DePietro claimed that the Council had not seen the contract, that he had made numerous requests to see the contract but had been denied. Alderman Tiffany Garriga (Second Ward) complained, "We knew nothing about the contract. We were not asked for suggestions." Alderman and mayor-elect Kamal Johnson (First Ward) claimed the Council never received what they had requested, although he did not specify what it was the Council had requested.
Council members, specifically DePietro, Garriga, and Johnson, have complained before that the Council was not involved in the negotiations for the new police contract. Last night, DePietro declared, "We are the stewards of taxpayer money, and we were not involved." He went on to claim that, in previous administrations, the Council did play a part in the negotiations. Filli said he had been involved in four previous contract negotiations and suggested that he was more familiar with the process than DePietro. Filli went on to say that negotiations were more effective with a smaller number of people.
In the conversation, the problem finally emerged. The prescribed procedure is that Elayne Gold, the attorney who represented the City in the contract negotiations, as she has for more than a decade (also the attorney whose fee the Council refused to pay back in October because they had been left out of the negotiations), presents the tentative contract to the Council. According to Filli, the tentative contract is two pages of amendments to the existing police contract, which can be reviewed by anyone at City Hall. DePietro is insisting that the Council must see the tentative contract before it is presented by the attorney, arguing that the Council cannot vote on something they have just received. Register-Star reporter Amanda Purcell finally asked, "If you are presented with the contract, do you have to vote on it at that time?" DePietro admitted they did not, so it's not clear why DePietro is so committed to seeing the contract before meeting with the attorney. The Council will have time to read, comprehend, and discuss the two pages of amendments before voting to accept or reject the contract.
A few times during the discussion, Filli expressed the hope that a successful agreement would not be embroiled in a political disagreement between personalities"--the personalities being DePietro and Mayor Rick Rector. When Alderman Eileen Halloran (Fifth Ward) suggested, "Politics may be involved," DePietro retorted, "You're introducing the politics."
Alderman Dominic Merante (Fifth Ward) proposed that the Council have a special meeting for the attorney to present the tentative contract. When he did, Garriga told city attorney Andy Howard that Merante needed to recuse himself from any discussion of the police contract because he is related to a police officer. Howard said this was the first he'd heard of the situation, and he would talk with Merante about it, but he said, "It wouldn't be a de facto recusal."
The discussion finally ended, and the meeting was adjourned, when Johnson asked DePietro to "reach out" to the attorney so they could have a special meeting.
Contacted for comment after the meeting, Mayor Rector told Gossips:
The Council president has been told by several individuals, including myself, how the police contact is both prepared and ultimately given to the Council. I have also spoken with individual Council members regarding the process. We have been waiting for weeks to obtain a date and time for our attorney to meet with the Council to review the contract and answer any questions. The Council can request changes, etc., in this process. We have followed the same procedure as all previous contract negotiations have in recent history.COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK
"Coming Attractions" of the "Feature" that opens in January.
ReplyDeleteYou can take the manager out of the theatre, but never take the theatre out of the manager. Clever comment, Bruce
DeleteThank you!
DeleteHaving worked on the council through 2 HPD/CSEA contracts, I can attest that the Council has had little involvement in the process during those years, and none in the actual negotiations (left to professionals who did a good job on the language). The reality of these contracts is that the City (or any NYS municipality) has little leverage against the union negotiators. This is a legacy of prior negotiations during "fat" times hamstringing the City in lean times. Additionally, the nature of the arbitration required to overcome loggerheads has historically tended to favor the unions over the municipalities.
ReplyDeleteThe most successful contract renewal I witnessed was under Mayor Tiffany Hamilton Martin who, with the Police Committee of the Council, supported Chief Moore in his push for greater scheduling flexibility which was agreed to by the union and its membership.
If the current Council had an agenda for the police union contract renewal, it should have communicated this to the Chief/HPD and the mayor. Failure to do so (if such is the case) is a failure of political management.