Andrea Campbell (left), who is running for attorney general, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Maura Healey, who is running for governor, wave to the crowd during the Massachusetts Get Out The Vote Rally Nov. 2 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College.
Councilor Kendra Lara questions a panel of labor activists as councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Kenzi Bok look on.
Union pres. shuts down meeting during outburst
A City Council hearing on the idea of using civilian flaggers instead of police details on some construction projects got heated Monday as Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association President Larry Calderone refused to surrender the microphone after exceeding the five-minute limit for testimony, prompting councilors to walk out of the hearing, held at the Bolling Building in Roxbury.
“We will accept written testimony at any length from anybody,” said Councilor Kenzie Bok, who chairs the City Services Committee. “There’s a bunch of people who are also waiting.”
Calderone, however, continued reading from a written statement in defense of maintaining the city’s prohibition on civilian flaggers.
“You claim to want to work together, but you get up and walk out of the room,” he said as Bok and Councilors Kendra Lara, Ruthzee Louijeune and Julia Mejia left the dais.
“This
proposal will demolish a highly successful program that exists today,”
he said as the councilors left the room. “Public safety details have
documented proof of providing immediate responses to crimes, medical
issues, traffic safety and violence.”
Lara
had advanced the hearing order, which was backed by labor activists, to
explore the use of civilians to direct traffic around construction
projects and street work. Currently, only police can work such projects
in Boston.
Labor
activists said the job, which pays a state-mandated prevailing wage of
$50.42 an hour, could benefit Boston residents, many of whom struggle to
pay rent.
“You
already have a salary you get for working for the Boston Police
Department,” said anti-violence activist Romilda Pereira, addressing the
police officers in the room. “On top of that, you get overtime. On top
of that you get work as a flagger, and you’re not willing to share
that?”
Tensions between the labor activists and police surfaced repeatedly throughout the hearing.
“You
all are here like we’re at war with each other,” said activist Sashi
James, addressing the police officers. “We’re just trying to figure out
how do we bring the resources you all have into our communities.”
While
police have a virtual monopoly on construction details, in the last
year, police were only able to fill 65% of the details that companies
requested from the city.
Superintendent
Marcus Eddings testified that the details help the police better
provide public safety, as they place on average 318 officers on the
streets on details paid for by construction firms. He noted that
officers can respond to police calls while on details, calling the
arrangement a “value-added crime deterrent.”
Councilor
Ricardo Arroyo asked Eddings whether the officers were on the details
primarily to direct traffic or to deter crime, noting that if an officer
responds to a call, they’re no longer able to direct traffic at a site.
“It
can’t be both,” he said. Arroyo also asked whether Eddings had read a
2015 operational audit of the department commissioned by the
administration of former Mayor Martin Walsh. (He hadn’t). That report,
Arroyo asserted, showed private firms owed the police department $24
million, $8 million of which was “uncollectible.” Because the department
pays the detail officers before it collects the money from construction
firms, Arroyo said, the detail program actually costs the city money.
Lara asked for the demographics of officers who work details.
Eddings said he did not have that information.
“Details are not based on demographics,” he said.
“I would like to know,” Lara said.
Another
issue councilors pressed the officers on is how projects are
prioritized. Bok noted that major construction sites with pressing
traffic needs are often unmanned while smaller projects have details
assigned. Edding conceded that the department does not prioritize
details based on the size or scope of the projects. While he testified
that currently 35% of details go unfilled, the portion unfilled in the
past year has been as high as 50%.
“We
have to solve this problem,” Bok said. “We can’t be getting into
situations where 30, 40, 50% of these details are going unfilled.”
Jascha
Franklin-Hodge, the city’s chief of streets, noted that construction
firms work directly with the police, preventing city officials from
weighing in regularly on which details are filled. Also confounding any
efforts at marshaling detail workers is the fact that officers decide
which ones to work.
“Paid details are voluntary, not mandatory,” Eddings said.
Most
of the councilors present appeared critical of the department’s
management of and monopoly on details as well as the conduct of the
officers present, as some of the officers repeatedly shouted at them
while they spoke.
“When there’s an opportunity for change in Boston, there’s always an uproar,” Mejia said.
Councilor
Tania Fernandes Anderson noted that the officers in the room, who were
overwhelmingly white, were not representative of the city.
“When you look at this room, the demographics do not match the demographics in this city, and that’s troubling,” she said.
Calderone later challenged Fernandes Anderson on that point.
“This
room is packed with 96, 97% police officers and workers. They reflect
your community,” he said, urging the councilors to look around the room
at the mostly-white gathering. At one point, Calderone rhetorically
questioned whether Black officers were present among the 200-plus people
in the hearing room. More than 20 stood up.
Councilors Ed Flynn, Frank Baker and Erin Murphy spoke in support of the police.
“The
police officers in this city want what’s in the best interests of our
neighborhoods,” Flynn said. “They have a longtime commitment to the
city, and I think they want to make sure that we work together.”
Flynn
said there aren’t enough officers on the streets and advocated hiring
400 new officers a year over the next 10 to 15 years.
Baker suggested that the number jobs currently open in City Hall points to a lack of demand for work such as flagging jobs.
“We should start looking at openings in the city before we look at details,” he said.
Murphy suggested that the high rate of pay for flaggers might actually deter Boston school children from attending college.
“My
kids went to college,” she said. “I don’t know that they would have
taken the path they took if they knew they could get a $70,000-a-year
job out of high school.”
After
the hearing Lara told the Banner that Calderone’s refusal to comply
with Bok’s request to end his testimony was a “massive display of
arrogance and entitlement.”
“I
think it was disrespectful to the Boston City Council and the public
process,” she said. “It should make everyone question the legitimacy of
the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association if this is the kind of
leadership they have.”