Westchester Guardian/The Court Report.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Court Report
By Richard Blassberg

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey A. Cohen
Grants Injunctive Relief To Westchester County
Correction Officers In Dispute With County

Ruling Brings Into Focus Questionable Practices By
County Department Of Corrections Involving Millions Of Dollars

Westchester State Supreme Court
White Plains, New York
Judge Jeffrey A. Cohen Presiding

Analysis:

A ruling by Acting Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey A. Cohen, a little more than two weeks ago, has brought a quick response from the County Attorney’s Office in the form of an appeal to the Appellate Division, Second Department, of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. The Westchester County Correction Officers Benevolent Association [COBA], bargaining agent for some 750 County correction officers, had brought an Article 78 proceeding in the form of an Order To Show Cause against “The County of Westchester and the Westchester County Department of Corrections.”

COBA had argued that the Respondents had, over a period of several years, been “withholding, revoking, and/or interfering with benefits due correction officers,” pursuant to General Municipal Law 207c in accordance with Article XX, Paragraph 12(a) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the union and the County. Essentially, the union argued that the practice of the Department of Corrections, over several years, involving reduction of officers’ leave time and benefits, was in blatant violation of State statutes and the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in force with respect to correction officers on leave due to job-related injury.

As is so often the case lately, when individuals, or agents acting on behalf of County employees, or a class of individuals, bring the County of Westchester and/or any of its many departments into State or Federal Court, the County Attorney’s Office typically attempts to obfuscate the legal issues and elements of fact with a ‘smokescreen’ of procedural arguments. Judge Cohen was neither distracted nor confused, manifesting a clear grasp of the history between the litigants as well as the applicable case law.

Relying upon “the plain language of Paragraph 12(a) of Article XX of the CBA” Cohen concluded that the petitioning union was correct in their contention that the Department of Corrections had “improperly deducted the individual petitioners’ accrued leave for a portion of the time period during which the Medical Consultant’s determination as to their fitness to return to work was still pending.”

While it is clearly very important, going forward, that Judge Cohen has, in fact, enjoined the County from engaging any further in such unlawful practices, the real impact will be felt from the retroactive application of the ruling to possibly hundreds of such wrongfully handled correction officers over the past several years, and the questions that will surely arise regarding those unpaid funds.

“ROCCO MUST GO!”

Correction Officers Hold Massive Demonstration

White Plains, Monday, Nov. 13th Shouting “Rocco must go,” and carrying signs declaring their complaints, some 250 County Correction Officers, men and women, picketed outside the Westchester County Office Building, many carrying the November 9th issue of The Westchester Guardian. Officers, including Sergeants, were protesting the recent suspension, without pay, of three fellow officers, growing out of an incident October 1st at the County Jail.

The incident, involved a visitor from Yonkers, who allegedly attempted to smuggle drugs to an inmate, in the visitors’ lounge, and then managed to escape, causing a lockdown, and a dog, and helicopter search of the area surrounding the Jail. Those picketing expressed their feelings that the suspended officers have been unfairly targeted and punished for an event that was beyond their control.

Picketing from 4 to 6pm, officers, accompanied by Robert Delbene, President of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, carried signs that read: “Fire Pozzi Now,” “Stop The Double Standard,” “Enough IsEnough,” and “ Threats Will Not Stop Us.” One officer carried a mock coffin with a sign reading, “It’s Only A Matter Of Time.” Union President Delbene, told The Westchester Gu a r d i a n , which has been calling for the removal of Pozzi, and “the appointment of a full-time Commissioner of Corrections,” for some time, that he hoped that the County Executive got the message that “ the correction officers are outraged, and angry over Pozzi’s actions.”

Delbene went on to explain that the 720 correction officers on the job at the County Jail, and the Penitentiary “ are struggling with a hostile work environment, where the Commissioner rules by retaliation.” He further pointed out that there are serious health and safety violations at the Jail that have not been addressed for years, and indicated that there is no satisfactory evacuation plan in existence in the event of an emergency at Indian Point.

The Westchester Guardian has maintained the position one individual cannot possibly serve both as the Commissioner Of Probation and the Commissioner of Corrections at the same time, and do justice to each position. Each assignment is a full-time position, demanding full-time attention and presence. And, while the Department of Probation would not seem to be suffering under the present arrangement, clearly, the Correction Department is laboring with many serious, unresolved issues that can only be adequately dealt with by a full-time commissioner.

Susan Tolchin’s attempt to trivialize the significance, and the legitimacy, of last Monday’s massive demonstration can only serve to further inflame an already very serious, and antagonistic situation. The County Executive’s Office would be well advised to deal with this matter promptly and effectively, by appointing a new Commissioner of Corrections before matters get out of hand with possible disastrous consequences.