Mayor Sends Comptroller Final Collection Notice: Pay City Workers
Mayor Richard Thomas today asked city Comptroller Deborah Reynolds to pay city workers the overtime they are owed.
Reynolds has informed the city’s commissioners that her office would not pay overtime until the city adopts a 2019 budget.
Mayor Thomas said the city’s work will continue and that streets will be plowed whether it’s “with a spoon or a shovel.”
During the press conference, Public Works Commissioner Mark Ederer made a promise to the public.
“The people of DPW will not let the City of Mount Vernon down. We’ll work and the streets will be plowed,” Ederer said.
Click here to see the full press conference.
Before Mayor Thomas’ address, Communications Director Ned McCormack said:
“We are here today to talk about the quality of life of the people we serve and the people that serve us….In working towards this mission, the mayor wants to assure all resident of Mount Vernon, that every day, all day, the Mayor and his staff are working hard to overcome all the obstacles they face.”
These were the Mayor’s prepared remarks:
Good afternoon. I am joined today by our commissioners of Police, Fire, and DPW, and the respective union representatives, as well as our Corporation Counsel.
We are here in solidarity because of the reckless action taken by Comptroller Deborah Reynolds yesterday, when she unilaterally notified all department heads that effective today she would no longer pay overtime.
Think about it. This notice goes out on the eve of the year’s first snow storm.
How will our seniors, or anyone for that matter, walk the streets safely? Who’s going to clear the roads?
Storms don’t happen on the 9 to 5, Monday through Friday shift.
Police, fire, and DPW are sent into unknown and often dangerous conditions at all times of the day and night.
They protect us. Our promise in return is that we will pay them.
The finance department does not run the city, it does not decide whether or not streets can be plowed, whether firefighters can respond to fires, whether police can arrest criminals.
This is why I’ve taken action. Next week I return to court seeking an order that either compels the Comptroller to do her job or removes her from office.
We’ve also petitioned the governor to remove her.
The job of the Comptroller is to pay the bills when they come in. Not prevent the protection of our residents.
The Comptroller knows this. She tried to pull this stunt in July and Corporation Counsel firmly instructed her what the law was.
“Comptroller:
According to our expert outside labor counsel, you lack the power and authority to order a cessation of overtime payments within DPW. Since the contract for that union sets forth the overtime procedures, this action by you violates the union contract by unilaterally changing the written terms and conditions.”
We thought she got the message. Apparently not.
There has been some talk that she was backing off today, after learning about this press conference.
To my knowledge, employees have not been paid for overtime incurred for the first two weeks of the year, and the directive on no overtime going forward is still in effect.
She misguidedly believes because the city has not yet adopted a 2019 budget, all the rules for running the city have been suspended.
That’s not the case. It is not uncommon for cities, states and the federal government to not pass budgets on time. Look at what’s going on in Washington.
The simple fact is you continue to operate under the current budget.
For Comptroller Reynolds to act otherwise is reckless and unprofessional.
Besides the threatened nonpayment overtime, I’d like to share some other recent examples of problems created by the finance department’s failure to pay the city’s bills.
- Yesterday our gasoline vendor sent us a letter threatening to cut off deliveries on Jan. 25 because the city hasn’t paid bills dating back to October. That means the city may run out of gas next week if we don’t pay our debt.
- Also yesterday, we returned two public works trucks because they were about to be repossessed for non-payment. One of the trucks is the only vehicle we have to clean storm catch basins, so in the event of heavy rains, we’re at greater risk of flooding.
- And forget about shopping local for replacement parts. We can’t even go to Gramatan Hardware for a bolt because they won’t give us any more credit.
Again, I want to remind everyone that I’m not sitting idly by. As I said earlier, this is why I will return to court next week seeking an order that either compels the Comptroller to do her job or removes her from office.
