Public Employee Press

Contracting IN victory
City Lifeguards take over at Flushing Meadows pool

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

After a four-year campaign that exposed a private contractor's hazardous practices and deficient financial records, DC 37 members have taken over the operation of the city's $66 million Flushing Meadows Corona Park pool complex.

Since union members took over staffing the state-of-the-art aquatic center from the privateer in a campaign spearheaded by DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido and Lifeguard Supervisors Local 508 President Peter Stein, the Parks Dept. has hired about 65 workers in DC 37 positions.

"Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg built this plush facility with taxpayers' dollars, but instead of staffing it with unionized, municipal employees of the Parks Department, he contracted out the day-to-day operations," said Stein. "Lifeguards and their supervisors, security, recreation and maintenance jobs were all outsourced. He handed a jewel to a profiteer who stood to rake in a fortune."

In 2007, Bloomberg commissioned construction of the 110,000-square-foot site to boost his bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. When that plan failed, he contracted out the operation to USA Pools of NY, Inc. in a five-year agreement that paid the contractor $1 million a year plus 75 percent of revenues, leaving Parks with just a 25 percent annual share.

The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Aquatic Center is the largest recreation facility ever built in a New York City park and the first public pool the city has built in four decades. The multi-storied facility has a 10-lane Olympic-sized pool with high dive boards, starting blocks and digital timers for competitions, panoramic park views, pristine lockers and stadium seating. The ground floor includes a full-size ice rink.

Stein saw disturbing practices there: USA Pools did not comply with regulations of the city and state health departments that require lifeguards to be certified and mandate minimum staffing levels. At times, the private firm had just two Lifeguards on duty, he said.

"A pool operated and staffed by Parks Dept. employees would never have endangered public safety by engaging in such risky practices," he said, pointing out that the city Health Dept. had charged USA Pools with serious safety violations.

When the Parks Dept. considered renewing the contract for another two years, Stein said, "We decided to go after the contractor."

Bringing the work in-house

DC 37 obtained critical evidence about the private operation after Assistant General Counsel Jesse Gribben filed a request for particulars under the Freedom of Information Law.

Union attorneys then won a temporary restraining order that stalled the renewal under Local Law 63, the Outsourcing Accountability Act, which took effect in 2012 after DC 37 convinced the City Council to override former Mayor Bloomberg's veto.

Although allegedly based in New York, the private operation had only a post office box here, said Stein.

The FOIL request obtained a Parks Dept. audit revealing that USA Pools had not filed annual income and expense statements as required by the contract and had prematurely disposed of some records, making it virtually impossible for Parks to know the correct amount of its promised 25 percent of the revenue or whether the city was actually getting its share. In addition, the firm had failed to file state sales tax returns on its income from the pool.

In an important achievement for the union, it was agreed that in considering the contract renewal, the agency should examine the quality of service and not just the cost. DC 37 made a strong case that unionized municipal workers could do a better, safer job of running the aquatic center.

"DC 37 has repeatedly proved that outsourcing public assets to private control is not an effective way to deliver public services," said Garrido, "and we made a very solid case for contracting in these jobs."

"The Parks Department deserves credit for being willing to look at all the factors objectively, concluding that the public would be better served by municipal employees and deciding to let the USA Pools contract expire and bring the work in-house," Stein said.

As a result, Parks has hired dozens of workers in titles represented by DC 37 locals, including Lifeguards Local 461 and Lifeguard Supervisors Local 508, as well as security, community, recreation, maintenance and other employees in Locals 299, 371, 983 and 1505, and has increased the work hours of current part-time employees, said DC 37 Research and Negotiations Director Evelyn Seinfeld.

"Contracting in the Flushing Meadows pool complex is a terrific victory that demonstrates the union's vigilance, persistence and strength in confronting an injustice to members, taxpayers and the public," said Gribben. "DC 37 fought back and ultimately proved it was in the public interest to have the pool staffed by city public service employees. Hopefully, moving forward, the city will continue to honestly assess whether contracting out work that city employees can do is in the public interest."

"It's a great victory for the union to finally bring back these jobs," said Stein. He credited DC 37's team - which included Garrido, Local 461 President Franklyn "Bubba" Paige, Seinfeld, Gribben, Local 508 attorney Len Shrier, Senior Analyst David Moog and former staffer Heath Madom of the Research and Negotiations Dept. - for their hard work bringing the facility under city control.

"This is a powerful indictment against privatizing city services," Stein said. "We turned the tables on the Bloomberg administration and proved that our members could do the work better."