After abandoning this column each of the last two weeks, I felt it was my obligation to return with a bang, so to speak.
And, thankfully, Marblehead delivered for me.
It was this week 40 years ago when, at a Special Town Meeting, residents rebuffed the recommendation of the Finance Committee, providing 5% pay hikes to municipal employees, school custodians, administrators, and elected town officials. The FinCom had recommended 3.5% raises, overriding the 5% bargained into contracts. The committee’s chair, James Hourihan, unsuccessfully lobbied town workers, telling them they were “property owners and stockholders in the town as well as employees. You own a piece of this town as well as working for it,” he is quoted as saying.
“One point I’d like to make clear is that Town Meeting is the final authority on these matters, not collective bargaining,” Hourihan continued.
Hourihan argued that the 3.5% increase was all the town could afford, and received what appeared to be moderate support from Barbara Anderson, the executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, who told Town Meeting that it would be “unfair to vote against the FinCom tonight, then turn around and vote against an override of Proposition 2 1/2 in the spring.”
Marcia Sweeney argued against the limited increases, saying the contracts were “negotiated fairly and cannot legally be renegotiated by the FinCom on the floor of this meeting.” Selectmen, who negotiated the agreements, were staunch supporters of the 5% increases.
The FinCom amendment was defeated by an “overwhelming margin” and voters allocated $150,000 to fund the increases.
Voters overriding the committee’s recommendation marked the first “major defeat” for the board in recent years, The Daily Evening Item reported at the time. Hourihan, after the meeting, exclaimed “There’s trouble in River City!”
He later quipped that though his board had lost, he won because he “bet a buck earlier today that the employees would get what they wanted if they just showed up at the meeting. And obviously, they did.”
Striking a serious tone, Hourihan explained that the increases could portend serious financial trouble for the town down the line.
“Voters set a floor,” he said. “One that I’m sure will be exploited by the other major bargaining units such as police, fire, and teachers, who have yet to come to contract agreements.”
Hourihan said he expected those units to bargain off of the 5% figure.
“I really don’t blame them,” he said. “If certain groups get 5% why, they will argue, should they settle for anything less? Let’s put it this way, tonight’s vote only cost us $150,000.But if all the other town employees are given the same percentage pay increase in their new contracts, the overall cost of this vote will be $500,000.”