Membership on a negotiating team
Town of Wallkill and Wallkill PBA, 34 PERB 4543
One of the elements in the improper practice charge considered by PERB Administrative Law Judge Susan A. Comenzo in the Wallkill case concerned the Wallkill PBA's threat to declare impasse if the Town did not alter the membership of its negotiating team.
PBA specifically objected to the town attorney serving as the Town's “spokesperson for the negotiating team.”
Although the PBA conceded that the Town was entitled to have its attorney present at negotiations, it took the position that the Town should use its attorney as a consultant and “not as a spokesperson.”
ALJ Comenzo held that the PBA violated Section 209-a.2 (b) of the Public Employees' Fair Employment Act by threatening, in a memorandum to the town supervisor, that it would declare impasse “if the Town did not alter the make-up of its negotiating team ... and by by-passing the Town's chief negotiator in delivering the declaration of impasse ... and in listing therein a non-negotiator as the Town representative for the purposes of the impasse.”