Currently, our staffing is 14 officers short, and there are 18 officers prepared to retire in 2024 as a direct result of this retiree healthcare issue. –Wauwatosa Police Officers Association

The Wauwatosa Police Officers Association says the department is expected to lose another 18 officers in addition to the 14-officer deficit the department is currently experiencing if city officials go ahead with efforts to keep police retiree healthcare language from an already negotiated contract.

The city’s “attack” on retiree healthcare benefits continues despite a judge’s ruling and a recent law signed by Gov. Evers involving a relevant Racine case, a union email to aldermen said. The email puts the blame at the feet of City Administrator James Archambo.

The Wauwatosa Police Department, after two more people leave in two weeks, will be at 96 officers out of 110 authorized positions. If the department loses 18 more, it would be down to 78 officers.

Typically during contract negotiations between municipalities and unions, retiree health insurance benefits are included in those talks.

The email also raises questions about how much money the city is spending on attorneys’ fees.

The union said the city’s action is “driving a police department to a complete staffing crisis. Meanwhile we enter our third year without a signed contract.”

“Morale at the department has been crushed, it has cost us tens of thousands of dollars, and made staffing the department an ongoing and soon to be worse problem,” the union says in the email, obtained exclusively by WRN.

To boil it down, the City has refused to comply with a judicial decision relating to Racine that established precedent in favor of the police, as well as a bi-partisan legislative fix that was signed by Gov. Evers, the email says.

The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) had “issued a decision dealing with retiree health insurance in Racine that impacts the rights and benefits afforded to law enforcement officers and firefighters throughout the state,” according to a May 2023 press release from the Wisconsin Professional Police Association.

According to WPPA, the WERC declared “that retiree health insurance is a prohibited subject of bargaining, it concluded the same for contractual provisions dealing with dependent and survivor health care as well. Most disturbingly, the Commission reached that conclusion by ruling that a public employer has no duty to bargain over the existence of a health insurance plan.”

A judge disagreed. The Legislature fixed the issue in favor of the police. Evers signed the legislation. But, according to the union, the City of Wauwatosa continues to proceed as if the fixes never happened, stripping the healthcare benefits for retirees out of the contract.

“The WPPA believes that this decision is completely unfounded. The statutes clearly state that public safety unions have the right to bargain over the employee premium contributions associated with health insurance,” the WPPA news release said of the WERC decision, which stemmed from a Racine firefighters’ grievance.

According to the Wauwatosa police union, the situation is dire.

“We have had to raise our union dues 100%, while we get a 1.5% wage increase on January 1, 2024.  Currently our staffing is 14 officers short, and there are 18 officers prepared to retire in 2024 as a direct result of this retiree healthcare issue,” the union says.

The email from the Wauwatosa Police Officers Association to aldermen explains that the WPOA filed a still-pending lawsuit against the City back in March over the issue. The lawsuit contends:

1. The union and city negotiated and signed a tentative agreement for their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for 2021-2024, which had been approved by the union membership and the Wauwatosa City Council.
2. However, City Administrator Jim Archambo and Attorney Jim Macy unilaterally removed the retiree healthcare and vesting language from the contract because it was their opinion that a WERC ruling in Racine allowed them to do so, which prompted the lawsuit. This was language that had been negotiated by both parties over the years. (WRN asked Archambo why Macy’s services are necessary when there are already two attorneys on staff and has asked for a record of Macy’s invoices through an open records request.)
3. Immediately after the WERC ruling, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) filed a lawsuit in Dane County. Additionally, a group of bipartisan legislators also recognized the absurd ruling of the WERC and immediately began working on legislation to clarify the language of 2011 Acts 10 and 32 that the WERC had misinterpreted. That legislation were bills AB120 and SB120 which Gov. Evers signed into law as 2023 WI Act 34 on 10-26-23. The union believes it should have taken care of the matter in Wauwatosa.
4. On Oct. 30, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Frost vacated the improper WERC ruling.  In his decision, he ruled “that WERC incorrectly interpreted the statutes, violating bedrock principles of statutory interpretation and rendering an absurd result contrary to the statute’s plain language. Because the remainder of WERC’s decisions as to the RPA and IAFF Local 321 rested on WERC’s improper statutory interpretation, I vacate WERC’s
   decisions in their entirety and remand for WERC to review the grievances and
   apply the correct statutory interpretation as set forth in this Decision.”
5. According to the email, the City has refused to comply with Frost’s decision and the newly signed law.

The Email from the Wauwatosa Police Officers Association to Aldermen

Here is the email in full:

Dear Alderperson,

As you probably know, the WPOA filed suit against the City back in March (attached).  The basis of the lawsuit is that AFTER we had negotiated, settled, and signed a tentative agreement for our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for 2021-2024, which was approved by our membership and the Council, City Administrator Jim Archambo and Attorney Jim Macy unilaterally removed our retiree healthcare and vesting language from the contract.  They did so because it was their opinion that a WERC ruling in Racine allowed them to do so, which prompted our lawsuit.  This was language that had been negotiated by both parties over the years.

Immediately after the WERC ruling, the WI Professional Police Association (WPPA) filed a lawsuit in Dane Co.  Additionally a group of bipartisan legislators also recognized the absurd ruling of the WERC and immediately began working on legislation to clarify the language of 2011 Acts 10 and 32 that the WERC had misinterpreted.  That legislation were bills AB120 and SB120 which Gov. Evers signed into law as 2023 WI Act 34 on 10-26-23. (links below)

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2023/related/acts/34

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2023/proposals/sb120

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2023/proposals/ab120

Then on 10-30-23, Dane Co. Circuit Court Judge Frost vacated the improper WERC ruling.  His ruling is attached, and the second paragraph and conclusion are really all that needs to be read.

We thought that with these two events, the City would return the language to our CBA, we could drop our lawsuit and all move forward.

Unfortunately this hasn’t happened. The City has refused to comply with Judge Frost and the Legislature and Gov. Evers.  Morale at the department has been crushed, it has cost us tens of thousands of dollars, and made staffing the department an ongoing and soon to be worse problem.

We have had to raise our union dues 100%, while we get a 1.5% wage increase on January 1, 2024.  Currently our staffing is 14 officers short, and there are 18 officers prepared to retire in 2024 as a direct result of this retiree healthcare issue.  We encourage you to speak with our chief and command staff about the impending staffing crisis.

Attorney Jim Macy is the winner in all this.  For a city with two highly skilled attorneys on staff, this ongoing battle only serves to rack up billable hours for outside Attorney Macy.

We are only asking that you take a very close look at how much money is being spent on this outside attorney.  While at the same time, driving a police department to a complete staffing crisis. Meanwhile we enter our third year without a signed contract.

If it was the Council’s intent to have the City Administrator and Attorney Macy attack our benefits to the point that you have an inadequately staffed police department, please let us know so we can relay that to our members.

Please reach out to us with any questions.  We, along with the Police Supervisors Association (PSA), would be more than happy to sit down and meet with you about this and other issues.

Respectfully,

Dan Trester – WPOA President

Ryan Schwabenlander – WPOA VP

Bryan Wade – WPOA Treasurer

Tony SanFelippo – WPOA Secretary

John Milotzky – WPOA Member at Large