Public Employee Press

Local 983 and community fight privatization at Battery Park City

"PEP Officers are far more qualified than any rent-a-cop from AlliedBarton. We undergo extensive training and background checks from the NYPD and FBI. We make arrests and are first responders who keep Battery Park safe." — Joe Puleo, Local 983 president.


By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Pushback from an irate corps of residents, the community board and Local 983 has temporarily blocked Battery Park City Authority's bum-rush plan to sign a $2.1 million contract with a private security firm that could replace city Parks Enforcement Patrol Officers with low-wage "safety ambassadors."

"PEP Officers are far more qualified than any rent-a-cop from AlliedBarton," said Joe Puleo, president of Local 983.

The Battery Park City Authority approved the contract but delayed a formal vote on it until Dec. 16, after leaders from Community Board 1 and DC 37's Local 983, which represents the 45 PEP Officers, blasted it for excluding residents, the city Parks and Recreation Dept. and the union at every step of the decision-making process.

A leafleting campaign alerted residents of the tony riverfront neighborhood to the authority's scheme to railroad them with weak private security.

"PEP Officers patrol the 92-acre Battery Park City and we are the reason crime in that neighborhood is virtually nonexistent," Puleo said.

Trained and more qualified

PEP Officers receive 12 weeks of rigorous training at the New York Police Dept.'s academy. As Peace Officers, they are authorized to issue summonses and make arrests.

"Our members undergo extensive physical training and psychological background checks with the NYPD and the FBI," Puleo said.

AlliedBarton Security Services workers meet none of these standards and have no policing authority.

DC 37 leaders contend the authority's union-busting privatization plan could jeopardize the jobs of 45 PEP Officers who keep Battery Park City safe. The authority would have AlliedBarton provide 57 safety ambassadors and reduce the number of PEP Officers on 24-hour patrol to about eight.

During a Community Board 1 meeting, John McArdle, AlliedBarton's regional operations manager, said the company's safety ambassadors would be a valuable "deterrence" against crime. But Ninfa Segarra, the board's co-chair, slammed the claim, saying, "You may be very nice, but you have no authority whatsoever."

Others residents called the authority's actions "dictatorial" and "crazy," and a move toward a "police state."

PEP Officers set the safety benchmark for parks conservancies at Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park and other green spaces around New York City, Puleo said. As first responders, city PEP Officers safely evacuated thousands of people and their pets from Battery Park City during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and during Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

AlliedBarton has no known disaster response plan, Puleo added. Last year the city comptroller settled a prevailing wage lawsuit against AlliedBarton that paid New York $1.3 million after the security firm underpaid 150 guards at the Transit Authority.

AlliedBarton pays about $11 an hour with no benefits, according to Glassdoor.com.

"It's definitely not about the money," Puleo said. BPCA has a surplus of $150 million and pays the Parks Dept. $2.5 million annually for 45 PEP Officers. The proposed AlliedBarton contract would present some cost savings, but Puleo said, "cost savings is not the real issue. It makes you wonder what else is driving this plan."

At a City Hall press conference Dec. 3, politicians stood up for the safety of Battery Park City residents. "We shouldn't scrap a model safety program for a security force that has no training or authority to enforce the law," said Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer. "The community deserves to be consulted and deserves respect from Battery Park City Authority."