An admission by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski that he violated a local ordinance that requires him to get City Council’s permission to outsource work now done by city employees escalated Wednesday with council demanding to know how many times violations have occurred.
“I know the mayor had knowledge of the ordinance and I can only conclude he deliberately violated this ordinance a number of times,” council President Michael D’Amore said during a human resources committee meeting. “There needs to be some accounting for that.”
Last month, Pawlowski spokesman Mike Moore said in a written statement that the hiring of a Florida contractor to service about 10 percent of the city’s 1,800 fire hydrants and 5,000 water valves was not presented to council because the Department of Public Works was not aware of the requirement.
A city ordinance passed in 1998 states, “City Council must approve, by resolution, all contracts for service, to do work or provide city services, which is currently being performed or provided for by city workers.”
The measure is intended to protect city jobs by restricting the mayor’s ability to unilaterally privatize portions of the workforce.
Administration staff acknowledged the oversight Wednesday and said they would now follow the correct procedures, which include a presentation before the newly re-established joint subcontracting committee composed of union, city and City Council members.
James Maley, deputy director of human resources, said that in his 12 years working for the city no one ever questioned why the 1998 ordinance was not followed until now. He and Managing Director Ken Bennington said they were not aware of the provision prior to the hydrant work.
But D’Amore rejected their position, as well as Pawlowski’s attempt last month to pass the blame on to the public works department. He insisted the mayor knew of the rule because council some years ago approved outsourcing a number of jobs from the accounting department.
“Everyone understood that City Council needed to approve the outsourcing of those jobs and that was approved by this council and the mayor knew full well about this law and he disregarded it numerous times, flagrantly,” D’Amore said.
Councilman Mike Schlossberg directed the city clerk to review the minutes from past meetings to determine who in the administration, if anyone, knew of the law.
“If the administration was aware of this in the past and specifically referenced it at any point in the meeting, I have very, very grave concerns,” he said.
The mayor was invited to the committee meeting but did not attend because he is on vacation in Florida. Maley said he would check with managers to see how much outsourcing has occurred.
Moore said last month that the limited outsourcing shows the city could save more than $100,000 a year if all of the city’s fire hydrants and valves were serviced by an outside firm and not union employees.
The maintenance work is done by members of the local Services Employees International Union, which saw 39 layoffs in 2009 and has borne the brunt of the mayor’s cost-saving measures. Overall, the city is at its lowest employment level in decades.
The union has filed three grievances against the administration based on outsourcing work. One grievance was settled, and two are pending. Ryan Hunsicker, head of the local union, said the outsourcing was a “slap in the face.”
Source:http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-contract-dispute-20110209,0,4111602.story
