City Sought Default
Ruling Due on PBA Arbitrator Challenge

By REUVEN BLAU

The Public Employment Relations Board's Director of Conciliation was said to have ruled on a protest filed by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association challenging the list of arbitrators submitted as candidates to decide its contract as this paper went to press May 21.

RICHARD CURRERI: Crucial ruling imminent.

PERB Chairman Jerome Lefkowitz, however, declined to release the highly-anticipated decision by Richard Curreri until each party received a mailed copy of the ruling. The PBA and the Bloomberg administration have the ability to appeal the ruling to the board.

Award Not Coming Soon

The decision will likely jump-start the arbitration process, but the procedure still appears to be far from being resolved anytime soon, despite the city's move to expedite the matter.

It can take several months just to schedule the selected arbitrator, as most veteran mediators have busy schedules. In addition, there are still several legal issues that could further delay the situation.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has said that he believed the process was "taking way too long." He reiterated that the decreased starting salary of $25,100 for recruits during their first six months of training has hurt the department's ability to hire new cops.

JAMES F. HANLEY: Eager for resolution.

"We've done everything we can to resolve this, and stand to ready to resolve it prospectively," Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley said last week during a phone interview.

In February, the Bloomberg administration sued, seeking to force PERB to order Mr. Curreri to name the city's choice, Arnold M. Zack, to chair the mediation panel handling the PBA contract.

A month later, Albany County Supreme Court Justice Eugene P. Devine ruled that the court cannot compel PERB to act because the agency was not named in the city's suit. The city's Law Department has filed a notice of motion for an expedited appeal.

The dispute arose after the PBA questioned PERB's authority to act in the absence of a functioning board, which had been completely vacant for the first time in its history after Governor Spitzer was elected.

The PBA has also called Mr. Zack - the former president of the National Academy of Arbitrators - biased against the union because he served on a panel that a decade ago froze cops' pay for two years. That prior decision was based on a wage pattern set by other uniformed unions.

Mr. Hanley, however, has steadfastly maintained that Mr. Zack should be appointed because the union "defaulted."

Cited Curreri Memo

The city's suit cited a memo attached to the list of nine arbitrators presented by Mr. Curreri to both sides in December stating that the city and union had to make their selections within five days. "The parties shall immediately notify the Board of the designated public member," the document states. "Upon the failure of one party to participate in the selection process, all names on the list shall be deemed acceptable to it."

On that basis, the city contended that Mr. Curreri must immediately designate Mr. Zack as the chairperson. The full PERB panel is not needed to take that "ministerial" action, Mr. Hanley has said.

The PBA, however, has maintained that Mr. Curreri reneged on his promise concerning which arbitrators would be placed on the list. "What they did is they took arbitrators off the list that favorably ruled in an arbitration and included those that gave zeroes to New York City police officers - we think that's unfair," PBA President Patrick J. Lynch has said.

But Mr. Curreri has denied making such an assurance. "There was no automatic rejection of panel members' names," he told this newspaper shortly after the PBA filed its complaint. "There was nothing like that."

Curreri's Options

Mr. Hanley has pointed out that the two arbitrators at issue, Mr. Zack and Stanley Aiges, were part of a panel operating under the jurisdiction of the city Board of Collective Bargaining, not PERB. Following their 1997 award, the PBA succeeded in getting legislation approved that permitted it to take contract disputes to the state panel.

By most accounts, Mr. Curreri's decision will either name Mr. Zack, draft a new list of potential mediators, or reject the PBA's complaint and ask both sides to begin the striking process again.

Several labor attorneys not directly connected with the case have predicted that Mr. Curreri will rule in favor of the city and naming Mr. Zack chairman of the panel. "I don't see what else he can do," remarked one lawyer.