Xenia City Hall

101 N. Detroit Street

Xenia, Ohio 45385

CITY OF XENIA, OHIO

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Jim Percival, City Manager FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
101 N. Detroit Street February 25, 2011
Xenia, OH 45385
(937) 376-7230
www.ci.xenia.oh.us

CITY TO APPEAL ARBITRATION DECISION

Xenia, Ohio, 02/25/2011: The City of Xenia has decided to appeal to the Court of Common
Pleas a recent arbitration decision which awarded its Fire Division Lieutenants and Captains
more than $82,000 for overtime they did not work. In a decision dated January 27, 2011,
arbitrator Cynthia Stanley, an attorney from Indianapolis, Indiana, found the City violated the
labor agreement by temporarily assigning on-duty personnel to meet staffing needs instead of
calling in off-duty officers. The situation arose during the recent financial crises when the City
was only operating one fire station.

City Manager, Jim Percival, noted that “the firefighters’ labor agreement recognizes the City’s
right to determine how staffing needs are met in the Fire Division.” He also noted that “the
agreement gives us the right to temporarily assign on-duty personnel and pay them a “plus rate”
premium of $1.50 per hour when other employees are sick or otherwise unable to work their
assigned shifts.” Unfortunately the arbitrator apparently chose to ignore the plain language of the
agreement and held, instead, that off-duty officers are entitled to be called-in and paid time and
a-half of their regular hourly rate of pay. We do not believe the decision draws its essence from
the actual language of the agreement and think the court will vacate the award.

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