Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — The items actually on the agenda for city council’s meeting Thursday night sparked limited discussion compared to a concession in two recently approved union contracts.
City council voted 5-0 to dispose of old records and obsolete parking meter parts and temporarily permit wine tasting at the Fine Arts Fiesta on Public Square next month.
A decision that council played no part in received considerable attention, however.
John Suchoski reacted to the city dumping the residency requirement for employees, a concession Mayor Tony George made to unions representing City Hall workers and paramedics and Department of Public Works employees. Police and firefighters did not have to be residents.
“It doesn’t send the right message at all,” Suchoski said. He added that he felt the administration should have fought harder to include the requirement.
City Clerk Jim Ryan, a member of Local 1310 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America who works in City Hall, spoke up to say the removal of the residency requirement was not a deal breaker.
“It was only a select few that live outside the city that wanted that removed,” said Ryan, who sat in, but did not participate in the contract negotiations.
A surprised Suchoski asked, “That live outside the city when it (the residency requirement) was intact? Is that what you’re saying?”
“That is the rumor, yes,” Ryan replied. “I don’t know that for a fact, but there were only a few people that really wanted it from what I understand.”
Ryan continued that it was not an issue for him. “I felt along that, you know, if we worked for the city we should live in the city and that’s what a majority of the City Hall employees felt.”
For unknown reasons it became part of the negotiations and was removed, Ryan said.
City Administrator Rick Gazenski said the concession by the city expands the potential employee pool. But overall, he said, there’s not going to be a mass exodus of employees.
“So I don’t want anyone to think that anyone that works for the city now is just going to get out of here. That’s not the case,”Gazenski said.