Message from Brian Sullivan, President

On January 5th of this year COBA's Attorneys along with the other County Union's Attorneys argued to New York's 2nd Dept Appellate Court in Brooklyn NIFA's power to impose wage freezes for three consecutive years beginning in March, 2011. We all argued that the power to do so expired at the end of the Interim Finance Period, a period of enhanced powers for NIFA, in 2008. The unions all claimed the plain language of the NIFA Statute proved this to be the case. The unions also defended against the County's claim that the unions did not pursue our case within the applicable statute of limitations.

You may recall that Judge Wexler in the federal court for the Eastern District of New York initially agreed with the unions but the Federal Appeals Court reversed him, stating that the Federal Court did not have jurisdiction to decide this "State Law" issue. It was kicked back to the State Court where Justice Diamond in Nassau Supreme disagreed with Judge Wexler and held that NIFA did retain its wage freeze power after 2008. The unions all appealed.

On September 14, 2016, the State's 2nd Department Appellate Court issued its decision upholding Judge Diamond and dismissed all of the unions' appeals stating that, although the lawsuits were filed within the statute of limitations, NIFA did have the authority to freeze wages during the years at issue.  

What Now:

We are currently evaluating our options with our Attorneys in terms of continuing to appeal through the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany where we don't think we will fare any better than in the 2nd Dept Appellate Court in Brooklyn since the decision yesterday was unanimous by the 4 Judge panel. Additionally, the Court of Appeals would have to approve hearing the case.

Although there is no sure thing when dealing with the Courts, whether its on a State or Federal level, we believe our best chance of winning would be in the Federal Court.  

We will continue to update you all as everything continues to develop.