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THE LOCAL LAW CREATING THE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD (PAB) WITH THE POWER TO DISCIPLINE POLICE OFFICERS CONFLICTED WITH THE POLICE UNION’S COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT (CBA); BECAUSE THE UNION NEVER AGREED TO THE TRANSFER OF DISCIPLINARY POWERS TO THE PAB, THE LOCAL LAW WAS INVALID (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Egan, affirming the Appellate Division, over a three-judge dissent, determined the Local Law creating a Police Accountability Board (PAB) with the power to discipline police officers was invalid because the law conflicted with the union’s (the Locust Club’s)  collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and the union had never agreed to the change:

Since the 1980s, the collective bargaining agreement (hereinafter CBA) in place between the City of Rochester and the Rochester Police Locust Club, Inc. (hereinafter the Locust Club), the union representing police officers in the City, has governed the procedure for disciplining police officers. In 2019, the Council of the City of Rochester adopted, the Mayor of the City of Rochester signed, and voters approved via referendum, Local Law No. 2, which created the Police Accountability Board (hereinafter PAB), a body of nine City residents whose powers included the exclusive authority to “investigate and make determinations respecting” any police officer accused of misconduct. That authority included the power to conduct a hearing on the alleged misconduct and to impose disciplinary sanctions, up to and including dismissal, if the officer were found guilty. The City’s police chief was free to impose additional punishment upon that officer, but was obliged at a minimum to implement the sanction determined by the PAB.

There is no dispute that the disciplinary procedures set forth in Local Law No. 2 deviated in significant respects from the agreed-upon procedures set forth in the CBA then in effect and that they were not agreed to by the Locust Club. The Locust Club and others commenced this combined CPLR article 78 proceeding and declaratory judgment action to challenge Local Law No. 2 and, in particular, its transfer of police disciplinary authority to the PAB. Supreme Court ultimately granted the petition in part and held, among other things, that Local Law No. 2 was invalid to the extent that it transferred that authority. Upon the City Council’s appeal, the Appellate Division affirmed … . The Appellate Division held that the City was obliged to negotiate with the Locust Club on the issue of police discipline because in 1985 it had repealed the provision of its charter vesting a local official in charge of the police force with unilateral authority over police discipline and that the City’s effort to revive that authority in Local Law No. 2 necessarily failed under the Municipal Home Rule Law because it was inconsistent with a general law, namely, “the Taylor Law’s mandate of collective bargaining for police discipline” … .  Matter of Rochester Police Locust Club, Inc. v City of Rochester, 2023 NY Slip Op 05959, CtApp 11-21-23

Practice Point: The Local Law creating the Police Accountability Board (PAB) and granting the PAB the power to discipline police officers conflicted with disciplinary provisions in the police union’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Because the union never agreed to the transfer of disciplinary powers to the PAB, the Local Law was deemed invalid.

 

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