Another law firm was put on the Oxford Township payroll as officials last week hired an attorney to negotiate the first-ever labor agreement with the now-unionized firefighters.
The township board voted 4-3 to hire attorney Malcolm Brown, who’s with the 156-year-old firm of Butzel Long, which has offices Michigan, New York, Florida and Washington D.C.
‘We negotiate a lot of labor contracts both in the public and private sector,? said Brown, who’s been negotiating contracts and representing only management for more than 25 years.
Last year, Oxford’s 12 full-time firefighters/paramedics voted 8-4 to be represented for collective bargaining purposes by the International Association of Fire Firefighters and the Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union.
In the public sector, Brown’s represented government entities as small as the Village of Baraga in the Upper Peninsula and as large as Oakland County, for which he’s been the outside labor attorney since 1979.
‘I’m very used to dealing with cash-strapped municipalities,? he said. ‘We’ve had a very hard time up at the county.?
Brown told the board he helped negotiate a 2.5 percent wage decrease for the current fiscal year with eight out of 10 of the county’s bargaining units.
In the private sector, Brown’s represented everything from ‘mom and pop? businesses to large corporations such as Farmer Jack, Pfizer, McDonald’s and Rite Aid.
Brown noted his philosophy concerning negotiations is a simple one.
‘I want to get along with everybody,? he explained. ‘We don’t need antagonism at the bargaining table and I want to get a deal, if I can. But it’s all dictated by what your goals are.?
Butzel Long has 24 lawyers in its Labor and Employment Department.
For Brown’s services, Butzel Long will charge the township a $21,000 flat fee for one-year’s worth of work, from now until March 11, 2011.
This will cover preparation of a labor contract and all bargaining proposals, attendance at bargaining sessions, and preparation of a list of comparable communities and surveys of wages, active employee health care, retiree health care, and retirement plans in those comparable communities.
Should negotiations be completed without using the full $21,000 flat fee, a credit toward future work would be given to the township worth 90 percent of the difference between the total flat fee and the value of the hours expended at a rate of $175 per hour.
Supervisor Bill Dunn voted against hiring Brown and Butzel Long not because he believed them to be unqualified, but because they were the more expensive of the two firms interviewed that night. The other attorney was $140 per hour.
‘It was very important to me not only to save the township money, but also to save the fire department because any money we use for these attorneys comes out of the fire budget,? he explained. ‘It was very easy for me to rate them because it was done by how much they made an hour.?
Trustee Sue Bellairs, who voted for hiring Brown and Butzel Long, liked the idea of having a cap because she’s seen how quickly township attorney Gary Rentrop’s $75-per-hour bills have added up during the township’s lawsuit to take control of the fire department and dissolve its oversight body, the Oxford Public Fire and EMS Commission.
‘We never had a cap on any of that,? she said. ‘If we have a cap on something, that’s it, that’s all it’s going to cost.?
Treasurer Joe Ferrari voted in favor of the hire because of Brown’s high level of experience.
‘I think Mr. Brown is what we need right now to start this whole process,? he said. ‘He’s negotiated a lot of union contracts right from the start.?
Ferrari noted that Brown said the first contract is ‘very vital? because ‘that sets the groundwork for everything in the future.?
‘I want a good starting foundation rather than a foundation we may not be comfortable with, then have to backtrack,? the treasurer said.