Posted: | January 8, 2019 10:20 AM |
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From: | Representative Matt Gabler and Rep. Tommy Sankey, Rep. Fred Keller |
To: | All House members |
Subject: | Public Notice Prior to Signing Collective Bargaining Agreements - Prior HB418 |
In the spirit of openness and transparency, we will be introducing legislation to provide public notice of public employee collective bargaining agreements prior to approval. Taxpayers have the right to know how their hard earned money is being spent. Public employers across the commonwealth currently negotiate contracts costing billions of dollars without any public review or oversight. Our legislation will require any proposed public employee collective bargaining agreement to be made available on the public employers’ publicly accessible Internet website within 48 hours. The proposed agreement must be posted online two weeks prior and thirty days following the signing of the collective bargaining agreement. The posting shall include the following information:
This legislation also establishes that proposed collective bargaining agreements and any documents presented by the public employer or received from the employee organization in the course of collective bargaining are to be public records subject to the Right-to-Know Law. Taxpayers have a vested interest in the details of negotiations between public employers and their collective bargaining units, because they will be paying the bill. The public should have the right to review proposed agreements before they are signed. Requiring an online posting of the proposed collective bargaining agreements is a straightforward reform to advance government transparency and ensure taxpayer money is spent effectively. PREVIOUS SPONSORS (HB 418 of 2017): GABLER, F. KELLER, SANKEY, BARRAR, BLOOM, CUTLER, DUSH, ENGLISH, GROVE, A. HARRIS, PHILLIPS-HILL, IRVIN, JAMES, KAUFFMAN, KNOWLES, McGINNIS, MENTZER, METCALFE, MILLARD, B. MILLER, PICKETT, RAPP, STAATS, TALLMAN, TOPPER, ZIMMERMAN and WARD PREVIOUS SPONSORS (HB 1075 of 2015): GABLER, F. KELLER, SANKEY, BARRAR, BLOOM, CHRISTIANA, CUTLER, DIAMOND, DUSH, EMRICK, EVANKOVICH, EVERETT, FEE, GREINER, GROVE, HARHART, A. HARRIS, HICKERNELL, PHILLIPS-HILL, IRVIN, JAMES, KAUFFMAN, M. K. KELLER, KNOWLES, LAWRENCE, MACKENZIE, MALONEY, McGINNIS, MENTZER, METCALFE, MILLARD, B. MILLER, MOUL, MUSTIO, ORTITAY, PICKETT, QUIGLEY, RADER, RAPP, REGAN, ROAE, SACCONE, SIMMONS, STAATS, TALLMAN, TOOHIL, TOPPER, TRUITT, WARD, WARNER and HENNESSEY |
Introduced as HB250