On The Money: Union Business

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Taxpayers are shelling out close to one million dollars each year for Sacramento police and fire officials to conduct union business. It's called "union release time" – and the biggest critics are other unions.

One of those critics is Matthew Hermann, a park maintenance engineer who fixes fountains and other equipment for the city of Sacramento. But he's found what he believes is a leak of taxpayer dollars at city hall.

"We've gone from 150, 160 employees down to about 50 now," Herman lamented.

With layoffs hitting hard, Herman and other members of Local 39, Stationary Engineers from the City of Sacramento say tax money is being wasted by allowing city police and city fire officials to conduct union business on taxpayer time.

Under a collective bargaining agreement, city firefighters are given 4,000 hours a year of what's known as union release time. The police get nearly double that at 7,580 hours, to conduct union business – at a cost to taxpayers of $924,000 a year.

The cost of union release time triggered strong reactions from Local 39 members.

"That million dollars, "said Parks and Recreation worker Kevin Calhoun, "I could use that million dollars in recreation right now. Trust me. We are in desperate need of money right now in recreation. "

Budget cutbacks have affected everything from swimming pools to library hours and many union members say 'enough is enough'.

"We're paying police officers and firemen to attend city council meetings?" Diane Boerman questioned out loud. Boerman, a member of the Sacramento Public Library Authority told CBS 13, "And to promote union business on taxpayer dollars? It's wrong."

Gerald Ward, another member of the Sacramento Public Library Authority added," They're spending a lot of money to make more money for themselves and in effect taking money away from other services."

Under the collective bargaining agreement, the Sacramento Police Department is allowed to release up to five full time officers each year for union business. How do they justify it? They contend the agreement actually saves money for taxpayers.

"We don't file lawsuits like we have in the past," stated Brent Meyer, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.

Meyer told CBS 13, "We don't have the disagreements that we've had in the past, because we have a seat at the table."

As for firefighters, the union vice president brushes off criticism from Local 39 – by pointing out he's pulling double duty.

"This is my second job," noted Jaymes Butler, Vice President of the Sacramento Area Fire Fighters Local 522.

Butler added, "I pull 56 hours a week in my fire job. And then I pull another 40 hours a week doing union work. So any time they want to step up and work 96 hours a week - I welcome them."

The Stationary Engineers have their own union leaders who are not on the city payroll. But the city workers say when parks and other services are suffering, "union release time" is a luxury Sacramento can no longer afford.

"We conduct our business, it's all on our time," said parks worker Matthew Hermann. "We don't get paid to do it. We do it on our time. We conduct business with the city council on our time."

The collective bargaining agreement with the fire department expires in January 2012, while the police union contracts runs through June 2013.

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