Judge Overrules Gary Mayor

ON TUESDAY WE REPORTED (HERE) ON THE ANTICS going on in the Gary, Indiana, city hall. The mayor and city council have so mismanaged the treasury that the city is running out of money. Remember, this is the outfit that recently started charging all the property owners a monthly fee for “fire hydrant rental” (Firegeezer report HERE).

Last week the arrogant city attorney arbitrarily ruled that the labor contracts with the police and fire unions were “void” and “outdated.” The city slashed the police wages by 20% and ordered the fire chief to reduce minimum staffing of all engines and trucks from 4 to 3.

That didn’t set too well with the judge who had ordered the city back in January to maintain the minimum staffing while contract negotiations continue. (Note: They are still continuing as the city tries to negotiate substantial pay cuts for public safety personnel.)

The Superior Court judge John Pera warned the mayor about ignoring his orders. “This court expects those orders to be followed,” he said. The Gary Post-Tribune reports:

A clause in the firefighters’ contract requires the city to abide by its conditions until another contract is agreed upon.

An attorney representing Gary said city ordinances put time limits on such situations, overruling the contract.

Attorneys never mentioned the ordinance to Pera before he issued his original ruling, and firefighters attorney David Buls took exception to its mention.

“It seems any time the city needs an ordinance, it pops out of nowhere,” Buls said.

So the engines and trucks are back to 4 for now. Everybody comes back to Judge Pera’s court on Sept. 2 to talk about it some more.

Read the complete story in the Post-Tribune HERE.

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