The following question was asked at tonight’s
council meeting:
“Nobody really understood why you passed
an ordinance splitting the DPW into two separate departments. At the time, I asked if any of your family
members would benefit financially from the move. Mrs. Licata, you laughed and said “No”. Did your son benefit financially from the
creation of Building and Grounds?”
Mrs. Licata looked to Tony Luna to answer. Mr. Luna said the departments are run more
efficiently since they were divided in two.
Mr. Luna said that Mrs. Licata’s son did not benefit financially and that he received the same increase as the other
DPW workers (same steps).
“Are you trying to have two different contracts for the two different departments?”
First, Mr. Luna said that he doesn’t see that
happening but it could in the future. I
stated that it is unfair to workers and bad for morale if coworkers that were
all part of the same DPW are now receiving different contracts. Mr. Luna said that he doubts it will
happen. I said it should not have come
to this and this is a negative result of the ordinance they passed. Mr. Luna finally said if the contracts are different
I can lambast him for it at a future meeting.
Mr. Luna is doing the negotiating for the two
separate contracts. The workers need to
hold him to his word that he will negotiate the two contracts to be the same. They also need to hold him to his word that
the Deputy Mayor’s son did not receive any compensation higher than the other
DPW workers since the ordinance was passed on September 18, 2012.
And something to think about: will the Florio firm charge Lodi twice as much for working on two contracts instead of one?
