But Wait May Not Be Short
PBA Case Down To Final Briefs

By REUVEN BLAU

After 12 days of closed-door arbitration hearings, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association contract dispute with the Bloomberg administration has reached its last steps, with some insiders predicting an award by late April.

PATRICK J. LYNCH: Sticking to his guns.

The closing briefs from the PBA and the city's Office of Labor Relations are due by Feb. 11 and the rebuttal briefs must be submitted to panel chairwoman Susan T. McKenzie by March 3.

Can Seek Extensions

The parties still could seek extensions of those deadlines, which would likely delay the award until this summer, according to labor sources familiar with the process.

By all accounts, the closing briefs are a crucial part of the process. Those documents, which are expected to be lengthy, allow city negotiators and union attorneys to highlight specific parts of testimony and issues brought up during the hearings.

The PBA's 24,000 members have been working under a contract that expired Aug. 1, 2004.

Since that time, virtually all the city's uniformed unions have negotiated long-term deals with the Bloomberg administration, putting the PBA up to eight years behind in some cases. PBA President Patrick J. Lynch has balked at similar terms, which have averaged about 4 percent in wage hikes plus other fringe-benefit gains, insisting his members deserve raises that bring pay closer to what officers receive in neighboring suburbs.

The drawn-out negotiations between the PBA and OLR and the lengthy Public Employment Relations Board arbitration process have frustrated both sides as well as officers on the beat, who have not received a raise since an arbitration ruling in June 2005 granted them pay hikes retroactive to 2002 and 2003.

Little Progress Since

The post-hearing briefs are the last step in a process that began soon after that award 31 months ago and has particularly aggravated the NYPD, which is struggling to recruit new officers at the salary rate of $25,100 for officers during their training in the academy.

That arbitration took five months between the conclusion of the hearings and panel chairman Eric J. Schmertz's award.

But officials from both sides last week said they were hoping the process this time would be accelerated. "We don't know how long it's going to take, but the faster the better," said one PBA official.

One source stressed that there was no specific date scheduled for when the award must be issued. "It's not like a Monopoly game where you pass go and get $200," the insider said.

'Ambitious' Forecast

Several labor sources last week cautioned that the award may not be issued before this summer, calling the late April estimates by city negotiators "a little ambitious."

Ms. McKenzie will have the arduous task of reviewing boxes of evidence and hundreds of pages of recorded testimony. "Just the charts of the contracts can be hundreds of pages of documents," one local mediator said.

Afterwards, Ms. McKenzie will meet with the other two members of the arbitration panel. They are Carol O'Blenes, the city's representative, and Jay Waks, the PBA's representative, both of whom played the same roles in 2005.

"Then the three of them talk at great length," the mediator said. "That could be one, two, or three meetings. You want to know what the other two people are thinking and explore any common ground."

Fair arbitrators, the labor source added, wait until all the evidence has been submitted before making a conclusion. "You don't allow yourself to go back and forth like a ping-pong ball," the source said. "Only until all the evidence is in and you really start to review it is when you can sort out what you are thinking."

Speed Not of Essence

Another arbitrator familiar with the case said that the timeline depends on the parties. "The one thing you have to really understand is what the motives of the parties are," the labor insider said. "Do they want it fast or do they want it delayed? You never know what's going to go on there."

Parties involved in arbitration often ask for extensions before filing their briefs, the source added. "Just because everybody hasn't approved it yet," the insider remarked. "These are big deals. They have to be looked at by a lot of people."

Ms. McKenzie will also likely take her time to carefully write the high-profile decision, the arbitrator said. "I would guess it's going to take her a while," the source observed. "She knows every line of her award is going to be looked at. This isn't something you can just slap together and throw out. You have to really examine all of the testimony."

In the coming months, Ms. McKenzie will work to convince the other members on the panel to agree to some type of compromise. "You have to sell them on the reasoning and the appropriate outcome," the insider said. "Both sides have to feel some sort of pinch, even if it's the reasoning."