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Overcast City workers say evaluations are long overdue
,000 residents with firefighters and police officers, building and zoning departments, clerks and office staff, and the Department of Public Works. The departments are staffed with employees who work to keep the city thriving, but the Civil Service Employees Association says they are underpaid.
One of the loudest voices advocating for change comes from Ralph Comitino, president of the Glen Cove Public Works CSEA, who claims that the city has neglected to evaluate the union’s pay structure for 30 years. Comitino said that city workers’ decades-long appeals for higher pay have fallen on deaf ears through various administrations, which has left union members feeling ignored, underappreciated and severely underpaid compared with those in surrounding towns.
“In the DPW, for instance, a labor worker is assigned to a Grade 8 position, and a driver is a Grade 9,” Comitino explained. “We have laborers with (commercial driver’s licenses), which a driver has, (who are) running a garbage truck (but don’t) get compensated. They’re working the same level as a driver, but they’re not getting paid the same. We’re trying to get the guys who get their CDL to drive the big trucks to move up to drivers, where they belong.”
Jimmy Ayers, a Grade 9 motor equipment operator for the DPW, said he would be considered a Grade 14 worker in the City of Long Beach or the Town of Oyster Bay. Ayres said that numerous attempts to discuss pay grades and step evaluations for the city’s union workers via meetings, text messages and emails with Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck have failed.
Feeling ignored, and with thoughts of inflation and his
ook matters into his own hands. At the June 27 City Council meeting, he placed a sign he made on a seat close to the council’s dais. “DPW matters too,” it read. “Not only are we the backbone of the city, we are also proud members of the community. We leave our families alone to go days without rest, just so our residents are safe! We pick up garbage/recycle, cut trees, grass, fix sidewalks/streets maintain our parks etc. All with outdated, unsafe equipment, low man power and below standard paygrades. We will not be ignored or pushed aside ANYMORE! Treat us fairly, and most of all … SHOW US SOME RESPECT!”
After reading the sign, Councilwoman Marsha Silverman said she didn’t want any city employee to feel the way Ayers does, and added that she was disappointed that there are employees who are this frustrated.
Asked about the sign, Panzenbeck initially said that she hadn’t had conversations with the union and wasn’t sure what they were requesting. She said that Ayers hadn’t spoken with her, and that “he just left a sign.” Panzenbeck has stated that the complaints are limited to a few members of the union.
“I really haven’t been having conversations — I don’t know what they want,” she said. “They probably want a raise, and they have a contract. I can’t just give everybody a raise because I like them.”
The union’s current contract, in effect since Jan. 1, 2020, runs through Dec. 31, 2024, and Panzenbeck said that it raises salaries 2.75 percent per year. She also said that Comitino asked to curtail discussions about pay grade and step evaluations “some time ago,” and that when he asks to resume them, she will do that. Those discussions, she added, require an investigative process, and given the varying levels of workers, it would be difficult for her prioritize who gets raises, and when.
“I have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers as well,” Panzenbeck said. “I have to find the happy medium for everybody, but their contract has another year after this. We can start a discussion process, but that’s what the issue is here. They have a contract, which they all voted on and agreed to.”
Comitino and Ayers said that the pay grade reviews and step evaluations are not part of the union’s contract, and that Panzenbeck was never asked to cease discussions about them. Comitino said he wasn’t looking to “badmouth” Panzenbeck, but hoped to continue those discussions, which he said would be a long process. He also said he didn’t personally blame Panzenbeck for the oversight, but had seen firsthand the low morale among many union workers.
“What we’re trying to do is, we’re trying to put the right people in the right grade, and show them that the city does appreciate that they go above and beyond,” Comitino said. “But the problem is that they’re stuck in that grade system. They work above a grade but they’re not getting paid for it.”
A DPW worker who declined to be identified said they feel the city administration doesn’t prioritize the department.
“They just want the work done at the end of the day,” the employee said. “The police are really big in the city, and I get it — they’re educated and they do a lot. But it just seems like we never get the respect. I’m a driver, and I shouldn’t be one step ahead of a laborer who just comes to work and gets in a car and leaves.”
The employee claimed that they also weren’t reimbursed for the $300 needed to obtain a commercial driver’s license, and now they are seeing colleagues being required to attend Nassau Community College for training instead of being trained in the department.
Several other union workers outside the DPW spoke to the Herald, but refused to allow their comments to be included in this story. They said they were worried that talking about their frustrations with their job responsibilities, which they said are not reflected in their pay, might cost them their jobs or make their lives difficult at their workplaces.
Panzenbeck said that union members are protected, and don’t have to worry about losing their jobs. She added that people can approach her, because she is approachable.
