Unalaska, AK – The city council meeting opened last night with comments from Public Safety Employee Association president Jennifer Shockley. She spoke against the Council's decision regarding the public safety union's contract.

"In a remarkable display of ethical bankruptcy the city council decided to pick and choose which parts of this contract they would honor and which parts they wouldn't. This is insulting and demeaning to every employee at public safety," she said. "We spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year upholding both the letter and the spirit of the law for the city of Unalaska only to find that our employer can't be bothered to do the same thing for us."

After more than two years of negotiations, the public safety union and the city took contract disagreements before a mutually agreed upon arbitrator for a process referred to as "binding arbitration." In November, the council voted 4 to 2 to honor all aspects of the arbitration except a one year pay increase of five percent. This is legal because municipalities have the right to decide their own budget.

"City council chose to hide behind the skirts of a legal technicality and impose a contract upon us that is unfair and illegitimate," Shockley said.

The public safety employees cannot strike or protest this decision, except by taking the city to court. The council did not give any public reaction to Shockley's comments, but her remarks were met with applause by some of the audience members.

Council member Dick Peck voted against the pay increase. He said the employees get some of the best compensation in the state already because the city provides them complete health care benefits, which are increasing in price. "So they can have the benefits or they can have the wages, but they can't have both," he said.

Council member Skip Southworth said that health care costs are rising everywhere and should not be a factor when honoring the arbitrator's findings. He voted to honor the pay increase. "I agree with what Jennifer said," he commented. "Both sides went into arbitration, they knew what they were getting into, and the arbitration should have been implemented the way it stood."

The matter is not yet scheduled for any other meeting.

The council also engaged community members in a discussion of a proposed smoking ban, which could go on the local ballot in October. Community members gave a range of reactions. Some, including smokers and ex-smokers, said a full smoking ban is necessary for the health of the community. Others, like Grand employee Brian Stockman, said a ban would impose on his personal rights.

"We all know alcohol isn't good for us. Kills brain cells, kills off the liver. Are we going to start regulating having one drink a night?" he quipped.

Others, like Wendy Svarny, said a partial ban might suit the community better. "When I was drinking I could smoke two packs of cigarettes per night. I know people drink and they smoke. I think it could be damaging to the bar business but I don't think it would be damaging to the restaurant business at all."

A bar employee agreed with this statement to ban smoking in the bars wouldn't be fair to the fishermen. Most fishermen smoke and most bar patrons are fishermen, not community members.

Council members will have until early June to decide on the wording of the ordinance, where it will affect, and how it will be enforced. It would then go on the October ballot. It will be discussed again at future council meetings.

The passage of the wind turbine ordinance, which would affect the size and noise levels of residential wind turbines, was also put off to another meeting. Council members were unclear on what different noise levels really amounted to, how they would be measured, and what different ordinance wording would mean. They are waiting for more information before making a decision.

In other council business, the group laid the groundwork for allowing an internal loan from the general fund to the electric fund to pay for the new powerhouse. This is intended to be a temporary measure while the city waits for bond interest rates to go down.