{"id":45548,"date":"2019-12-18T19:32:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T00:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45548"},"modified":"2019-12-18T19:32:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T00:32:49","slug":"council-president-charles-edwards-asks-lehigh-acres-fire-commission-to-reconsider-union-renegotiation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/12\/council-president-charles-edwards-asks-lehigh-acres-fire-commission-to-reconsider-union-renegotiation\/","title":{"rendered":"Council President Charles Edwards asks Lehigh Acres fire commission to reconsider union renegotiation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Charles\nEdwards the President of the Lehigh Acres Community Council asked The Lehigh\nAcres Fire Control and Rescue District&#8217;s board of commissioners to reconsider\nits decision to re-open negotiations with the fire fighter\u2019s union after a\nsigned contract was in place in regards to a salary raise and the return of\nKelly days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"154\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Charles-Edwards.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45384\"\/><figcaption> Charles Edwards the President of the Lehigh Acres Community Council  <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Edwards,\nwho was added to the Dec. 10 agenda and allowed a 15-minute discussion with the\nboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Fire commissioners removed the agenda item of the renegotiation prior to the meeting, BUT Chairman of the fireboard Cathy Kruse gave a 15 min speech before Edwards spoke saying that the Fireboard will not be swayed by public comment or by the Community Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Cathy-Kruse.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-31879\" width=\"186\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Cathy-Kruse.jpg 254w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Cathy-Kruse-215x300.jpg 215w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 186px) 100vw, 186px\" \/><figcaption>Lehigh Acres Fire Commissioner Cathy Kruse<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Edwards\nsaid, &#8220;We feel that this action by the board is a total mistake, bad\ntiming, and tantamount to a total misuse of the public trust. This is one time\nwhen the board should take the public input on this matter and set aside this\nmatter until the next contract negotiations. Instead put their efforts into\npassing the new fire fee assessment and getting the sixth firehouse built to\nimprove our rating, for the benefit of Lehigh Acres residents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nmotion to reopen a Union 6 contract, to give a 5 percent raise across the\nboard, was accepted at a 3-2 vote during an October 2019 meeting. Commissioners\nBennett, Kruse and Sherman voted in favor of the renegotiation as an attempt to\nlevel the fire district&#8217;s employee salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commissioners\nLinda Carter and Debra Cunningham voted against the renegotiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nboard also motioned to approve the following agenda items:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; To\ndeclare the trailer at Station 101 to be a surplus item and its removal from\ncapital asset records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8211; The\nfire district&#8217;s new public relations officer, Katie Heck, was also sworn in\nthis month and will assume the role of the liaison between the fire department\nand the media and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nLehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District will hold its next regularly\nscheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 5 p.m. Meetings are held at Lehigh\nAcres Municipal Services Improvement District, 601 East County Lane, Lehigh Acres,\nFl. For more information visit:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lehighfd.com\/\">www.lehighfd.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charles Edwards the President of the Lehigh Acres Community Council asked The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District&#8217;s board of commissioners to reconsider its decision to re-open negotiations with&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}