CITY EMPLOYEES SUPPORT DEMOCRATIC JUDGE CHALLENGER.

Nonunion Workers Fired; Union Members Chastised.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution disallows abridging the freedom of speech and gives people the right to peaceably assemble. In New York, an employer may not discriminate against employees on the basis of their personal political activities as long as those activities do not interfere with employment.

This is an ugly time in Mount Vernon. In the city’s anything goes political arena absolutely nothing seems impossible, but it’s still disturbing to see the low level to which some people will stoop to “have it their way”. Even more frightening is the fact that it always seems to be the same people committing the infractions. They don’t care about how their decisions affect people’s lives or who pays the bills when they screw up.

Two hundred years ago New York established rules governing some guarantee of continued employment in the politically laden halls of government. The time when every government employee was grateful to the person holding the big job of mayor, governor, whatever, was supposed to be over. Employees were supposed to feel confident that once power changed, be it political party or administration, their jobs were safe because the law stood to protect them. Mount Vernon apparently forgot to copy the memo with the changing of the guard. New York’s Civil Service rules and federal law are not applicable to them when it comes to workers exercising their civic duty in the American democratic process.

RoadRunner has learned that after some Public Works employees gathered last week for a lunchtime press conference with supporters of a candidate for City Court Judge they learned just how far Commissioner Terrence Horton would go to prove his power over them. It is reported that the Commissioner not only chastised employees in public but took adverse action against them by week’s end. Commissioner Horton, dependent upon predictability and control, reportedly called his employees from the sidelines of the press conference and attempted to intimidate them from supporting the candidate. It is reported that the candidate stepped in to advise Mr. Horton not to interfere with employee protected activity occurring on their lawful lunch break.

Commissioner Horton, intent on doing as he saw fit, apparently discarded commonsense supervisory logic two days later and effectively suppressed employee candidate support by terminating seasonal workers and denying overtime credit to some union members for their lawful attendance at the political press conference. The public can expect to be presented with contrived grounds for the alleged job action that by all accounts was retaliatory and intended to stifle any further employee free speech. The public should carefully scrutinize Commissioner Horton’s rationale as RoadRunner has learned that at least one individual intends to pursue legal action. Should this happen the property taxpayer must be prepared to foot the bill for any civil rights claim filed against the city.

The failure of the current administration to respect the rights of its employees in the political process has the chilling effect of sending a signal to all employees that their jobs will be in jeopardy if they outwardly support candidates not given the approval of the administration. The candidate who would have been the recipient of employee support is also affected because an unfair playing field has been established by the offenders, who in this case occupy positions of power within the city and the prominent political party. Fear and intimidation is a natural outgrowth of any politically motivated job action and the news had to spread like a wildfire throughout city hall.

If Commissioner Horton illegally used threats of suspension and/or dismissal after his menacing appearance at the press conference and then fired some employees and disciplined others for exercising their right to participate in political activity on their lunch break, he may have committed an unlawful act. According to some of the men, their participation in the press conference was outside of working hours, off the city’s premises, did not involve the use of city equipment or property and did not pose material conflict of interest with the city’s proprietary or business interests. Commissioner Horton’s actions suggest that his ethics are derived from a loophole mentality where the law is nothing more than something to be exploited for his own personal gain and/or that of his employer.

Besides being illegal, Commissioner Horton’s actions can be costly. RoadRunner reminds Commissioner Horton that although he is a boss, he does not have the power nor the right to break the law. The Human Resources Department and the Law Department surely know that public sector employees have a First Amendment right to engage in free speech and voting rights violations are serious matters.

Since the mayor and at least one of his department heads fail to understand the severity of such infractions, it may well take the strong arm of a court of law to remind the City of Mount Vernon that the rules can and will be enforced.

$21 MILLION BOND – IT’S YOUR MONEY

Citizens attended the November 28th meeting of the City Council to demand explanation as to how the City Council could commit struggling residents to further financial burden without community discussion. It was expected that most City Councilpersons would join City Council President William Randolph in supporting the bond. Councilman Randolph harassed citizens with excuses for nearly 30 minutes in response to their complaints that the City Council failed to protect their best interests. One wonders if the good councilman was long-winded to bore residents into leaving before a vote was taken. An encouraging sign that someone is listening to the people came from Commissioner Yuhanna Edwards.

CITIZENS ARE REMINDED THAT THE BOARD OF ESTIMATE & CONTRACT MEETS ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2 AT 8:45 A.M. THE AGENDA WILL INCLUDE A VOTE ON SPENDING THE $21 MILLION BOND. YOUR ATTENDANCE AT THE MEETING WILL SEND A MESSAGE TO THE MAYOR, THE CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND THE COMPTROLLER THAT TAXPAYERS CANNOT AFFORD ADDITIONAL TAXPAYER BURDEN AT THIS TIME AND HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE AS ELECTED OFFICIALS.

Taxpayers will be faced with added financial liability for years to come if the city has to pay hefty bond notes when sales and property tax revenues have been hard hit. This would not be of significant concern to many of the mayor’s new administration; they don’t live here so it doesn’t affect them. The people who do must stand up to protect their own interests.

STREET SPEAK

RoadRunner received a personal note from the husband of a candidate for City Council with the message “Let’s rebuild our city instead of tearing it down.” RoadRunner will now address the reader’s comment as well as the attached City of Mount Vernon email detailing spending associated with the City Council approved $21 million dollar bond.

The explanation provided for expenditures was surely designed to satisfy what Mayor Clinton Young’s administration believes will abate discussion by the Mount Vernon taxpayer on how their money will be spent. The reader is reminded that not all of Mount Vernon’s citizens are so easily pacified. After nearly 2 years of poor planning, overspending and abuse of the taxpayer dollar trusting what comes out of city hall is difficult. Unlike most of the current administration there are citizens who stayed abreast of planning and projects involving the expenditure of tax dollars over the years. They are citizens well aware of what was previously done, what was planned, what was budgeted, how what was budgeted was spent and what was not done. They also are keenly aware of fiscally sound projects that were aborted in favor of change. That change is costing taxpayers much more than they ever imagined.

Taxpayers have a right to question how their money is spent and should demand accountability from elected officials. What alarms taxpayers is when answers are vague or nonexistent and the political hand digs deeper in the taxpayer pocket with little to show in return. If speaking up is tearing the city down, then call the dump truck. The explanation the writer attached only insults the intelligence of any moderately informed taxpayer.

The beauty of information is that with it citizens are bound to see truth through the smokescreen.

THE PUBLIC EXPECTS THE MAYOR AND HIS ADMINISTRATORS TO UPHOLD THE LAW, NOT BREAK IT.

WHEN THEY DO, THE TAXPAYER LOSES.