A Times Editorial

Union's choice throws up obstacle to negotiations

Because of a law that took effect this year, condominiums without sprinklers are required to install them within 12 years. The law does not allow the condos to wait until the 11th year, but requires them to begin planning now, said Dave Kessinger, assistant chief for prevention for the Clearwater Fire Department.

Once again, the Clearwater firefighters union is in the news. Once again, union officials seem dead set on alienating everyone they can at City Hall.

Last month, union president John Lee offended some city commissioners and administrators when he showed up at a commission meeting and claimed that inadequate staffing and substandard equipment somehow contributed to the injuries and problems at an Island Estates condominium fire June 28. Subsequent investigations have not confirmed his claims.

This month, union officials seem determined to make a fiasco of contract negotiations between the union and the city. How? By insisting that their chief negotiator be Paul O'Rourke, the city's former human resources administrator who was forced to resign in May over issues that involved -- at least peripherally -- his coziness with employee unions.

You would think that the firefighters union would want to come to the negotiating table with at least some semblance of good faith. But not this group. Union officials have been so insistent that O'Rourke represent them in contract talks that initial negotiations stalled Monday as city officials tried to figure out how to proceed.

O'Rourke was the personnel director for Clearwater for five years and in that capacity dealt with the leaders of employee unions as well as directing the recruitment, training and discipline of city employees. City Manager Bill Horne forced O'Rourke to resign after he told this newspaper there was not enough evidence for Horne to fire three police officers connected to allegations of sexual misconduct with a Clearwater Beach woman. Horne said O'Rourke's comments were inappropriate, and he also questioned O'Rourke's judgment on some other matters. O'Rourke was known as a friend to labor, and Horne wondered whether he had gotten so close to unionized employees that he was unwilling or unable to discipline them.

So a mere three months after O'Rourke left a management position with the city, he stepped around the negotiating table to represent labor. And he did so claiming there is nothing wrong with that switch and further claiming he resigned because unnamed city officials tried to make him lie about the sexual misconduct allegations against police. That claim, whether accurate or spurious, has nothing to do with O'Rourke's role as a labor negotiator for the fire union.

O'Rourke was a busy human resources director during his five years; he has a professional demeanor, and he knows the ropes of contract negotiations. So what is wrong with him being the union's negotiator? Plenty.

First, a city ordinance forbids any employee to lobby the city for one year after leaving city employment. O'Rourke would fall under that ban if he were being paid to lobby for the union. The city doesn't know whether he is. He says he isn't -- that he is representing the union as a volunteer out of a sense of patriotism. That alone seems proof of the tight relationship he had with the union.

But whether O'Rourke falls under the provisions of the ordinance or not, the city has other valid reasons to be uncomfortable negotiating with him. For example, months before he left the city job, O'Rourke began meeting with Fire Chief Rowland Herald to discuss issues and strategy that could impact the upcoming contract talks. O'Rourke therefore was privy to details of the city's likely negotiating positions. Remember, he was representing management then. Three months later he has switched sides and is representing labor. And he thinks that shouldn't be of concern to the city!

Add to those issues animosity O'Rourke might feel toward the city for forcing him out of his job, and it is easy to see why O'Rourke's presence at the negotiating table and the union's insistence that he remain there have made the city uncomfortable enough to delay further negotiations and consider its options.

Stalled labor negotiations and growing animosity between the union and the city do nothing to help firefighters achieve a beneficial contract. And they certainly do nothing to benefit the residents of Clearwater, who just want to know that public safety is uppermost in the minds of firefighters.

Cooler heads in the union rank and file need to prevail in this standoff. And O'Rourke, if he cares as much as he says he does for the city's firefighters, will not want to continue to be an obstacle to productive contract talks.

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