PAX Centurion - Fall 2017

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Fall 2017 • Page 49 Enormous victory for the BPPA in Supreme Judicial Court Legal Notes: Alan H. Shapiro, Esq. Sandulli Grace P.C., Counsel to Members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association O n July 12, the highest court in Massachusetts finally came down with its long-awaited decision in the DavidWilliams arbitration case. The decision is an enormous legal victory for the BPPA and vindication for Officer Williams. The Court flatly rejected spurious legal claims by the City of Boston and the Police Commissioner purporting to give the Commissioner virtually total control over Boston Police Officers. From a legal perspective, this case began in 1906, when a Republican, Protestant Legislature, fearing that political control of Boston was devolving to its immigrant, Catholic, and largely Irish immigrant population, enacted a law providing that the Governor, not the Mayor, would appoint the Boston Police Commissioner. That law, updated in 1962 (by then, the Legislature had deemed the Mayor sufficiently trustworthy to appoint the Police Commissioner), gives the Commissioner “…cognizance and control of the government, administration, disposition and discipline of the department, and of the police force of the department…” In 1974, the Legislature passed a comprehensive public sector labor law, Chapter 150E. Section 7 of this law says that if any conflict arises between a negotiated collective bargaining agreement and certain other laws, the terms of the agreement must prevail. In practice, this provision allows decisions of arbitrators to supersede those of mayors, police chiefs, or boards of selectmen. In the mid- 90’s, a few court decisions were decided against the BPPA because the powers of the Commissioner were not among those listed as being subordinate to collective bargaining in Section 7. In 1998, the BPPA, with support from the other Boston police unions and other unions, police and non-police, succeeded in passing legislation which amended Chapter 150E to include the regulations of a police commissioner among those subordinated to collective bargaining. The City and Commissioner Paul Evans vigorously fought the legislation but to little avail. WhenActing Governor Cellucci vetoed the bill, the House overrode it 139-7 and the Senate 37-0. I testified before a joint legislative committee in support of the bill, and the legislators were dumbfounded when Paul Evans tried to explain to them that he needed more powers than the police chiefs in the cities and towns in their districts. Until July 12, 2017, this obscure legislative enactment had been given little, if any, effect. After Officer Williams was fired by the Commissioner (at the time, Davis) for using excessive force in making an arrest and then lying about it, the BPPA appealed to an arbitrator. The arbitrator found that Williams had neither used excessive force nor lied. Under existing law, that should have been the end of the case; arbitrators’ factual findings are supposed to be conclusive and final. But the Police Commissioner, Legal Advisor, and their minions at City Hall, armed with unlimited taxpayer funds, appealed to the courts. When their private, outside counsel argued to the SJC that pesky arbitrators have no business second-guessing the Commissioner because the “police commissioner’s statute leaves discipline and discharge of officers for excessive force or untruthfulness to the commissioner’s exclusive managerial control,” the Court threw the 1998 amendment back at them. The collective bargaining law permits an “arbitrator to interpret regulations promulgated pursuant to the commissioner’s statute, and usurps no authority in so doing,” the Court said. The net effect is to leave the police commissioner in Boston with the same powers as any other police chief, no less, but certainly no more. Officer Williams can now return to work after five long years of litigation. This decision is a victory for the collective bargaining process: the Supreme Judicial Court held the City to its collectively-bargained promise that it must prove that it has just cause for disciplining or discharging a Boston Police Officer. It is also a victory for the rule of law. In the face of great public controversy over police conduct and attacks on police unions from the political left and right, the justices of the SJC courageously applied the law. 281 Neponset Ave. Dorchester 617-265-2665 Full Day Preschool – $45.00 Secure Play Area 4,000 sq. ft. 3 Classrooms 2 yrs. 9 mo. to 6 yrs. Massachusetts Early Education License #291031 • Daughter of a BPPA Retiree Neponset Preschool www.NeponsetPreschool.com