Erie County Executive Chris Collins promises “nearly $150,000” in savings because he took back hundreds of cell phones and wireless devices that had been given to employees.

But will those savings materialize?

One-third of the savings depends on his ability to override union contracts in the area of on-call pay, or “beeper pay,” as it’s often called. The head of the county’s largest union has promised a challenge.

When Collins says he will save “nearly $150,000,” he means $142,964 a year, according to a breakdown he provided Tuesday in explaining that he took back roughly one-third, or 271, of the cell phones, BlackBerrys and air cards that had been issued in departments the county executive controls.

Collins said $45,500 of the savings will come by taking pagers, or beepers, from certain employees and giving them cell phones. Collins reasons that by taking the pagers, he need not pay those workers the $35 a week in beeper pay they now collect because they agree to respond to emergencies at any time.

“Certain union contracts mandate $35 a week for the inconvenience of carrying a pager,” Collins said. “The county is able to provide that employee with a cell phone for under $30, further reducing our costs.”

Will it fly? The president of the county’s largest union says “beeper pay” is a term created in the 1980s when beepers, not cell phones, were the best way to reach someone in a hurry. In practice, the premium goes to employees who agree to respond to emergencies, whether they are reached by beeper or cell phone.

Certain workers in the Highways, Disaster Preparedness, Child Protective Services and Sewer Maintenance departments and the medical examiner’s office must be able to return a call from their supervisor in 15 minutes and then report to the scene in 30 minutes, said Joan Bender, president of Local 815, Civil Service Employees Association.

She said her union will file a grievance and a lawsuit alleging an improper labor practice if Collins implements his policy.

Collins said he is confident he will win.

The new county executive promised to run the government more like a business, and he will speak of the cell phone savings when he delivers his first State of the County address at 11 a.m. today in Albright- Knox Art Gallery.

The number of cell phones issued to workers in his top-floor Rath County Office Building suite has gone from 11 to two, he said.

The number of phones issued to workers in the department that issues cell phones, the Department of Information and Support Services, has gone from 51 to seven.

Workers who need a wireless phone during their workdays can take a pooled cell phone instead, Collins said.

Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz in April 2006 audited the lax monitoring of county-issued cell phones under then-County Executive Joel A. Giambra.

Poloncarz said Tuesday that he was pleased Collins has cut the number of wireless devices. But he warned that Collins should not yet count on the cuts in beeper pay.

If Collins loses the union’s challenge, he will have to return the beeper pay and pay for the cost of arbitration, Poloncarz said.

“If he really wants to get rid of it, he should negotiate with the CSEA,” Poloncarz added.

He urged Collins to address another shortcoming in the government’s handling of its cell phones. The administration must be able to show the IRS that employees given phones around the clock do not use them for personal calls.

Without such records, employees might be taxed on the entire value of the phone, Poloncarz said.

mspina@buffnews.com

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