Sides to hold talks in lawsuit over city's compensation moves

CONWAY -- Lawyers for a group of Conway police officers and firefighters whose lawsuit against the city has been pending since 2012 are to gather for another round of negotiations this week with attorneys for the city.

Filed in Faulkner County Circuit Court, the lawsuit accuses the city of not adequately compensating employees between Dec. 2, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2012, based on a pay grid they say was distributed to each employee.

In December 2015, Judge Troy Braswell certified the class but dismissed an argument that the city illegally used money from a local quarter-percentage-point sales-tax increase for purposes other than increasing the employees' pay.

In December 2018, the plaintiffs asked Braswell to declare the city liable for what they contend was a breach of contract after that tax increase took effect 17 years ago. In February, the city countered by asking the judge to dismiss the employees' claim.

The meeting with a mediator is set for today, said Tom Thrash, an attorney for the employees. An earlier mediation took place in December, he said in an email. Braswell ordered mediation, Thrash added.

Officers and firefighters filed the lawsuit in September 2012. A jury trial is set to begin May 6.

Last week, the employees' attorneys filed documents challenging the city's arguments.

The city contended that a "compensation program" document read aloud by then-Mayor Tab Townsell at a May 2001 City Council meeting said in part, "Any increase in salary is based upon budget funds being available and only by the approval of the City Council." The city also has said the compensation program was dependent upon the tax election's outcome later that year.

"Due to the financial impacts of the Great Recession in late 2008, the Conway City Council had to make substantial budget cuts throughout the City, including the decision to not fund a step raise for the 2010 through 2012 budget years," the city argued in its most recent filing.

In response, the plaintiffs countered, "The city raises a series of legal technicalities in an attempt to avoid living up to the promises it made to Class Members, including that the terms of its assurances are impermissibly vague, the contracts are invalid ... and the City had no authority in the first place to enter into the contracts." The plaintiffs argued that "none of the legal loopholes now relied upon by the City has merit."

In a footnote, the employees' attorneys wrote: "Of late, City management has taken to asserting that its promises to Class Members would always have been accompanied by a caution that the yearly salary increases were subject to [city council] approval conditioned on the availability of funds. Class Members deny that they ever received such an instruction."

The class action applies to more than 100 firefighters and more than 130 police officers employed by the city between Dec. 2, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2012. Thrash has said previously that claims against the city would total an estimated $1.5 million if the lawsuit succeeded.

The pay plan was intended for all city employees, though the lawsuit now applies only to police and firefighters.

Firefighters and officers got step raises for a time after the sales tax's approval but did not get them in 2010, 2011 and 2012 -- a period when the city encountered severe financial problems.

Metro on 03/25/2019

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