Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Union Reps negotiate with the City of Lake Worth on raises

Comment Up

Nick Petrino, one of our code enforcement officers who will have been with the city 10 years in October, was on the "hot seat." He will be keeping his job after all. The decision was made at 9:20 this morning. The City must have realized that the charges were not strong enough and/or unproven. We need Nick and more employees like him: hard-working and dedicated to doing the best job each and every day.

Immediately following the above, the Union Negotiating Committee met and discussed raises only for 2016/2017. The Pension discussions were put on the back burner in order for the city to concentrate 1) on the budget and 2) merit raises. Merit raises will be discussed in the month of March 2017. The Union Reps and the City agreed to a two year 4% raise for those in the PMU and PMSA.

The Employee Liability is $38,601,258.00 or 333.06% percentage of covered employee payroll.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

You do realize by talking about this in a public meeting and then posting on your blog, it is clear Mr. Petrino is talking to you and putting himself in jeopardy with his job? If you are his friend, you should look out for him and not make a public spectacle. MHO

Lynn Anderson said...

Actually what's "clear" is your jumping to conclusions. Mr. Petrino was already in "jeopardy" with his job. I confirmed the outcome with the city attorney. Thanks for your concern though. We were all concerned for Nick and I am happy it got resolved.

Anonymous said...

Nick glad you're back. I hear it will be monday. good going, guy.

Anonymous said...

It certainly seems that employees are in fear of their jobs. Who can you trust in management? Employees can't speak up. Ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Nick is one of the very lucky employees as the CM and HR Director are head hunters and never give in unless someone has the dirt on them. Ask anyone in the utility department oh wait you can't they have eliminated all that are against their plans to spend $ and now they are eliminating positions again as all of a sudden they just don't need them any more. REALLY| The word is out all over our area and county about the HR Director and CM and what headhunters they are, I have heard it a lot as I travel around the county and why we cannot hire good long lasting employees.

Anonymous said...

I love Nick!!!! He is a great code officer and we need more like him.

Anonymous said...

Its ultimately pathetic the city would go straight to firing on a trumpted up charge, this screams RETALIATION!!! I have known him for years - even when he was a lifeguard and hes always been a caring honest guy. Its bs like this why lake worth cant keep employee's. Scare tactics!

Mike said...

He better watch his back cuz that bullseye on him just got bigger! The truth is if they want to fire you they will over anything. They probably realized Nick would have sued the living crap outta dem.

Anonymous said...

WE ALL SUPPORT MR. PETRINO 110%!!!

Britney said...

anyone have his number? What a hottie ;)

Anonymous said...

It is situations like this why ALL of us work everyday in fear of our jobs. He took a stand and spoke up and they tried to fire him, pushed by his own director! I work for the city and we all knew it was just a matter of time until they would go after him. I'm happy i will get to see him back at work. For me all i can do is keep my head down and do my time and get the hell out of here before they come after me for having to much time here. Looking forward to seeing my friend again.

Anonymous said...

Yahhhhhhh he beat it! Im so proud of him. Kudos to nick. I was wondering where he has been because I havent seen him driving around lately

Anonymous said...

I cant wait to give him a big hug when I see him next!

Anonymous said...

So very glad they didn't pull this off. I don't trust the CM as far as I can throw a cow over the moon. Dirty, dirty politics. In the dark. Those like Nick are exactly the kind of people we need. Honest, well spoken, conscientious. Must the dark forces at City Hall continue to try to destroy all character that is good in Lake Worth? We could make a big improvement by just ditching the dark forces instead: starting with the CM government out of the sunshine specialist.

Anonymous said...

Another poor employee abused by the city...

Anonymous said...

Im so happy!!!!!!!!

Blogger said...

We all make mistakes. Every one of us. If we aren’t making mistakes, then we likely aren’t trying enough new things outside our comfort zone, and that itself is a mistake.If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. Mistakes are not failures,

Nick recognize that he have, in fact, made an honest mistake.He did not get defensive about it, rather he was willing to look objectively at is mistake, recognize what he did wrong, and understand is choice or actions were the wrong thing to do.

The City of Lake Worth did not see it that way and instead of coaching him they went straight to termination and it,s not about Nick having any target on is back it,s the Culture that is a part of the City of Lake Worth Management Team. That is why more employees need to stand with each other and change this Culture. Nick keep on standing for the right things because you are not alone.

LW Elect said...

Well put, its upsetting that a simple mistake should immediately deserve firing. I heard Mr. William Waters was pushing for him to be fired at all costs. If thats true SHAME ON HIM bc Nick has done so much for this city and one mistake condems him?

Anonymous said...

Lake worth will never change until the city realizes the employee's are people to!

Anonymous said...

This screams retaliation

Anonymous said...

1 of 2 things will happen. They will find some bullshit reason to fire nick in the future or they'll leave him alone for good. Most likely they will find something because no ones perfect. This was only to get nick on the books for a write up. Hes a smart man, im sure he will start making preparations to find work elsewhere. If the city loses him thats just another good employee gone.

Anonymous said...

I heard Code Officer Al Vega resigned over what happened =..( He just couldnt take the corruption anymore

Anonymous said...

So pleased to hear he kept his job.

Anonymous said...

Mr waters, nick petrinos boss, is a unscrupulous bastard for not protecting one of his own and ive heard he has thrown so many of his own people who used to work for him under the bus and thats why everyone leaves his department. What a weak ass boss! Its a poisonous cutthroat work environment over there and i feel bad for all of them. Im very sad al vega resigned, he was a nice man. Shame on mr waters shame on him!

Blogger said...

Al Vega resigned out of fear that he was not going to get a fear representation that a shame because no one should have lost their Job over that mistake. Al is a long time Code officer a lot of knowledge just went out the door.

Nick mistake discovered the areas of the business where a mistake could take place without causing too much damage. They should take careful attention to make sure that any areas where we would damage our clients and the trust they had placed in us were off limits for significant risk without serious executive involvement and oversight and identified other areas where they feel more comfortable allowing people the freedom to experiment on new and better ways of doing things.
My advice to Mr. William Waters to try and Communicate to is employees that an honest mistake made while attempting to do what they felt was the right thing is OK, but repeating that same mistake a second time was NOT OK. The hard, fast rule was that if you made any mistake for the first time the entire team would have your back in fixing that mistake if anything went wrong. However, if you ever repeated the mistake a second time, then you were 100 percent on your own to face the consequences.

Nick and Al should have been thank, their mistake uncover fault in the system but management prove once again Politic over commonsense.

Anonymous said...

What was the mistake and why was Vega fired?

Anonymous said...

This whole situation proves if you do one mistake you better fight like hell to keep your job. I would hate to work at such a fearful place of employment like lake worth

Anonymous said...

They dont want retainable knowledge in the city. They dont care about long standing employees. They dont care about the public opinion. All they care about is playin fast n' loose and protecting vile people. Just look at andy, code still hasnt investigated the complaint on him, 24hr response time my ass. There isn't any new notes from the case search on their website. Keeping the corruption alive huh fellas! F U Bornstein, commisioners and two faced waters!

Anonymous said...

Poor mr vega. He will be missed.

Anonymous said...

Just pushing out the good ones, i feel so bad for al. Im going to miss him so much

Blogger said...

City resolution use by HR director to circumvent our contractual disciplinary Step procedure, making it easy to go straight from nothing to termination. It,s use as a tool to break the back of the union and intimidate those who stand up for their right,The Union must stand strong and insist that the City follow our contractual disciplinary steps.
This was the type of action use in the case of AL and Nick.

Anonymous said...

No one is ever safe, it sad that the people that work for us have to work in fear

Anonymous said...

This city is just pitiful!

Anonymous said...

Nick is a great code officer who cares about that city
and ALL the people living there. You are lucky to have him!