May 31--ALBANY -- A state arbitrator says the city violated its firefighters' union contract when it hired without negotiations civilian code enforcement officers last year to handle apartment inspections -- a key change in Albany's approach to code enforcement.
The 17-page decision shrouds the city's code enforcement changes in uncertainty. Also indirectly at stake is some $336,000 in stipends that firefighters receive to do the inspections -- known as rental occupancy permit, or ROP, inspections. Each firefighter has continued to receive that $1,400 annual stipend despite the fact that the civilian inspectors took over the work last July, and Mayor Jerry Jennings' administration has signaled it hopes to end the payments in any new contract.
The union, however, says safety and the integrity of the firefighters' contract, not money, were the main issues.
Despite winning two of the three issues in dispute, city officials responded Thursday by saying they believe the arbitrator's decision is inconsistent -- on the one hand ruling they wrongly took the ROP inspections away from the firefighters but were within their rights to outsource other code inspections, including of vacant buildings and places of public assembly.
"These two positions cannot rationally coexist in a single opinion," codes Commissioner Jeffery Jamison wrote in a memo analyzing the May 24 decision, citing the arbitrator's reference to management's "right to remain flexible" when it comes to staffing.
The dispute is complicated further by the fact that city lawmakers voted this year at Jennings' urging to split code enforcement away from the fire department entirely, creating a newly independent and civilian-run Department of Buildings and Regulatory Compliance led by Jamison. The arbitration began before that restructuring.
The code enforcement changes have been generally welcomed by neighborhood groups that have led the charge for years for more consistent and aggressive code enforcement to boost quality of life and stem the spread of blight.
While the arbitrator, Paul C. Doyle, directs the city to immediately assign firefighters back to the ROP inspections, it's not clear how that might work under the newly civilianized codes office. And Jamison said he plans to continue to abide by the council-approved restructuring. The city could appeal the decision in state Supreme Court.
"I am required by the local law to perform my functions and to do these duties and to protect and serve the citizens, so I'm going to continue to do that," Jamison said.
Bob Powers, president of the Albany Permanent Professional Firefighters' Association, hailed the decision as a victory and stressed having firefighters do the inspections makes them and the public safer.
"It was more about the collective bargaining agreement and taking away the work that we did," Powers said. "All we wanted to do was be a part of that plan."
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Copyright 2013 - Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
