Was Union Consultant
Fine Ex-Hospital Manager for Conflict

By ARI PAUL

The Conflicts of Interest Board fined a retired Health and Hospitals Corporation manager $1,500 last week for simultaneously working for the city and consulting for an affiliate of a major union.

JERRY CAMMARATA: Punished for conflict.

Gerald Cammarata was an Associate Executive Director in the Human Resources Department at Coney Island Hospital from June 2000 until January 2007. From 1980 until 2006, he was a consultant for the Local 1199 Training and Upgrading Fund. Local 1199 represents about 2,000 HHC workers, including those at Coney Island Hospital, and is the largest affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

Had Regular Dealings

While noting that his consulting services were for Local 1199 members working in nursing homes not operated by the city, he admitted in a written disposition that he dealt with the union on a regular basis as a hospital Human Resources Manager.

Loretta Kane, who works for Local 1199's benefits funds, said that the fund for which Mr. Cammarata consulted is separate from the union, and that it is made up of union and employer representatives.

"They are legally separate entities," she said.

Mr. Cammarata's on-line resume stated that he had been a safety and health-care management consultant since 1980, but did not list the Local 1199 fund as a client.

The board also cited Mr. Cammarata for teaching at Metropolitan College of New York without the board's permission because the school did business with HHC.

Says He Didn't Know

Mr. Cammarata said in the disposition that at the time of his employment at HHC he was not aware that his affiliation with the Local 1199 fund was a conflict of interest.

The board cited the following section of the City Charter: "No public servant shall engage in any business, transaction or private employment, or have any financial or other private interest, direct or indirect, which is in conflict with the proper discharge of his or her official duties."

Mr. Cammarata during the Giuliani administration served as Commissioner for Youth and Community Development and as Staten Island's representative on the old Board of Education.

In the latter role, he was best known for having changed his vote - reportedly after a verbal browbeating by mayoral officials at Gracie Mansion - to derail the selection of Daniel A. Domenech as the Schools Chancellor. Mr. Giuliani had been angered when the majority at the Board of Ed. vetoed his own choice for the job, then-Kingsborough Community College President Leon Goldstein.

Mr. Cammarata's changed vote on Mr. Domenech's nomination led to the eventual appointment of Rudy Crew as Chancellor.