WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL March 11, 2010: On March 2, the City of White Plains filed a suit  in New York Supreme Court against the White Plains Police Benevolent Association (the police labor union) which asks the court to declare “null and void” the December 29,2008 Memorandum of Agreement between Mayor Joseph Delfino and the police putting in place the 12-hour work shifts for patrol personnel on the grounds that “the December 29, 2008 MOA was never approved by the Common Council.”

The suit filed also asks the court to direct the City and PBA “to restore nune pro tune all the terms and conditions of employment in effect prior to the implementation of the December 29 MOA,” : the previous 8-hour work schedule, vacation leave,personal leave, administrative worki schedule and court time provisions.

Richard Zuckerman of Lamb & Barnosky, the labor attorney for the city, is the city attorney on the matter. Harry Greenberg of  Greenberg Bruzichelli Greenberg is the counsel for the WPPBA.

The new city administration estimates the new work shifts have cost the city over  $100,000 in cash payments to police for compensatory time (a new option which previously paid in compensatory time off only)  earned by the new work rules in the first six months of the program this fiscal year. Previously the former Commissioner of Public Safety, Dr. Frank Straub, had touted the 12-hour shifts as having significantly cut overtime.

The lawsuit contends that Mayor Joseph Delfino and the union implemented the 12-hour shifts without approval of the Common Council making continuation of the 12-hour shifts up to the discretion of the Police Commissioner. Previously, the council did not contest that arrangement after they agreed to a 9-month trial of the program which came up for extension in October of 2009.