Girvin and Ferlazzo, P.C. Prevails at New York Court of Appeals

Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C., recently obtained a favorable ruling from the New York State Court of Appeals on behalf of one of its clients in a case which centered on a public employer’s obligation to engage in collective bargaining negotiations on the subject of police discipline.

On October 17, 2017, the New York State Court of Appeals issued its decision in Matter of City of Schenectady v. New York State Public Employment Relations Board, 2017 NY Slip. Op. 07210, holding that police discipline in the City of Schenectady is governed by the Second Class Cities Law, not the Civil Service Law, thereby rendering police discipline a prohibited subject of bargaining under the Taylor Law. The City was represented by Firm shareholder Christopher P. Langlois.

The case arose from the City’s announcement, in 2007, that going forward police disciplinary matters would be handled pursuant to the procedures provided in the Second Class Cities Law (SCCL) in lieu of the procedures set forth in the collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the City and the Schenectady Police Benevolent Association (PBA). Under the SCCL, disciplinary charges are heard and decided by the City’s Commissioner of Public Safety.

In response to the announcement, the PBA filed an improper practice charge against the City with the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), arguing that police discipline was a mandatory subject of collective bargaining under the Taylor Law, and that the City therefore committed an improper practice when it unilaterally announced changes to the negotiated disciplinary procedures set forth in the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. An Administrative Law Judge ruled in the PBA’s favor, and that ruling was affirmed by PERB.

On behalf of the City, Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C., filed an Article 78 proceeding seeking review and reversal of PERB’s decision. After both the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division, Third Department, affirmed PERB’s determination, the Firm applied for and successfully obtained leave to appeal to Court of Appeals.

In its ruling, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its holdings in two prior cases that police discipline is not a mandatory subject of collective bargaining – and in fact is a prohibited subject – where police discipline is governed by State legislation, such as the SCCL, which pre-dates the adoption of Civil Service Law Section 75 in 1958. The Court also rejected PERB’s conclusion that the SCCL had effectively been superseded by the enactment of the Taylor Law in 1967, concluding that the SCCL and the Taylor Law were not so “irreconcilable” so as to give rise to a “repeal by implication” of the former by the latter.

The full decision can be found online at the Court of Appeals website: https://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisions/2017/Oct17/93opn17-Decision.pdf