Angry Parsippany residents sound off on crime, library closure, labor agreements

PARSIPPANY — Two weeks after passing a controversial labor agreement ordinance for public construction projects over $5 million, the township council got another earful about their decision from angry residents who packed a meeting on Tuesday.

Critics have said the Project Labor Agreement provision favors large unions at the expense of small-business contractors and will potentially raise costs for taxpayers. It was not the only issue raised by residents in a busy public-comment session that also touched on crime rates and the proposed closure of a town library.

Residents of the Summit Road area alerted the council to a rash of burglaries and thefts of catalytic converters from vehicles. Another commenter noted the discovery of a man on Summit Road "dressed in a bush suit" and "peering into homes."

The Summit Road group write in an online post that over the summer, at least six catalytic converters were stolen from vehicles in the area. A car and two more converters were stolen between October 19 and 25.

"Our street has been hit seven times," one Summit resident said at the meeting. "We are not feeling safe here at all here in Lake Parsippany," he said, adding his neighbor's car was burglarized twice in one month.

New Jersey has seen a rising tide of auto-theft and burglaries in recent years, with more affluent suburban communities a prime target for thieves seeking expensive vehicles to steal. On Tuesday, Councilman Paul Carifi Jr., a retired law-enforcement officer, put the blame on bail reform and other state guidelines that he said allow offenders, often juveniles, to stay out of jail.

"It's frustrating for law enforcement because we lock them up and they get right out," Carifi said.

Mayor James Barberio, with Police Chief Richard Pantina in the audience, said Parsippany police are short-staffed due to a hiring freeze imposed during the last administration that has the town down to 81 deployable officers compared to more than 100 five years ago. Council President Michael dePierro added that a resolution on the night's agenda would authorize funds to hire new officers.

PLA controversy continues

Ten speakers who said they were Parsippany residents spoke out against the PLA agreement, which passed by a 4-1 margin at the council's Oct. 18 meeting. That meeting, attended by about 200 union supporters cheering and waving signs, was moved to at Parsippany Hills High School after union backers packed council chambers at the previous meeting in support of the measure.

Advocates for the agreements say they lower costs by streamlining hiring and bidding, while guaranteeing that projects use skilled labor from local communities. Opponents cited state and national studies indicating PLAs drive up the cost of public projects and shut out minority contractors less likely to have union connections.

On Tuesday, multiple speakers saying they represented the town's Indian-American community said they were intimidated by the large union presence at the previous two meetings, and were hesitant to speak out then.

"I'm not opposing unions but it goes case-by-case," one man said. "This town does not require PLA. The Indian community is very upset, many of them were scared to come in here last meeting. Bringing in hundreds of union folks from out of the residency area? Not a good idea."

"Why did those union members come out in droves that day?" Barberi asked. "I don't know why. I asked them why. They have a reason and that's for them to express. I didn't like it. I know some people were intimidated and I apologize."

Some of the anti-PLA residents thanked Councilman Justin Musella, who absorbed criticism from Barberio and union members for casting the lone no vote against the ordinance. Following the previous meeting, Barberio published a letter on a local website criticizing Musella for "taking baseless politically motivated shots at our administration."

On Tuesday, Musella thanked the residents for speaking out.

"I understand the last two meetings, to have done what you did tonight would have been extraordinarily difficult," he said. "You can take that from somebody who was there. And I do hope my colleagues will take into serious consideration the effort to repeal this ordinance. I do not feel it will benefit the taxpayers and I don't want to wait for the impacts it will have on your future before it's too late."

Other anti-PLA speakers identified themselves as Republicans and asked why the Republican mayor and council were backing a pro-union initiative that seemed more likely to be favored by Democrats. Barberio responded to those who say "Republicans don't do this or that" by saying "says who?"

"I'm running a town with 55,000 residents," he said. "I'm for good government."

Another resident and local contractor said "the ordinance will not provide a fair and competitive bidding process. It is said that by employing union labor, the workers will be more skilled. I know this is not true. I bid [for] public work and have my men attending the same classes as union workers. My men are equally capable."

Resident Ken Kaplan, a registered Libertarian, offered examples of what he said were PLA cost overruns on large public projects nationwide, including the infamous "Big Dig" 20 years ago in Boston which he said "was a debacle."

"In fact, George W. Bush banned project labor agreements for all federal projects after that. it was that bad," said Kaplan. "Bids should go to the lowest responsible bidder. It's as simple as that."

Mount Tabor library

About half of the capacity audience stood to support resident Dawn Cantanzaro, who was worried about a recommendation by the township library director to the council to close the library's Mount Tabor Branch.

"We were totally blindsided by this," said Cantanzaro, who said the small stone structure has served as a library in the historic community since 1901. "To close it would be just terrible."

Councilman Frank Neglia, who grew up in the Mount tabor area, said, "I will support anything we can come up with or the mayor can come up with to keep it open to some extent. It just has to be open."

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com 

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This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Parsippany NJ residents angry about crime at council meeting