While Mayor Scott Avedisian has received much praise and fanfare from talk-radio land for his tentative contract agreement with the three city unions, some city residents and public officials remain skeptical about whether the agreement benefits taxpayers.

The deal, which will be discussed at a city council meeting on Friday evening at 6 at City Hall chambers, features union pay cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year (until June 30), increased healthcare co-share payments and deferments for holiday pay and uniform allowances.

The Democrat dominated city council is expected to ratify the agreements at Friday’s meeting in which the public is encouraged to attend.

On Tuesday, right-wing talk show personalities such as 920 WHJJ’s Helen Glover and 630 WPRO’s Buddy Cianci gushed over the deals while interviewing the mayor during their respective shows, saying they represent a spirit of cooperation with city unions.

Other executives, who have taken a more hard-line stance with their city unions, should cooperate more with their unions, the hosts said.

But some Warwick residents wonder whether that approach will leave taxpayers holding the short end of the stick when all is said and done.

The concessions from unions were originally reported in newspapers, and on televisions newscasts and on radio stations to save taxpayers just over $9.7 million. But the actual concessions from the city bargaining units (police, fire, and municipal workers) will save taxpayers about $6.35 million.

The remaining $3,375,398 will be attained from savings from the city’s management employees. The savings will be attained from the 28 retiring management employees that would go unfilled, a 3-percent pay cut they will receive for the rest of the year, and a required increased pension contribution by employees.

While those savings represent a clear benefit to taxpayers, they’re not part of the bargaining agreements the city council will be asked to ratify on Friday evening. The administration, as it did last July when it mandated management employees increase their healthcare co-share payments to 10 percent, can unilaterally impose these cost savings measures on them at any time.

City Personnel Director Oscar Shelton said that it’s been the administration’s normal business practice to keep benefits for management in line with those of the lower ranking employees, so it was reasonable for that to be the case now.

“Traditionally we’ve had management parallel the benefit and the costs that the municipal employees have received,” said Shelton.

Some, like School Committee Member Paul Cannistra, say the deferrals simply put the taxpayers on the hook tomorrow for today’s bills. Cannistra led the fight against the current teacher contract between the School Committee and the teacher’s union. Cannistra spoke passionately against the deal, voted against it, but ultimately lost the battle when it passed by a 3-2 committee vote.

Cannistra said that at first reading of the contract, he’s troubled by the holiday deferrals and uniform deferrals. Under the tentative agreement, members of the police and fire departments will forfeit holidays in this fiscal year, and receive so-called “banked holidays” in return. A banked holiday allows an employee to use the day as a day off at a time of their choosing, or exchange it for a day’s pay at the rate of the time they retire (almost always higher than the rate from the past) or some combination of the two.

The police department will also forego their $1,125 clothing allowance next year in exchange for either 5-banked holidays or that same sum as an additional severance payment when they retire.

Shelton, when asked about the concept of a future liabilities being created by offering banked holidays, admitted that it could very well do so, but said it was impossible to calculate because employees could instead choose to take regular days off in exchange. That, he pointed out, would represent a savings to city taxpayers.

“I’ve got a huge problem with that. To me, it’s the same thing that the school committee did, which is mortgage the future,” said Cannistra.

Cannistra is also unhappy with the fact that the deal rests on contingencies.

Should the city receive stimulus money from the federal government; should the state mandate that all employees pay 25-percent co-share payments for health insurance; or should the state not reduce the city’s state aid, the benefits the unions conceded would be restored.

“To me that’s ridiculous. If you’re going after savings, get them. Don’t set up all these conditions,” said Cannistra.

Avedisian, when asked about those conditions on Monday, said that the city needed to negotiate an agreement with the unions to realize savings. The city doesn’t have the luxury, he said, to wait around for the state to get its act together.

“If everything changes dramatically, then we would have to sit down with the unions and have some discussions, which we would normally do anyways,” said the mayor.

City Councilman Steve Merolla (Ward-9) said while the co-share payments are increased in this agreement, he’s still not thrilled with the fact that they’re still much lower than most private sector employees pay. The co-share payment for a single plan for all city employees will increase from $11 per week to $14 per week. For a family plan, the cost will increase from $11 per week to $28 per week.

While it will increase the percentage of the cost for a single plan to just over 12 percent, and the percentage of the cost of a family plan to about 10 percent, those percentages will decrease in the future years as the cost of health insurance continues to spiral, Merolla pointed out.

“These health insurance co-pays are structured so that they’ll be paying a lower percentage of the cost in future years,” said Merolla.

state workers pay 20-25 percent of the cost of their healthcare based upon seniority.

City councilman Joseph Solomon (Ward-4), while never one to tip his hand, seemed skeptical about the deal. Solomon said he has “many questions” about the tentative agreement that he plans to ask at Friday night’s meeting.

“I do have many questions with respect to what he’s given to us and when I receive the answers to those questions I will be able to make a decision based on that knowledge, not what I got from reading newspapers, watching television, or listening to the radio,” said Solomon.