NorCo Personnel Appeals Board Loses Member, Lawyer

Northampton County's Personnel Appeals Board, which handles disputes between the County and non-union workers, is down once again to just four members. To make matter's worse, its long-time solicitor has submitted his resignation.

Ralph Stampone, who had served on the Board for ten years, finally had enough of meetings that are scheduled and then re-scheduled ad infinitum. The final star for him came late last year when he arrived tat the courthouse to hear a case that the County decided to settle about thirty minutes prior to the hearing.

I really enjoyed doing it, but I had this feeling we were just spinning our wheels," said Stampone, who owns Ralph's Radiator and Repair Shop in Stocketown. He began to get the feeling that "the County was going to do what it was going to do anyway. Last minute deals with people? Why do you have an Appeals Board?"

He also sensed that the County is being unfair to nonunion workers. "They don't want anyone in there they can't control."

Ralph Stampone, who had served on the Board for ten years, finally had enough of meetings that are scheduled and then re-scheduled ad infinitum. The final star for him came late last year when he arrived tat the courthouse to hear a case that the County decided to settle about thirty minutes prior to the hearing.

I really enjoyed doing it, but I had this feeling we were just spinning our wheels," said Stampone, who owns Ralph's Radiator and Repair Shop in Stocketown. He began to get the feeling that "the County was going to do what it was going to do anyway. Last minute deals with people? Why do you have an Appeals Board?"

He also sensed that the County is being unfair to nonunion workers. "They don't want anyone in there they can't control."

In addition to Stampone, Bethlehem Attorney Christian Perrucci recently submitted his resignation as the Board's Solicitor. It's a position he held for over 12 years. He said he had "worked with great board members who were extremely dedicated to reaching an equitable decision to each case. It was truly a pleasure working with Dave Sanders, John Dally, Bill Alexander and Mr. Stampone."

According to Perrucci, "This was completely a voluntary decision on my part to resign as solicitor as I knew I could not dedicate the appropriate time to serve as solicitor given my very busy private practice." He denied that partisan politics were at play.

The remaining four members are are Bill Alexander, himself a retired corrections officer; Dave "Lump" Sanders, owner of Bethlehem's revered Table of Knowledge at Lump's Deli; Pen Argyl's John Dally, who also sits on the Gaming Board; and Pat Siemiontkowski, who retired recently as Northampton County's own HR Director.

They are the capstone of a merit personnel system designed to ensure that nonunion employees are rewarded and paid on the basis of what they know, as opposed to who. There have been some amazing success stories. At Gracedale, for example, a lowly nurse's aid was able to work herself up through the ranks, go to school and become either the Director or Assistant Director of Nursing. But there have been failures, too, as evidenced by 11 different unions representing most of the workers. One of the biggest reasons for this failure is the Personnel Appeals Board, which has been criticized for years over infrequent meetings.

One nonunion worker recently reported that she filed two appeals last year. One was completely ignored and Human Resources never scheduled a hearing for her second appeal.

Individually, Board members themselves have complained about the length of time between hearings.

For this reason, Council member Ken Kraft has urged that there be regular monthly meetings of the Personnel Appeals Board. If there is no business, they simply don't meet.

Merciless Morganelli v. Bonecrusher Baratta

Bonecrusher Baratta with his cutman, Jill Cicero

One thing that really pisses me off during a public meeting is idiots in the peanut gallery who heckle or shout down other speakers. At yesterday's budget hearing, DA John Morganelli was taunted close to the end of an admittedly lengthy presentation about a disparity in wage increases for nonunion workers in next year's budget. I turned to tell this moron to knock it off, but changed my mind pretty quickly. It was our frickin' President Judge, Steve Baratta!  Having no desire to be sentenced to 20 years in the electric chair, which I probably deserve, I decided I really love the give and take of democracy. What I loved even more is that the District Attorney and President Judge were about to cross swords.

I had heard earlier in the day that battle lines were being drawn between Merciless Morganelli and Bonecrusher Baratta. These two guys are actually quite friendly. Baratta was Morganelli's First Assistant many moons ago. They both like to get to work early and can often be seen together early in the day, drinking coffee. But both are fearless advocates for their own departments, and tend to take no prisoners. So I loaded up on popcorn and waited for the show to begin.

In the DA's office, only 24 employees are left who don't belong to one or another of 11 different unions. Even the Detectives have their own union. Morganelli's 20 assistant DAs, two victim advocates and two secretaries are all that's left of nonunion employees in his department.

Earlier in the budget season, Executive John Brown met with Morganelli and asked him to limit his raises for these employees to just 2.5%. He was assured that all non-union employees would be getting the same raise. Wanting to be a team player, he agreed.

But that's not what happened. Nonunion judicial employees got a 4.5% raise instead of the 2.5% doled out to everyone else. Brown had apparently made the same request to Baratta, but the judge thought his nonunion workers deserve more.

When he spoke, Morganelli made clear that he thinks Judge Baratta's 4.5% request is "justifiable" and "understandable." But he was under the impression that "non-union employees were going to treated equally. ... I'm in favor of the 4.5% that the judge is asking, but I think it should be across the board." He warned Council that his assistant DAs could decide to unionize, as has happened in several other counties. He said there should be "consistency."

Morganelli's points were well made and he actually complimented Baratta for doing a better job of persuading Brown than he did.

Hayden Phillips has asked our new HR Director, Amy Trapp, to run the numbers on a 2.5% raise in Morganelli's office v. a 4.5% raise. He also wants a county-wide report on the difference.

"Why don't we just do 4.5% across the board?" asked Ken Kraft.

Brown stated that about 500 employees, 25% of the county workforce, are non-union. He warned that a 4.5% increase across the board would crate a "precedent" and "set an expectation." He said every percentage change in salary costs the County $1 million. So 4.5% across the board salary increase for non-union workers would cost $4.5 million, and in addition, would cost the County $2.5 million in benefits.

After Morganelli finished, he took off while President Judge Baratta had to sit and wait as Council went through several other departments. Recognizing that an independent branch of government should be given a little more deference, Lamont McClure asked Peg Ferraro to take the courts' budget ahead of when it was scheduled for review.

"I feel like the race started about an hour ago, and I'm just allowed to start running right now," he complained. Baratta explained that he made it clear to Brown that he wanted a 4.5% increase for his non-union staff, and Brown told him he could make his case to Council.

Baratta immediately went on the attack, claiming that Morgnelli just got a 4.5% wage increase for his secretaries in April. "Now they're also going to get 2.5, which will give them a seven per cent increase that the other non-union secretaries don't get. So I'm really not sure why it is that he takes offense to my coming here trying to protect my non-union employees." He went on to say that there is an "incredible salary compression" between nonunion and union employees. He said that Juvenile Center Supervisors, the equivalent of Lieutenants at the jail, have gone years without a raise. Unlike those Lieutenants, they must be college graduates and are start at about $38,000. A Lieutenant's starting salary is $48,000, according to Baratta. Union employees supervised by these Juvenile Center Supervisors make more money.

"It's not like we're being greedy or acting as though we're special," he said. "I think it's a little unfair of [Morganelli] to stand up here and try to take the high road and say we're being pigs about this."

I don't know what planet Judge Baratta was on when Morganelli was speaking, but it wasn't Earth. The DA only argued for consistency, and actually praised Baratta. For some reason, the PJ construed a request for parity as an objection.

He finished by saying he would be doing a disservice to his own staff if he failed to advocate on their behalf "for what I feel is a reasonable increase."

Judge Baratta has approximately 78 non-union employees. A 4.5% salary increase to non-union workers will cost the county $68,000.

Actually, the real problem here is not Morganelli or Baratta. It's a Human Relations Department that has failed to implement new pay scales on the basis of periodic salary studies In addition, it is an inexperienced administration that has been too willing to let union contracts be decided at arbitration instead of negotiating.. That's what causes the salary compression mentioned by Judge Baratta.

Still it was great fun to watch these guys go at it. I'd declare Merciless Morganelli the winner by decision. He kept his cool while Bonecrusher Baratta lost his. But if I see Baratta, I'll tell him he won and that Morganelli was very unfair. .

How Personnel Appeals Board Screws NorCo Workers

In its Home Rule Charter, Northampton County establishes a merit personnel system designed to ensure that employees are rewarded and paid on the basis of what they know, as opposed to who. There have been some amazing success stories. At Gracedale, for example, a lowly nurse's aid was able to work herself up through the ranks, go to school and become either the Director or Assistant Director of Nursing. But there have been failures, too, as evidenced by 11 different unions representing most of the workers. One of the biggest reasons for this failure is the Personnel Appeals Board. Because they meet so infrequently, they are effectively denying due process to the few remaining workers who are nonunion.

What's happening to Jason Rosati is simply inexcusable. He's a lieutenant at the jail who was fired in January for insisting that corrections officers on his shift follow the dress code. At his termination hearing, if you can call it that, he was denied the right to bring in a lawyer or respond to the explain that he was really being fired because the officer he disciplined is a favorite of Deputy Administrator Cathy Allen.

Rosati appealed his termination, and was granted a hearing before the Personnel Appeals Board in July. He put on his entire case that night, but now the County wants to be heard.

There was no hearing in August.

Or September.

The way things are going, there might be a hearing in October.

Or not.

After that hearing, it will be a few more months before the Board gets together again with the transcripts to reach a decision.

So a man who was unfairly fired in January will have gone at least a year before he gets a decision.

This, in and of itself, is a denial of due process. This practice demonstrates a blatant disregard for the county worker.

The five persons on the Personnel Appeals Board, who are nominated by the Executive and confirmed by Council, are Bill Alexander, himself a retired corrections officer; Dave "Lump" Sanders, owner of Bethlehem's revered Table of Knowledge at Lump's Deli; Ralph Stampone, owner of Ralph's Radiator and inspector of my now deceased Jeep; Pen Argyl's John Dally, who also sits on the Gaming Board; and Pat Siemiontkowski, who retired recently as Northampton County's own HR Director.

They are represented by Christian Perrucci.

I have spoken individually to Board members, and they themselves have complained to me about the length of time between hearings. But there's certainly no sense of urgency on the part of the County.

For this reason, it is time to mandate a regular monthly meeting of the Personnel Appeals Board. If there is no business, they simply don't meet.