WATERLOO - Black Hawk County is putting the brakes on its outside labor negotiation services.

Members of the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday to terminate its contract with Ray and Associations Inc. of Cedar Rapids, which had been hired to help negotiate labor contracts with all nine of the county's employee bargaining units.

But board chairman John Miller said the action was being taken to stop the contracts from renewing automatically and does not preclude the supervisors from negotiating new contracts with the firm.

"I spoke to Gary Ray about this, and we're not unhappy with his services," Miller said. "We're canceling the contract now to renegotiate. If we do not do this cancellation (before March 1) it automatically renews."

Board attorney Pete Burk had previously called the automatic-renewal provision in Ray's contract "onerous" because it included no escape clause. The agreements automatically renewed if a multi-year labor agreement is negotiated with any or all of the bargaining units and is not subject to negotiation.

Ray and Associates and an outside labor attorney were retained by the supervisors in 2003 despite objections from Democrats Brian Quirk and Maggie Stewart, who favored an in-house negotiator. The current Democratic board majority has attempted to rein in the amount paid to Ray, about $50,000 a year.

Board member Tom Little said the supervisors could choose to open the process to proposals from other labor negotiators, but no action was taken to do so.

Ray's firm has handled union contract negotiations with the Waterloo Community School district for several years.

Contact Tim Jamison

at (319) 291-1577

or tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.