September 2, 2010

Vote on union pact postponed

After a wild and crazy session, city councilors tonight agreed to postpone a vote on the proposed contract for Local 233 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers.
Councilors said they didn't want to take a vote on the proposal until Republican David Mills could be there, too.
In the end, the entire council except for the missing Mills voted to put off the vote until next Wednesday. Mayor Art Ward opposed the delay.
I couldn't make the meeting -- because I had to cover a story for The Herald this morning -- but I hear it was pretty loony, with much shouting and anger.
Another special council session on the pact will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
I understand Ward mentioned during the meeting that he really didn't want the terms of the deal posted on this blog so I'll endeavor to make sure they are soon.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

233 got screwed

Collins for Mayor! said...

"I understand Ward mentioned during the meeting that he really didn't want the terms of the deal posted on this blog so I'll endeavor to make sure they are soon."

LOVE IT, STEVE!!!

Anonymous said...

What a ZOO!!

Maybe Stortz wasn'tso bad after all

Anonymous said...

We gave away the kitchen sink

Anonymous said...

Nothing was voted on so 233 didn't get screwed ... yet. If 233 gets screwed, it's because their negotiators allowed it to happen. You can't blame the council for that. They just approve or disapprove what is put before them. Apparently it was tabled because the council needed more time to look over the contract because of some revision or something that they didn't have until today, I guess. AT least they didn't jump into it and just vote blindly. It's the mayor and diane whatever her last name is who are in negotiations with the union. If 233 doesn't like what their leaders negotiated for them, then they need to have a discussion with their leaders.

Anonymous said...

Ward has lost (or maybe never had) control over this Council. A good leader works with the Council instead of having such lunacy in public. It puts the City - leaders and residents - in a bad light. No wonder why the Governor's office thinks so little of Bristol.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Steve, but I've got to agree with Ward on this one. Posting the deal on the blog will only rile the monkeys. Who needs it?

Anonymous said...

Mills go on vacation and the city comes to a halt??

Even Nicastro wasn't that important.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't just about Mills going on vacation. The mayor was asked to not have the meeting this night because other people had prior commitments, i.e. vacations, but he ignored the request and went ahead with it anyway. Our mayor obviously has a control and respect issue.

The tabling was about people being able to read information that they had just received that day about the union contract and they hadn't had enough time to digest it. I, frankly, do not want anyone voting on anything unless they have all the facts.

Anonymous said...

Ward works well with this council, just like he did with Stortz, when he was a councilman.

Now we all see the real Ward.

Anonymous said...

Start the layoffs

Anonymous said...

"I understand Ward mentioned during the meeting that he really didn't want the terms of the deal posted on this blog so I'll endeavor to make sure they are soon."

Meanwhile, he's getting crap for talking to the press about hurricane preparedness. The poor guy can't get a break.

Anonymous said...

Many people in 233 didn't even know there was a vote until it came time to vote. It was very hush hush and then wham, hurry up and vote. Somethings rotten in Denmark!

Anonymous said...

Wardie has been gunning for Kevin for awhile. This was bound to explode and looks like 233 was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kevin needs to be more brief. He loses people.

Anonymous said...

I was told that Ward signed off on this contract weeks ago, but stone-walled the Council on it because that is what he does. His defenders are quick to say, "But he is the Mayor - the Council should come to him". The problem with that line is that they do try to come to him - and he kicks them in the teeth like he did tonight. They asked for this information weeks ago and he refused to give it to them. His excuse: he's afraid someone will "leak" it. How insulting. Try it for once (he never has). If someone leaks it, he's vindicated. Otherwise, don't act so surprised when your fellow elected officials finally get the courage to force you to let them do the job they were elected to do, and not rubber-stamp your contract.

Anonymous said...

Ward has made this political on waiting for Mills to come back to vote on it.

Anonymous said...

It appears the Mayor wants to ram this one down our throats (again) without disclousure. What happened to good faith open government?

I hope Steve can get the details and let the monkeys out of the barrel as a matter of the public's right to know.

Otherwuise pass out the city uniforms. We will now have a more complete socialist union hack wardrobe, the Obama uniform, the state union uniform and now the Bristol Mayor's uniform...wish we at least had a choice of color other then s__ brown!

Anonymous said...

While this is another screw up by this Mayor, it no way means we should bring Stortz back...we are in enough discord without Dr No.

double dipping? said...

why is mccauley collecting money as a city council member when he is supposedly collecting workman's compensation?

Anonymous said...

7:30 PM, What would you like him to have done? Used a whip and a chair? These are supposed to be adults. They're responsible for their own behavior.

Anonymous said...

Rile the monkeys! Rile the monkeys! Rile the monkeys!

Anonymous said...

Like I said before 6:15 Rather than rant and rave anonymously DO SOMETHING or go away perhaps to another country where they behead you for shooting you mouths off.

Anonymous said...

What a dog and pony show yesterday evening was. Councilman McCauley continues to to show us how immature he is. Not only was he disrespectful to the Mayor he used Local 233 as a pawn in is his ever ending quest to vindicate his old ally, what we call "sour grapes".
Kevin, a bit of advice, instead of tyrying to justify (lie) about your reasons to table the issue just make the motion. In questioning the Mayor's leadership abilities I noticed you showed absolutley none.

Anonymous said...

Local 233 held a meeting for all of us members last week and explained in detail the provisions of the contract.The leaders did a very thorough job. A vote was held the following day and allowed for all the members to vote. The times and voting places were quite accomodating. The members ratified the vote by almost 3 to 1 margin.Thank you local 233 officers.

Anonymous said...

McCauley isn't working for Bristol. He's never gotten over the fact that Ward beat his mentor. All he's out for is revenge. We need people who are focused on working together to make Bristol better. Mr. McCauley needs to go!

Anonymous said...

What a mess the Democratic Party in Bristol is! I'm ashamed of the disrespect I saw last evening.Mr. McCauley should resign.The rest of the Democrats, Block, Matthews and Fuller did not support their own party. All of you know that you will support this contract.It was a circus .Ken Cockaye must have celebrated after the meeting...w/ McCauley. I say vote em all out!!!!

Anonymous said...

When I was on the council ( and Ward was too), the mayor s) would keep the council informed on negotiations in monthly executive sessions.

Apparently Ward doesn't even do that.

He must be awfully lonesome by himself: even with a democrat majority he can't make things work!

Anonymous said...

As I watched the debacle at yesterdays town council meeting I had to laugh.It was like watching a modern day Julius Ceasar or better yet Judas Iscariot.

Anonymous said...

5:50 a.m.: I get it. You're not happy with your union leaders. Then vote them out. Did any of the city workers complain to them about the details of their contract? I'm guessing not or if you did, they ignored what you had to say.

7:22 a.m.: What are you talking about? If you mean the mayor, yeah, he is an adult but he certainly isn't acting like one. He's whining like a little child who can't get his way.

Craig Minor said...

Why was it so important for the Council to vote on this contract last night? It takes effect automatically, with or without Council endorsement. Art let the clock run out on the firefighters' arbitration decision, so why not with this contract? Something's not right.

Anonymous said...

Craig Minor for C.O.O.!

Anonymous said...

As Casey Stengel said, "Can't anyone here play this game?"

At least Stortz and Nicastro knew how to run meetings!

Anonymous said...

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. McCauley and company are doing the bidding of their master, and Bristol suffers.

Anonymous said...

9:57: The only one who used 233 as a pawn was the mayor and Barios and petosa with their posters and their identical t-shirts and union contingent all over something that had to do with tabling the issue until next week so they could look at some last-minute information.

They were the ones that setup the "dog and pony show", obviously. You could see that Mccauley was totally baffled by the anger of the labor leaders. The Ward supporters are painfully obvious on this blog, "Mccauley needs to resign." Give me a break! The mayor is to blame for this. How else would they know to show up for this meeting angrier than a nest full of disturbed bees due to misinformation?

There is nothing and I mean nothing that can justify the behavior of our mayor setting up a councilman the way he did. The only immature one I see up there is the mayor. He clearly can't get over the Ellen factor because HE's the one who continues to bring it up!

If you think there was a rift in the party before, it's about as big as the Grand Canyon now! Thanks a lot, Artie!

Anonymous said...

Stortz was bad -

Anonymous said...

12:48

Are you serious???

Minor is even more liberal, more pro-union.

Heaven help us!

Anonymous said...

Craig

I don't believe you are correct: the council could have voted it down and sent it to the state

Anonymous said...

4:06: But that's not what was going to happen. Don't you get it? No one was going to vote anything down. Once again, for the umpteenth time, the council was given information on the same day as yesterday's meeting. All they wanted to do was postpone the meeting until next week so they can look at the revisions that were handed to them, as they should do. If they didn't a darn thing next week, it will be ratified regardless and the money is retroactive to July. No one is harmed here. Let's move on.

wimpy said...

5:17 - so see how stupid it was not to vote on it last night - once mccauley gets the "okay" from her highness to vote on next wednesday, he will.

illegal is still illegal said...

can't believe that mccauley is so stupid as to have another illegal meeting with the council over this - must be okay whenever it is done by democratic councilmembers in the 2nd district, past & present? seems to be the only place that it happens.

Odin said...

"Illegal is Still Illegal": Kevin did not have an illegal meeting. He talked to a couple councilmen here, and a couple there. So long as there were never four of them together at the same time, it's not an illegal meeting. Art is either too dumb to understand that, or he is lying. And whatever else he is, Art is not dumb.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me but last i checked you don't need to be in a certain place to get things done such as the mayors office, also, Mr. McCauley went to Mayor Ward to inform him on what was going on, so Mayor Ward how could you say that Mr.McCauley never tells you anything? If Mr.McCauley was a political hack, an amateur, a lackey, disgrace, and unfit for being apart of council then why was he re-elected BY THE PEOPLE. Last time i checked don't we have a group of local representatives to help Bristol out instead of bashing one another and making a fool out of ourselves, is this really high school all over again? Believe it or not Mr.McCauley actually knows what he is doing and is for the people instead of playing games like the good ol’ boys of the Ward Clan making it a popularity contest. If Mayor Ward was concerned with the people of Bristol and Bristol in general he would have gotten things done already such as downtown Bristol, the highway. Cheers to McCauley.

Anonymous said...

Artie knows really well how to play the FOI complaint game - remember how he used it to smear Ellen three years ago? His pal files a bogus complaint, the FOI Commission investigates, and announces that no laws were broken. But the damage was done and her campaign never recovered from it. Artie is a master of dirty tricks.

Anonymous said...

Odin,

You CANNOT poll the council members, even one at a time.

Don't know if Kevin did, but it is illegal to do so.

Anonymous said...

"If Mr.McCauley was a political hack, an amateur, a lackey, disgrace, and unfit for being apart of council then why was he re-elected BY THE PEOPLE."

Uh...big mistake. We weren't aware of his inadequacies. We are now. Won't happen again.

Anonymous said...

8:50,

Ward didn't need to "smear" Ellen, she did it all by herself. It's our constitutional right (not a "dirty trick) to file for FOI.

Odin said...

9:19 -
That is an interesting claim. Can you cite a specific statute, legal opinion, or FOIC ruling to back it up?

Anonymous said...

8:43

Ah, but you are assuming that Ward is interested in doing the best for the city.

Big mistake.

Odin said...

September 3, 9:19: You have not responded to my question as to why you agree with Ward that McCauley's polling the rest of the council about tabling the contract is an FOI violation.

I went to the Freedom of Information Commission website and did a word search for "poll" and "illegal meeting". A couple dozen FOIC decisions and advisory rulings popped up. They all dealt with either polling during an executive session (illegal), or polling by email (which constitutes a secret meeting and therefore illegal). Since McCauley was never with a quorum of city councilmen at any time, there is no FOI violation.

Anonymous said...

Ellen's scripting a special council meeting wasn't an FOI violation either, but that didn't stop Artie from filing a frivolous complaint. Or maybe not so frivolous...he rode it into the Mayor's office.