A federal judge on Monday blocked legislation to give Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano the power to make $40 million in budget cuts, prompting county officials to warn of the possibility of additional layoffs to civil service employees in the coming year.
U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt issued a preliminary injunction against the legislation, which was passed by the Nassau County Legislature in May, that would have granted Mangano the ability to modified union contracts, furlough employees one day a week and cut their benefits without legislator’s approval.
“This law arguably places a knife to the throat of the unions to coerce them into making certain concessions, under the threat of the County Executive taking more egregious actions pursuant to (the legislation),” Spatt said in his ruling. “The impairment to the bargaining relationship is an irreparable harm that cannot be ignored.”
“A law that provides only one side of the bargaining table with the power to modify any term of a contract after it has been negotiated and executed,” Spatt’s ruling continued, “is perhaps the epitome of a substantial impairment to a contractual relationship.”
In May, the county’s Civil Service Employees Association filed a temporary restraining order to block the legislation.
CSEA Spokesman Ryan Mullholland said at the time that the legislation would negatively effect his organization’s 6,000 constituents by giving Mangano the ability to furlough county employees.
“Today’s ruling in federal court shows once and for all that the United States Constitution cannot be trampled on by state and local governments,” CSEA Local 830 President Jerry Laricchiuta said. “Clearly the federal courts agree that the constitution of this great country does protect all contracts including labor agreements. We believe this ruling is favorable not just for CSEA but for all labor unions.”
CSEA lawyers presented the case to Spatt, but the judge’s ruling also prevented against Mangano enacting furloughs for representatives of the county’s Police Benevolent Association, Detectives Association and Superior Officers Association unions, a CSEA news release said.
“This should send a strong message that politicians can’t just ignore contracts because it’s more convenient than acting in good faith,” CSEA President Danny Donahue said.
Mangano vowed in May to slash $41 million from this year’s budget and warned of the institution of liens against the county’s bank accounts if Democrats in the Legislature failed to approve borrowing to pay for property tax refunds.
For any borrowing to be approved, the 19-member Legislature must support the proposal by a two-thirds majority.
With Republicans holding a 10-9 majority, that would mean at least three members of the Democratic caucus would have to cross party lines for the borrowing to be approved.
Attempts to reach County Attorney John Ciampoli for comment on this story were unavailing.
But Ciampoli appeared before the county Legislature when the legislation was passed in May and defended the law. He said giving Mangano the power to make budget cuts without prior legislative approval was necessary to achieve the $41 million of savings.
“I agree with the position that this legislation is a broad mandate to the county executive to solve the problem at hand,” Ciampoli said. “When the problem is solved the legislation sunsets.”
According to published reports, Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin said Spatt’s decision to issued the preliminary injunction against the legislation would result in furloughs of county employees next year.
In July, Mangano said the county would soon layoff 100 employees by October. He said an additional 100 employees are expected to take voluntary retirement incentives by the end of 2012.
