Saying he is sick of threats posed at the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) by the Tom Suozzi administration, union head Gary DelaRaba announced the PBA has filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court against Nassau County. With the lawsuit, the PBA hopes to force the county to continue with the arbitration process, which will award the police union its next contact.

DelaRaba said County Executive Suozzi is going back on his word and has delayed the arbitration process.

The PBA's last contract expired in Jan. 2000. Recently, the process to award the PBA a new contract has been a struggle, especially since Suozzi, who took office in January, promised tougher negotiations with the unions.

However, DelaRaba said the PBA only wants Suozzi to keep his word and the promises DelaRaba alleges were made during "off the record meetings" with the PBA.

Informal discussions with the PBA and the new county executive's administration began when DelaRaba agreed to attend the meetings, which began Dec. 14 (when Suozzi was the county executive-elect) only under the condition that in no way would the meetings constitute a formal negotiation, causing both sides to have to go through mediation and impasse procedures as well as the re-selecting of an arbitrator.

DelaRaba said he also attended the meetings under the understanding that Roger Kaplan would remain as the arbitrator agreed to by the PBA and the county in October, when Tom Gulotta was the county executive, and that the new county administration would not try to challenge the arbitrator's jurisdiction.

"I went there as a good faith effort to build some trust with the incoming government. All of the promises that were made were broken," he said.

DelaRaba also said another condition of the meetings was that both sides would move along as quickly as possible to a hearing date. DelaRaba believes the county has gone back on its word on the PBA's conditions in the meetings.

"In the series of the record meetings we had with the county, several promises were made and all we have been met with is one threat after another to tie the contract up for a year and a half," DelaRaba said.

In response, Suozzi said DelaRaba's claims are inaccurate and that he never even agreed to go to arbitration. "As far as I'm concerned, we're not at the level of impasse," Suozzi said.

The lawsuit filed by the PBA, however, would compel the county to go to arbitration. Suozzi said, though, that his administration is not going to honor the commitment made by the prior administration to go to arbitration, including the PBA and the Gulotta administration's agreement that Kaplan serve as the arbitrator.

In his own press conference, Suozzi urged DelaRaba to continue to negotiate a contract with the administration. However, there appear to be some major stumbling blocks since both sides disagree on the size of the county's police force.

Suozzi said that the county workforce, including the police force, must be decreased and the county can no longer afford to give members of the police department substantial raises as in the past.

"To solve the problems of the county, we're going to have to have a smaller police force and we can't continue to give these raises to our police officers that we've given before in the past. It just can't work. You can't solve the fiscal crisis and continue to give exorbitant increases," the county executive said.

Suozzi has put forth ideas such as getting highly trained police officers out of civilian-type jobs within the department and into the streets, and changing minimum manning requirements so that staffing in a particular area is based on factors such as level of criminal activity, day of the week and time of the day.

In addition, 350 officers retired by the end of 2001, saving the county $30 million.

DelaRaba expressed concern about the decrease in the level of public safety as a result of cutting the police force and has even expressed the need to hire more police officers. "As far as the issue of public safety, we are going to pursue that and the constant threats of trying to play with minimum staffing, which equates to putting less cops on the street and putting cops in jeopardy, is not an issue we're going to barter," he said. "If they put less police officers on the street, that is, quite frankly, going to put a police officer at risk and it is going to put the public at risk."

Suozzi said, though, that citing public safety is just a ploy by the PBA to get a contract done. Re-deploying some of the current officers will allow the county to either maintain or enhance the efficiency of the police force while also reducing the size of the force, the county executive believes.

Suozzi also believes that the PBA asking for more officers is just detracting from the issue of the contract. "It's all about the money. It's all about the contract and everybody knows it," he said.

Suozzi also questioned why the PBA is so adamant about having Kaplan as the arbitrator. "It's curious to me that this has been elevated to such an important status that Mr. Kaplan must be the arbitrator," he said. "Something is very curious about that and we're going to find out what it is."

The county executive did vow that, regardless of what happens with the contract, there would be less police officers working for Nassau County.