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By KEVIN HOFFMAN khoffman@leader.net
Wednesday, February 02, 2000 Page: 1A
Former Hazleton Mayor Michael Marsicano conspired with the city
firefighters union during arbitration to help it get pension increases the
city cannot afford, a lawsuit says.
The mayor and the firefighters were supposed to be on opposite sides in
the arbitration, but the mayor failed to do anything to challenge an
arbitrator’s ruling favorable to the firefighters, says the suit, filed in
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.
The mayor also misused the arbitration process to keep City Council out of
the pension discussion, says the suit, which was filed Tuesday by the city’s
new administration.
Alleging corruption in the arbitration process, the suit appealed an
arbitrator’s ruling that upheld firefighters’ pension increases negotiated
during Marsicano’s administration.
According to the appeal, the June 21, 1999, arbitration award reflected no
effort by the Board of Arbitration to hear evidence on the issues in dispute
and to resolve those issues in a fair and even-handed manner.
The appeal said the arbitration was used “in a conspiratorial fashion” by
the firefighters union and Marsicano’s administration to bypass City Council
and obligate the city to “inappropriate and unlawful contract terms.”
John Floyd III, head of the local firefighters union, had no comment on the
appeal.
The city is asking for the arbitrator’s decision to be overturned because
the decision fails to acknowledge that City Council never ratified the
contract, which was negotiated in secret under Marsicano’s administration.
Essentially, the act of arbitration allowed Marsicano’s administration and
the firefighters union to sidestep City Council’s legal right to ratify city
contracts, city solicitor Conrad Falvello argues.
An arbitrator’s award can be challenged within 30 days of the decision,
Falvello said, but because Marsicano’s administration made no effort to appeal
or confirm the award, Mayor Lou Barletta should have a chance to do so.
Barletta said he is challenging the award because the city, which faces an
estimated deficit of about $555,000 from last year, doesn’t have money to pay
for the pension increases guaranteed in the firefighters’ contract.
“It had nothing to do with whether anyone deserves (the pension increases)
or not,” Barletta said. “It’s just unaffordable.”
If the arbitrator’s decision is upheld, this year the city will owe
$283,222 more to the firefighters’ pension fund than it would have paid if the
old contracts were still in place, city administrator Sam Monticello said.
Some of that money would come from state funding and from a portion of
earned income taxes already set aside to pay for the pensions, but a
significant portion would have to come from the city’s general fund,
Monticello said.
City officials won’t know how much of the increase the general fund will
have to absorb until they see an actuarial report that is expected to be
released later this week, Monticello said.
At last week’s meeting, City Council voted down five union contracts that
were negotiated without council’s knowledge under Marsicano’s administration,
leaving most of the city’s workers without labor agreements.
A memo prepared by Barletta forecasts that the city might have to lay off
at least 15 employees to balance the budget. The belt-tightening measure
wouldn’t even touch an estimated $555,000 deficit from last year.
Barletta will begin meeting with union workers this week to negotiate new
contracts. He said he is scheduled to sit down with highway department workers
on Thursday and city hall workers on Friday.
The mayor said he would also like to get together with the police and
firefighters unions to discuss the city’s dispute over their pension
increases, but so far no dates have been set for those meetings.
Call Hoffman at 829-7139.