A. Employee organizations receiving a majority vote of all employees in a designated group and management groups shall submit proposals in accordance with § 2.62.050 above to the City Manager no earlier than September 15 and no later than October 15 prior to each budget year.
B. Prior to submission of proposals, employee organizations and the respective management groups shall meet informally to discuss the items contained within each proposal. Attempts shall be made to remedy any applicable items at the department level and/or provide an opportunity for each to express approval or disapproval of the items contained in the proposals in order to assist the City Manager during the Meet and Confer process.
C. All proposals submitted to the City Manager must be in writing and in a form which can be incorporated into a memorandum of understanding.
D. Upon receiving a proposal from a designated employee organization and/or a management group, the City Manager, shall submit a written response to the proposal within 20 calendar days.
E. Within 10 business days from the receipt of the City Manager's response, the employee organization representative, the City Manager, or designee, and management group shall begin “meeting and conferring” at mutually agreed upon times and places in Lake Havasu City, for the purpose of entering into a written memorandum of understanding relating to the proposals. Meetings shall not exceed 3 hours in duration, unless mutually agreed otherwise. Meetings shall continue on a regular basis unless mutually agreed otherwise until an agreement is reached, or impasse is declared by either party. Meeting ground rules shall be promulgated by the City Manager and shall be adhered to while meeting and conferring.
F. The City Manager and the employee organization representative, shall initial all areas of agreement. Those areas not in agreement shall be outlined as areas in dispute. If agreement still has not been reached by January 15, a neutral mediator may be requested by either party. The neutral mediator shall assist the parties to reach an agreement.
G. The neutral mediator shall be from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service or a non-employee of the city that is mutually agreed upon by the City Manager, or designee, and the designated employee organization representative. If an agreement still has not been reached by February 15, a fact finder may be requested by either party from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Standard rules of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will be utilized in the selection, use and payment of the fact finder unless the parties agree otherwise.
H. All issues not previously agreed upon will be submitted to the fact finder for a recommendation for resolution. A public session may be requested by either party. The fact finder shall issue a recommendation to both parties no later than March 15. On or before April 1, all areas of agreement, areas in dispute and still under consideration and the recommendation of the fact finder, shall be submitted to the Mayor and Council for their consideration.
I. Any costs for the neutral mediator and the fact finder shall be equally shared between the city and the employee organization.
J. The Mayor and Council may accept, reject or modify those areas of agreement within the proposed memorandum of understanding or may take whatever action they feel appropriate with regard to any areas in dispute. Final action by the Mayor and Council shall constitute the memorandum of understanding for a budget year.
K. If there is a claim of breach of a memorandum of understanding and the employee organization's existing memorandum of understanding does not provide a process for resolution of the breach, the breach process in division L shall apply. If the matter is submitted for resolution to the Mayor and City Council either through the breach process established in division L or a breach process established in a memorandum of understanding, the decision of the Mayor and City Council shall be final and binding upon the parties and employees.
L. In the event that there is a claim of breach of a memorandum of understanding that the employee organization and the city have been unable to informally resolve, the following process shall be followed:
1. If either a designated employee organization or the City Manager claims that the memorandum of understanding has been breached, the parties shall:
a. Within 45 calendar days of the alleged breach, the party alleging the breach shall give written notice to the party who has allegedly breached the memorandum of understanding. The notice shall specify the provision(s) breached and the facts and evidence demonstrating or supporting the breach;
b. A written response to the alleged breach shall be submitted to the party alleging the breach within 10 business days of the written notice;
c. Within 10 business days of the written response, the parties shall meet and attempt to resolve the matter; and
d. A written agreement which is intended to resolve the matter shall be signed by the parties and submitted to the Mayor and City Council at their next regularly scheduled meeting.
2. If the parties are unable to resolve the matter, all written materials submitted in subparagraphs a. through d. above shall be submitted for resolution to the Mayor and City Council; and
3. The time frames in the subsection can be mutually waived by the parties.
M. The City Manager and employee organizations may mutually agree in writing to modify the provisions of this section as to the identified timelines and parties that may participate in the process.
(Ord. 11-1023, passed 1-25-2011; Ord. 10-1021, passed 11-9-2010; Ord. 04-732, passed 4-13-2004)