HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing
examiner Jack E. Marino promised Monday to consider whether he should step
aside in a high-profile case involving two unions ousted from the Convention
Center.
Marino's statement came after an hour-long hearing in
which a lawyer for the Convention Center accused him of raising an
"appearance of impropriety" that undercut the board's decision-making
credibility.
Lawyer David L. Hackett cited as evidence comments from
Philly.com saying that "the fix is in" after Marino made a decision
that kept alive the hopes of the ousted unions - the Metropolitan Regional
Council of Carpenters and the Teamsters - to regain work they lost in the
center in May 2014.
"There is no political influence here at the board,
and I'm positive you haven't found" any, Marino said. The hearing was
cordial and small with just a handful of spectators and four attorneys. And at
the end, Marino made it a point to come off the bench, shake Hackett's hand and
clap him on the back. "You did good," he said.
Shortly after the unions lost the work, they filed an
unfair labor practice charge with the board.
Nearly seven months later, in February, Marino sent a
two-paragraph letter to the unions and the Convention Center advising them that
he intended to dismiss the unions' complaint because the PLRB did not have
jurisdiction over the case. He promised a written decision.
When the 14-page decision came out 21/2 months later,
Marino had "reconsidered," ruling that the PLRB did have jurisdiction
to hear the case.
The February letter was good news for Convention Center
officials, who thought it signaled an end to a contentious battle.
The April decision caused the opposite reaction, and the
center's lawyers quickly filed a motion asking the board to take Marino off the
case. The board has said the decision is Marino's to make.
The center's lawyers said Marino's reconsideration made
it look as if someone had gotten to him in the highly politicized case. Other
unions that work at the Convention Center and who gained jobs after the
Carpenters and Teamsters were ousted asked Gov. Wolf and Attorney General
Kathleen G. Kane to investigate if Marino had been compromised.
"I have yet to be investigated, by the way,"
Marino told the lawyers Monday. His reconsideration, he said, was "a
change of mind, based on the reading of the evidence."
The Carpenters' attorney, Thomas Jennings, told Marino
that "what we have is a disappointed litigant. Hell hath no fury like a
litigant scorned."
Marino promised to think it over, but said "the law
loathes recusals," along with "judge-picking."
It will likely be months before Marino acts because of a
backlog of cases. Marino could move ahead with the case as it stands,
scheduling hearings to determine the facts about the ouster of the unions.
Or he could decide on some combination of tossing out the
April decision and tossing himself out. In that scenario, another examiner
would take over. Marino's decisions can be appealed to the entire board.
"Obviously I can't rule on this today, because I
have to issue a well-reasoned decision," he said, as the lawyers laughed.
"Don't send a [brief] letter," Jennings
advised. "I'll never do that again," Marino replied.
Source: Philly.com
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