De Blasio bid to change civil service rules faces opposition

Mayor Bill de Blasio faces a showdown with organized labor if he pursues his idea to allow recruiting from outside union ranks for uniformed management positions in the city's jail system.

Key members of the City Council and jail guard unions say they would fight the mayor, generally regarded as a friend of labor, if he seeks to rewrite civil service laws that now require any promotion to uniformed upper management to come from within the existing ranks.

"I will do whatever is necessary to defeat it," said Norman Seabrook, the powerful president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, the union representing the rank and file.

Seabrook has publicly resisted a range of proposed changes to the scandal-scarred jails, which are the target of a lawsuit threat by the U.S. Justice Department over mistreatment of juvenile inmates. Depending how the mayor seeks to change the law, he would need approval from the City Council, the State Legislature, or both.

The path to promotion is a cornerstone of the city's civil service system, which governs how most of its 350,000-strong workforce is hired and all uniformed ranks are filled. Anyone in the top uniformed position -- now called chief of department in the fire, police and correction departments -- must have started as an entry-level officer.

The mayor's suggestion came amid a searing report by federal prosecutors about jail brutality and a torrent of allegations of misconduct. Among the revelations in a news report was that top officials who allowed a statistics-fudging scandal on their watch were promoted, despite investigators' recommendations they be demoted. One rose to be the Correction Department's most senior uniformed officer, before abruptly retiring weeks after his history became public. Aides to the mayor privately lamented that the law essentially creates a short bench of candidates for top uniformed posts.

De Blasio's plan to change that has alarmed other uniformed unions.

An official with a city law enforcement union promised to go to war to stop it -- even if a proposal is just limited to jails.

"It's the beginning of the decay of the civil service system as we know it," warned the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It'll be universally opposed."

De Blasio first said in September, soon after the promotions controversy, that he wanted to modify civil service law.

"We're handcuffed by some laws, in terms of how we choose personnel. And we are going to work to change those laws," the mayor said then.

His correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, has reorganized the top levels of the department, eliminating some uniformed posts, bringing in new civilian oversight, replacing most of the brass and flattening the agency's organization chart so the uniformed wardens are more tightly supervised.

The mayor has not yet unveiled a proposal. But even his expressed wish to bring in bosses from outside infuriates the union leaders.

"It's disrespectful," said Patrick Ferraiuolo, president of the 900-member Correction Captains' Association."It's saying that the men and women are not capable and don't have the knowledge to run the department."

I. Daneek Miller (D-Queens), who chairs the council's Civil Service Committee, said changes are unnecessary.

"To bring in folks from the outside is a knee-jerk reaction," said Miller, himself a former leader of a bus and mechanics union. "I'm sure that within the department there remain qualified people."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.