, the International Association of Fire Fighters, through their Union, challenged the repeal of Ordinance 96-54 as a violation of their collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") and arbitration ensued. Upon return of two arbitration decisions favorable to the Unions, the City seeks to vacate these arbitration awards. Jurisdiction is pursuant to G.L. 1956 ยง 28-9-18.
Facts and Travel
Local 301
The City and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local 301 are parties to a collective bargaining agreement that commenced on July 1, 2002, and that will remain effective through June 30, 2005. The CBA contains the terms and conditions of employment of police officers employed by the City, including the pension benefits to be provided to them upon their retirement. In addition to the CBA, the City has also codified in ordinances the pension benefits to be granted to officers upon their retirement.
At the arbitration hearing, former Mayor Michael Traficante ("Mayor Traficante") testified that fiscal instability in the City's pension plan began to build during the 1980's as a result of a massive unfunded liability in the plan caused by the failure of the City to properly fund it over a period of many years. That instability caused several of the City's bond rating agencies to warn that the City must address the unfunded pension liability, with an eye toward resolving it, or risk a lowering of the City's bond rating. In response to that pressure, the City requested that Local 103 renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement that had already been agreed to by the parties and was to remain in effect from July 1, 1994 through June 30, 1997. The parties, however, failed to execute a collective bargaining agreement prior to June 30, 1997, which would have superceded the terms of the contract already in effect through that date.
Notwithstanding the failure of the parties to execute a new contract as a result of their concession bargaining, on November 25, 1996 the City Council enacted Ordinance 96-56, which amended the benefits contained in the prior police pension ordinance. In addition to incorporating provisions of the previous pension ordinance, the new ordinance provided that certain officers who retired from the police department between July 1, 1995 and June 30, 1996, were entitled to receive a severance payment of $500.00 per year of service upon their retirement.
Moreover, Ordinance 96-56 also included a new provision, which provided that, in years in which active police officers received a salary increase of less than 3%, retirees would receive a minimum automatic increase in their annual pension payment of 3%. This provision modified a pre-existing benefit pursuant to which the City was required to pay to retirees an automatic increase in their pension payments equal to the salary increase received by active police officers.
At the arbitration hearing, Anthony Capezza, Jr., a former police officer who retired from the Cranston Police Department on January 6, 1996, testified that, beginning in the
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