PACE President met with Chief Operations Officer (COO) Greg Giornelli on Friday May 16^th to discuss several issues. Mr. Giornelli mentioned that the City of Atlanta was reviewing several initiatives to improve revenue while reducing operational costs. One of the initiatives that the Administration will be looking into is the possible privatization of the Parking Meter Services. Mr. Giornelli also mentioned in the meeting that five proposals (RFP) have been presented for the plans of outsourcing the parking meter services. According to Mr. Giornelli, the Administration wants to collect revenue at a reduced cost to the city. Of the five proposals from outside vendors, the city will review which company can collect the same revenue as the city has in the past, but at the least or lesser cost to the city.

 

PACE addressed the issue of the City’s proposal to have combination inspectors. Greg Giornelli advised PACE that the Administration believes this would be more cost effective for the city, however; the Electrical Inspectors vs. Combination Inspectors issues that PACE brought up alerted Mr. Giornelli to dialogue again with the department to get additional information from the questions PACE needed answering.

 

Although the Administration supports this venture, PACE will speak against this at the City Council meeting which convenes Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:30pm for FY2009 Budget. PACE will also have the floor at this meeting to voice concerns and objections about the FY2009 budget proposal. Union Members are encouraged to attend this meeting to be supportive and to show Council how serious these situations are.

 

PACE will address:

-----Issues in the FY2009 budget proposal

-----the increase of Medical Cost to Employees by 9%

-----Electrical Inspectors vs. Combination Inspectors

-----Reorganization of the city employees and more

 

PACE fought hard against the RIF personnel actions for Union Members. Out of 441 personnel RIF’s, 7 % (31 employees) were Union members. In recognition of this, PACE encourages members to solicit for more participation among City of Atlanta Employees not currently in the Union to join PACE. The Union’s mission is to constantly strive to maintain open channels of communications with the City of Atlanta government, to address professionalism in the workplace, to obtain benefits compatible to industry standards, and to share one unified body and one unified voice for the members and employees of the City of Atlanta.

Remember, applications to Join the Union can be downloaded from the PACEAtlanta.org website, or ask your nearby Union Officers or Stewards. The cost to join the Union is very inexpensive, for the price you pay for lunch twice in 30 days, will help to protect your rights. The Union’s initiatives are to create better working environments, benefits, pension adjustments, and more while offering the City of Atlanta professionalism in the workplace.