Friday, August 3, 2018
Vol. 94, No.45
FOUNDED 1923
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LOCALLY OWNED AND EDITED
WPOA at the Pool PAGE 30 n Seventh Street Luau PAGE 38
Firefighters to seek referendum on layoffs
SISTER POWER
BY MEG MORGAN NORRIS
The Martin and Sethi sisters helped the Garden City "A" Swim team to victory as they swam Freestyle Relay in the team's meet on July 21st. The girls came in first and the team has been undefeated all season.
Residents react to Fire Dept layoffs BY RIKKI N. MASSAND
In the week since the Garden City Board of Trustees voted (6 to 1) to eliminate all 11 of the paid firefighters some members of the community have rallied in support of sending the decision to a referendum vote this fall. The Board of Trustees must receive an official petition, but on the same night as its controversial decision peo-
ple across Garden City signed a non-binding Change.org petition to overturn the Village vote. The petition received 131 signatures in less than 48 hours after the Board of Trustee’s July 25 meeting. The Garden City Professional Firefighters Association union (IAFF Local 1588) posted an update on its Facebook page on Sunday, July 29 which stated its intent on getting an official petition to the
Village of Garden City within the legal deadline. Their recent comment contained the following: “Unfortunately after repeated requests for information that must be included on petition, village officials have yet to provide any…. It is no surprise that the Village Administrator, Village Clerk and head of HR are on vacation till the See page 39
The union for Garden City's professional firefighters, who were all laid off by the Garden City Board of Trustees on July 25th, has said it will be circulating petitions to try to force a referendum on the Board's action. The firefighters have scheduled a public information meeting on August 6 at 7:30 at the Stewart Manor Country Club. In order to be successful, the firefighters will have to collect petitions signed by 20 percent of the registered voters in Garden City within the next month. If they do that, then residents will be able to vote on the matter. When the Garden City Board of Trustees laid off the entire paid fire fighting force at its July 25th meeting, it was reacting to a loss at in arbitration over an action brought by the Garden City firefighters union. The arbitration was brought to clarify work rules due to a reduction in staff. Due to earlier layoffs and attrition, the number of active paid firefighters is eleven (a twelfth man is on the disabled list), a reduction from a force of that once numbered over 30. Because of that, Fire Chief Brian Gallo (a volunteer firefighter) issued an order on November 19, 2017, that said that volunteers must be allowed to sometimes drive the fire engines. However, that order conflicted with a previous arbitration decision that said that driving the trucks was solely to be done by paid firefighters. The union challenged Gallo's order and subsequently on July 6, 2018, a new arbitration order found that the Village had improperly given the work of the union members to the volunteers. Some residents have argued that the Board of Trustees needed to move swiftly to avoid having to hire additional firefighters. However, according to TJ Michon, president of the firefighters union and director of the Western Property Owners Association, the Board actually had ninety days after the arbitration decision in which it could have gone back to court to try to have the decision vacated. He said, "In that time they could have contacted the union and tried to negotiate different terms of the See page 55
Traffic commission removes stop sign near pool PAGE 3 GC Friends of Music Achievement Awards PAGES 50-51