Politics
Collins gives sneak preview of Wednesday’s State of County address
By Lee Chowaniec
Apr 1, 2008, 16:25

In one of his several conference calls / meetings held today, County Executive Chris gave attendees a glimpse of what to expect in his State of the County address on Wednesday.

Collins stated that tomorrow he would be reviewing the last ninety days and to reconfirm his commitment to the taxpayers and voters that his focus on the future is to ensure the economy is growing; namely, being in a growth mode and not continuing to experience the decline we have seen over the past forty years.

He will also report to the county residents that the momentum is shifting making this area a more business friendly community by running the county like a business – which was the slogan of his campaign.

Savings from six-sigma / common sense approaches

Collins declared, “The naysayers and skeptics that said, “I don’t think this is going to work,” have come to realize that our actions of the last ninety days have proven we can and are running it like a business.”

“We are uncovering savings at every turn by bringing a business discipline and finding we don’t need to spend money in certain places, like eliminating over one-third of the cell phone use and saving $150,000 per year.”

Collins declared that the six-sigma program, the forefront of his campaign, is now a reality with the funding from the control board and approval by the Legislature to move it forward.

He declared that rank and file county workers are even excited by the six-sigma program by the thought of the empowerment and training that goes along with the program.

“We are hiring the best and the brightest and I am happy with the Commissioners we have on board now. We have quality professionals running each and every department of county government which allows me to step back and deal with economic development.”

Collins spoke on working with the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, inviting the Seneca Nation for the first time to be part of the economic development team and promoting myriad cultural heritage programs.

He declared that by focusing on wasteful programs his six-sigma program and the asking of common sense questions has uncovered millions of dollars of cost savings. "That money could be redeployed into repairing infrastructure, roads, bridges, parks and the campuses at ECC North, South and City."

RPT Program

Activist Russ Thompson remarked that he thought that the Regular Part Time (RPT) employee program he has instated was a good idea and why others had not thought of it in the past.

Collins replied that it had been considered but not acted upon. ‘Any time you bring about change, you get a lot of kickback. We did get a lot of resistance and rationale why every employee needed to be full time.”

He added that as they went through the process it became clear to those who misunderstood the intent; namely, if those holding a job today with full benefits got a promotion, that “we would chop them in half.”

“I am hoping that through union contract negotiations to deal with those issues. No current full time employee will be pushed to “regular part time.” This will apply to new hires coming in, and if they don’t want the job they can turn it down.”

Thompson verified that some are under the impression that current employees would have their hours cut. He also brought up the discussion that took place on WBEN’S Hardline with Hardwick show regarding the offer by the Mentholatum corporation to do voluntary parks work and to erect a swing set that they would purchase.

The union challenged such offer by their declaring it would take work away from county employees. Thompson found that as disturbing as when the unions fought against people who collect social services actually doing some community service work.

Collins responded that that is still true today. The “Welfare to Work Rules” for people on welfare, there are many cases where an able-bodied individual could be working 35 hours a week. However, the county is very restricted as to where they can send those individuals, and what they can do, because the unions say that the minute they do something that is protected under the labor contract, they will file a grievance.

Those individuals are now going into places where the union has no bargaining contract – like Dunn Tire Park, Olmstead Parks, etc.

Union contracts

“It’s a shame to put a stick in the eye of a corporation that wants to celebrate a twenty year anniversary by doing some good for the community,” Collins voiced. “I have assured Mentholatum that they could go along with this, especially having received a 15-0 approval vote from the Legislature.”

“At some point the unions have to understand that they are going to alienate the entire community and that doesn’t bode well for them when they’re at some point where they want to argue for some sympathy from the community; where I may take a hard stance on something and they disagree.

Collins reiterated that they are using common sense approaches that appeal to the community. He declares this is an appropriate time to address contract issues considering many of the union contracts have run out. “They have not received raises in some time and the longevity increase are next to nothing.’

With everything going up in cost, Collins believes that union workers will be pressuring their union leaders to negotiate a good fair contract that gives them a wage increase. At that time, Collins says he will be insisting on private sector type benefit packages to go along with those wage increases.

He stated that the Taylor Law and Triborough amendment will work on his side in that the employees will not be able to go on strike, have labor slow downs and other things that otherwise could be done absent those laws.

According to Collins, the irony here is that the Taylor Law and the Triborough amendment will help him negotiate new contracts, where now he is now willing to live with the existing contracts in place, where there are no wage increase, as long as he is in office.

Collins is willing to negotiate wage increases but is looking for benefit and “entitlement” concessions; sixteen weeks off versus the private sector six weeks, most of it coming from paid lunches and the summer hours.

"These would be minor givebacks, but equate to seven weeks per year. Then we could look at the sick days, holidays and personal time days to reset the table to look like the private sector.”

Collins declared that when people in the private sector learn of the benefit packages county employees received they are stunned.

Lee Chowaniec interjected that he had recently written a couple of articles on what unionized Town of Lancaster and School District employees receive in salaries, longevity pay, in hospitalization / dental / vision plans, in retirement payouts and clothing allotments.

He was equally surprised at the feedback he received from residents in the private sector who felt exploited in having to pay for the aforementioned salaries and benefits that exceed their own.

Collins responded that he believed time was on his side to make change and protect the taxpayer; especially considering the reverse advantage presented him by the Taylor Law and the Triborough amendment.

When asked about his take on Authorities, Collins responded that there is a common thread in that they all answer to no one but themselves and set the tone for the exorbitant perks, benefits and buyout packages they award themselves.

“The people are waking up to realizing Authorities are self-serving special interests and we have to appeal to Albany to make change. The taxpayer is saying that enough is enough!”

Collocation Project

Lee Chowaniec questioned Collins on the Collocation Program.

In the agreement between the County of Erie through the Erie County Department of Social Services and the Erie County Medical Center for the purchase of Certified Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselors to collocate with Child Protective Services, the Department of Social Services deemed ECMC as qualified by experience, expertise and facilities to provide those services and furthermore deemed ECMC as economically and administratively feasible.

The program was already in operation in early March. You terminated it for cost saving purposes. Have you come to some agreement with the State where they will allow you to privatize the program?

Collins replied there was still concern that if after three years the program was deemed unsuccessful, the program could become another un-funded State mandate. He also said it would be a duplication of services already provided.

“The State is saying lets try another nuance and be a pilot program that they would be willing to pay for,” said Collins.

“We would be willing to go along with the pilot program, but as County Executive I can’t take the risk that we wind up taking a million dollar hit if this protection is eliminated in Albany and the folks go running to the Legislature saying they don’t want people to lose their jobs.”

Collins stated that, “Certification” is required by the program, and I understand no county employee holds such certification. Therefore, there would be a training component, and even if the State would pay wages for this, there are incidental costs that are real.”

Collins declared that the taxpayers would be better served if the services were privatized through a third party vendor. “So, if the day comes that the funds were cut off, we would not resume that contract.”

“Any agreement with the State could not be reached until the State budget is finalized.”

Chowaniec asked: “There is a rumor circulating that you have initiated negotiations with a private vendor to provide for the Collocation Program. What is your reply to that?”

Collins: “No! We first have to get the State’s permission to do it.

Chowaniec: ‘I think the Collocation Program is a good project and would hate to see it aborted because of politics. You say the county already provides such services and that this program’s services would be redundant, but in the next breath, you declare you would like to see the program move forward but only with the services provided by a private, third party vendor. Although somewhat confusing, it appears you would still like to see the program take place, right?

Collins; “Yes. It is a pilot program bringing a different level of service forward to have another set of eyes go to the homes where there is suspected alcohol or drug abuse. It is hard to argue against another set of eyes or having people with certification doing it. But if you say it will cost another $1 million a year to do that, that’s when I say “whoa!”

Chowaniec: If you decide to privatize the program, and the union files a grievance against the county, do you believe you have the wherewithal to legally succeed?

Collins: “No. That’s why I cancelled the contract. I was not going to fight the unions.


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