Contractor Ordinance Recap

From BucksLocalNews.com

Gotta watch those conflicts of interest. You never know when one might pop up.

Glass houses, you know...

Posted on Thu, Mar 19, 2009
Council weighs comments, rejects contractor ordinance
By Petra Chesner Schlatter; Staff Editor

After hearing considerable public comment, the Morrisville Borough Council voted 7-1 not to approve the controversial 'responsible contractor' ordinance (RCO).

Voting "No" at the March 16 meeting were: President Nancy Sherlock, Jane Burger, Eileen Dreisbach, Rita Ledger, Stephen Worob and Kathy Panzitta. Voting in favor of the RCO was David Rivella. Ed Albertson was absent.

James Downey, borough council solicitor, announced that a Bucks County administrator, who lives in Morrisville, informed him that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has said municipalities with RCOs would not get federal Community and Economic Development block grants.

HUD has deemed such ordinances restrict competition and therefore would not give grants for construction.

Downey noted part of his job is to keep Morrisville Borough out of difficulty and that he should "tweak" the proposed RCO and submit it to the county and to HUD for their comments.

The idea of the ordinance was to award all maintenance and public construction contracts to responsible and qualified companies. Part of the proposed ordinance called for giving jobs to companies, which have apprenticeship programs. These contracts would be for at least $10,000.

Some people were saying that union representatives are encouraging municipalities to adopt the RCO. At the March 10 agenda meeting, six people spoke out against adoption of the ordinance. One resident said two council members should not vote on the issue because of conflict of interest.

Marlys Mihok, a member of the Morrisville School Board, said the ordinance would be "very exclusionary" because it would exclude established and reputable contractors with small businesses that cannot provide an apprenticeship program.

Mihok said "there is more than a slight appearance of a conflict of interest." She said two council members should abstain from voting on the ordinance because they belong to unions. They are Ed Albertson and David Rivella. She later said Panzitta and Sherlock should also abstain.

She brought county records, which she said document the union contributions to David Rivella, a democrat who is a journeyman and belongs to a construction union. She said he accepted campaign contributions from several unions.

Mihok also noted that the Democratic Committee in Morrisville accepted union contributions. Rivella is president of the committee.

Rivella said neither the word "union" nor "labor" are mentioned in the proposed RCO.

He said the solicitor should add to the RCO to assure the borough can receive federal funds for construction.

The meeting room was filled with some people who are pro-union.

Jeff Johnson is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He said his group provides a good apprenticeship program. Johnson said he was in an apprenticeship program, but also received his Bachelor's Degree.

Johnson noted his union does gratis work in the community. One major project was constructing a house for an elderly couple. Their house was ruined in one of the Yardley floods.

Other community service projects include Habitat for Humanity, the Sunshine Foundation, among others.

"These are people who want to have an education," Johnson said. He emphasized the union wants the RCO.

Opposing the RCO was Jeff Zeh, who said 75 percent of construction employees in the Greater Philadelphia area work for non-union open shop construction companies.

"We are opposed to discriminatory arrangements that exclude most qualified construction companies from bidding on public construction projects, he said at the agenda meeting.

Zeh questioned, "Has the borough experienced any serious problems with contractors it has hired to perform borough construction work?"

He mentioned open shop construction companies have apprenticeship programs, which would have been part of the ordinance's requirements.

The RCO "would preclude employees such as those who have completed vocational training programs at the Bucks County Technical High Schools from satisfying the requirement of the proposed ordinance," Zeh said.

He noted the RCO would mean less competition and that "would drive up construction costs for the borough."

Meanwhile, Councilman Worob said at Monday night's meeting that he had been a union chairman for years. He said there are "good things," which unions have done. However, there are unions that "go too far."

Worob said the ordinance is "restrictive. It eliminates competition."

Council member Dreis-bach, who voted "No" on the RCO, said her son and her father belonged to unions. "I know a lot of good contractors and they don't have apprenticeships."

Council member Burger, who voted, "No" on the ordinance, said her husband had gone through an apprenticeship program.

Councilman Rivella, who was the only one voting "Yes," is a member of a union and went through an apprenticeship program. He said his apprenticeship was completed at the Mercer County Vocational school, not through a union.

Burger said, "There are programs that are not union-affiliated." She also said the matter should not go back to the Ordinance Committee, because she is not a lawyer.

President Sherlock asked, "Why didn't we have a motion 'to tweak' the ordinance?"

Worob added, "Maybe this has died."

Burger said the matter could be addressed at a later time. She said the ordinance is "problematic" and "should be rephrased." The ordinance, she said, limits competition.

Sherlock noted the late hour. "The majority of this council does not want the RCO," she concluded.