Labor examiner to mull recusal in Convention Center case
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner Jack E. Marino promised Monday to consider whether he should step aside in a high-profile case involving two unions ousted from the Convention Center.
HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner Jack E. Marino promised Monday to consider whether he should step aside in a high-profile case involving two unions ousted from the Convention Center.
Marino's statement came after an hour-long hearing in which a lawyer for the Convention Center accused him of raising an "appearance of impropriety" that undercut the board's decision-making credibility.
Lawyer David L. Hackett cited as evidence comments from Philly.com saying that "the fix is in" after Marino made a decision that kept alive the hopes of the ousted unions - the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters and the Teamsters - to regain work they lost in the center in May 2014.
"There is no political influence here at the board, and I'm positive you haven't found" any, Marino said. The hearing was cordial and small with just a handful of spectators and four attorneys. And at the end, Marino made it a point to come off the bench, shake Hackett's hand and clap him on the back. "You did good," he said.
Shortly after the unions lost the work, they filed an unfair labor practice charge with the board.
Nearly seven months later, in February, Marino sent a two-paragraph letter to the unions and the Convention Center advising them that he intended to dismiss the unions' complaint because the PLRB did not have jurisdiction over the case. He promised a written decision.
When the 14-page decision came out 21/2 months later, Marino had "reconsidered," ruling that the PLRB did have jurisdiction to hear the case.
The February letter was good news for Convention Center officials, who thought it signaled an end to a contentious battle.
The April decision caused the opposite reaction, and the center's lawyers quickly filed a motion asking the board to take Marino off the case. The board has said the decision is Marino's to make.
The center's lawyers said Marino's reconsideration made it look as if someone had gotten to him in the highly politicized case. Other unions that work at the Convention Center and who gained jobs after the Carpenters and Teamsters were ousted asked Gov. Wolf and Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane to investigate if Marino had been compromised.
"I have yet to be investigated, by the way," Marino told the lawyers Monday. His reconsideration, he said, was "a change of mind, based on the reading of the evidence."
The Carpenters' attorney, Thomas Jennings, told Marino that "what we have is a disappointed litigant. Hell hath no fury like a litigant scorned."
Marino promised to think it over, but said "the law loathes recusals," along with "judge-picking."
It will likely be months before Marino acts because of a backlog of cases. Marino could move ahead with the case as it stands, scheduling hearings to determine the facts about the ouster of the unions.
Or he could decide on some combination of tossing out the April decision and tossing himself out. In that scenario, another examiner would take over. Marino's decisions can be appealed to the entire board.
"Obviously I can't rule on this today, because I have to issue a well-reasoned decision," he said, as the lawyers laughed.
"Don't send a [brief] letter," Jennings advised. "I'll never do that again," Marino replied.
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