Police unions in Nassau County NY sue over wage freeze ordered by state of NY, say violates collective bargaining and US Constitution

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The county's finances were so dire they were taken over by the state in January 2011. Police were counting on tax increases on their neighbors for home heating oil and property tax so they could have bigger paychecks.

4/4/11, "Police unions sue over Nassau (County, NY State) wage freeze," Newsday, Celeste Hadrick

"Nassau's three police unions have filed suit in federal court to stop the county from imposing a wage freeze ordered by a state control board.

The Police Benevolent Association, the Superior Officers Association and the Detectives Association contend in their joint lawsuit that the April 1 wage freeze violates their collective bargaining agreements and the contracts clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The suit, filed late Friday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip on behalf of about 2,440 officers, asks for a preliminary and a permanent injunction.

"At issue is whether the county can seize the political climate of the day, single out public employees and unconstitutionally renege on its collectively bargained contracts under the false cover of economic 'crisis,' " the unions say in an apparent reference to ongoing battles over labor rights

• in numerous states across the nation, including Wisconsin and Ohio.

"Yet the burden of the economic downturn may not and cannot be disproportionately carried by the police officers and other public employees," the suit argues. "It must be shared equally."

The suit names all six board members of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, County Executive Edward Mangano and County Comptroller George Maragos. The unions were serving papers on the defendants Monday.

• Mangano and Maragos declined to comment. NIFA officials also declined to comment.

NIFA, a state oversight panel, took control of the county's finances in January. Although Mangano and Maragos contended that this year's $2.6 billion budget is balanced, NIFA calculated

• a $176 million deficit.

After NIFA's declaration of a control period survived a legal challenge from Mangano, its board said late last month that the county was in a "fiscal crisis." At Mangano's request, NIFA suspended all salary increases, annual "step" increases and hikes in longevity pay, effective Friday, the same day a PBA salary increase was to have taken effect.

• Salary increases had also been scheduled June 1 for detectives and July 1 for superior officers.

The suit accuses both the county and NIFA of "political opportunism to achieve unilaterally what they would otherwise have had to wrest from the unions

• through collective bargaining or legislation."

It lists "tens of millions" of dollars in concessions the three unions have made over the past several years.

The suit also notes that Mangano repealed an existing 2.5 percent tax on heating fuel on the day he took office and also rolled back a planned 3.9 percent property tax increase.

"Thus, barely having taken the reins of the county and prompted by political motivation, County Executive Mangano with two strokes did away with some $73.4 million . . . in revenue for 2011," the suit complains.

The suit alleges: "The 'nuclear option' of a wage freeze was not intended to be, nor has it ever been, the first corrective measure to ameliorate the political choices made by the county's leaders."" (Newday is subscription)

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