NORWALK, Conn. A hotly contested labor contract between the city of Norwalk and unhappy members of a protesting labor union was accepted by the Common Council with a sprinkling of hot words and lengthy debate Tuesday night.
With one member missing, the council voted 7-7 on a proposal to reject the binding arbitration award between the city and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2405. Mayor Richard Moccia declined to cast a deciding vote. With a legal opinion from corporation counsel that 10 votes, or a two-thirds majority, were necessary to reject the award, the motion was effectively declined.
As a result, the 133 members of Local 2405 will get a raise they have been waiting three years for. But included in the contract is the controversial option to outsource the city's garbage collection. Accepting the award put the contract into effect but does not mean garbage collection will be outsourced. Hal Alvord, director of the Department of Public Works, is now authorized to obtain bids for outsourcing. But the council must approve a contract with a private company.
"The train has already left the station," said Anna Duleep, a Democratic council member who is now minority leader. The outsourcing is included in the budget proposed by Moccia and the finance department. The process "feels backward," she said, in reference to the need to "scramble" and make up the difference in the city's budget if the council does not vote to outsource.
Thomas Hamilton, the city's finance director, said the city would have to cut positions if the council rejected outsourcing. "We are exactly at the cap," Hamilton said. "If we don't have the savings, it has to come out of some other area."
Those positions would likely come from Local 2405, he said.
Council members were under the gun as the award expired at midnight. There was a joking reference to keeping the debate from going too long, lest the award be rejected because they went too late.
The meeting, which began at 8 p.m., ended at about 10:40.
Michael Geake, a former Democrat now caucusing with the Republicans as an unaffiliated member, wondered what would happen when the contract expired at the end of June, whether the option to outsource would still be in effect. The answer was that if would be an option until there was a new contract.
"I don't support privatization," he said. "I just want to say that I think that waiting for three years for a raise is just plain long enough. I will be voting to not reject. But when privatization comes up that's a totally different discussion."
Geake voted with the all of the Republicans to accept the award. Democrats voted no. Republican Fred Bondi was not present.
Hot words were exchanged during the discussion before the vote. David Watts, a Democrat who referred to outsourcing as "a horrible plan," produced newspaper articles that showed that the city's personnel director, James Hasselkamp, has a history of being unpopular with unions. He was told to stick to the contract, as a point of order.
Hot words continued after the vote. On his way out the door, Geake was confronted by a union member waiting in the vestibule with John Mosby, who had called outsourcing "a sign to the end of the unions" during the public comment portion of the meeting. The union member said that people weren't looking at Hasselkamp's past, while Mosby told Geake the same thing several times: "Ward B will never go for you again."
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