Former city official off fire union team

The addition of a former city personnel director had stalled negotiations for a new firefighters contract.

By JENNIFER FARRELL, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 15, 2002

CLEARWATER -- The firefighters union appears to have blinked.

Three weeks after insisting former city personnel director Paul O'Rourke remain on their negotiating team over angry objections from the city, union officials have conceded dropping him, City Manager Bill Horne said Friday.

According to Horne, the city is ironing out a settlement with the union that would remove O'Rourke and allow stalled contract talks to resume.

City labor attorney Deborah Brown declined to discuss specifics, but predicted the matter will be resolved by the end of this week.

"The parties are on a path to amicably resolve the issue," she said. "We're optimistic that the parties are going to be able to resolve their differences."

Union president John Lee refused to comment Friday.

"It's in the attorneys' hands," he said.

O'Rourke was forced to resign his $85,446 per year city job in May after clashing with Horne. Two months later, he shocked city officials by showing up on the union's side of the table.

Since then, the city has objected to his presence on a number of grounds. Early this month, the city filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the union, asking for a stay in negotiations.

Talks had stalled in late August after O'Rourke refused to back away. The city demanded he step down, arguing his presence created an unfair advantage for the union, put any negotiated contract at risk and created an appearance of impropriety.

The city has argued that if O'Rourke was on the union's payroll, he was violating a city ordinance banning former employees from lobbying the city for at least a year after leaving their jobs.

O'Rourke and Lee have said O'Rourke donated his time.

O'Rourke did not return a call for comment Friday.

-- Jennifer Farrell can be reached at 445-4160 or farrell@sptimes.com.

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