§ 9.7.7 — Selection of binding arbitrator

§ 9.7.7 - Selection of binding arbitrator.

(A) Within thirty (30) days after the adoption of this Section, the City shall, in some reasonable manner, solicit applications from persons who desire to be on a permanent panel of arbitrators to resolve impasses as described in Section 9.7.6 herein. (B) In order to be eligible to be on the permanent panel of arbitrators, a person must be impartial and disinterested and must be qualified by experience and training as a neutral hearing officer or arbitrator in labor/management disputes. The dispute experience shall be in impasse negotiations between labor and management, disputes over the meaning or application of contracts between labor and management, or discipline. Any person whose only experience is as a Hearings Officer for any Civil or Career Service System shall not be Qualified. Persons who are members of the National Academy of Arbitrators or on the American Arbitration Association panel of labor arbitrators are presumptively qualified. (C) The City Council shall create a permanent panel of at least three (3) arbitrators from those qualified persons who apply. Placement on the permanent panel shall be approved by a resolution or ordinance by the City Council. Any qualified person can be added to the permanent panel at any time. Persons on the panel shall remain on the panel for a term of six (6) years, and may be reappointed, provided that the members of the initial panel shall be appointed to terms of varying lengths not to exceed six (6) years. Any person on the permanent panel may be removed by passage of a resolution or ordinance by the City Council unless that person has been selected to conduct a hearing concerning a particular dispute pursuant to paragraph (E) of this Section, and then that person can only be removed after issuing a decision in that dispute. (D) Each person put on the permanent panel shall sign an oath to uphold the terms of this Section. (E) After expiration of the 30-day time period referred to in Section 9.7.6, the sole and exclusive agent or the Corporate Authorities may request the list of names from the City Clerk, and the City Clerk shall submit a list with the names of all members of the permanent panel to the sole and exclusive agent and the Corporate Authorities within 5 (five) days. Within ten (10) days of receipt of this list, the sole and exclusive agent and the Corporate Authorities shall meet and alternatively strike one name from the list until one name remains (if the panel has an odd number of names) or two names remain (if the panel has an even number of names). If one name remains, that person shall be the arbitrator for that dispute. If two names remain, the Mayor shall select one of those two names to be the arbitrator for that dispute. The Mayor's selection must take place within five (5) days of the completion of the striking process by the sole and exclusive agent and the Corporate Authorities. The determination of whether the sole and exclusive agent or the Corporate Authorities strikes first shall be done by flip of a coin. (F) Nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the sole and exclusive agent and the Corporate Authorities from agreeing to an arbitrator from the permanent panel.

(Charter 1960, C5.80-6; amended June 15, 1971; amended May 15, 1979; Ord. No. 0907-24, § 1, 7-29-24, elec. 11-5-24)