California transit agencies say the U.S. Department of Labor is blocking as much as $1 billion in vital grants unless the agencies agree to violate a state public employee pension reform law.
The agencies thought they had won a federal court victory late last year, when a judge ruled that the state law did not violate a federal prohibition against interfering with public employees’ collective bargaining rights.
But the Labor Department is still enforcing the rule.
The federal agency claimed that California’s Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act changed pension rights without negotiating with workers. The judge said it did not.
But instead of ordering the Labor Department to sign off on transit agency grants, the judge told the agency to reconsider how it determines the grant issues. Big money is at stake: $91 million for BART, $206 million for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, $700 million for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and millions more for agencies across the state.
Now, according to an Aug. 7 California Transit Association letter, the Department of Labor has said it will release the grants if an agency agrees to restore transit union rights and benefits in effect before the California pension reform took effect.
If the department finds that those rights were not restored, it will withdraw the grants and seek reimbursement of others.
The transit agencies say that is contrary to the court ruling.
“The (Labor Department) is requiring grantees to agree to violate California law in order … to receive funding,” says the California Transit Association’s Aug. 7 letter to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez.
“We take strong exception to the (Labor Department) setting up this untenable dynamic,” the letter states.
Among the transit chiefs signing it were Grace Crunican, BART’s general manager; Perry Woodward, chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority; Jim Hartnett, CEO of the San Mateo County Transit District; and Rick Ramacier, general manager of the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority.
Several of the state’s representatives in Congress joined the fray days after the association sent its letter.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, and 12 other Democrats on Aug. 11 asked to meet with Perez when Congress reconvenes in September to discuss “the growing concerns of many transit agencies (over) delays or holds of federally funded transit grants.”
The letter asks Perez to detail arrangements for making federal grants, timelines and what will happen as legal challenges proceed.
The letter makes a point for each side in the dispute, saying the members want to preserve transit workers’ collective bargaining rights and that the federal government is not imposing conditions that would violate state law.
A separate letter sent to Perez by eight of California’s Republican members of Congress says the California law was a bipartisan measure “ensuring the health of statewide public employees pensions at the time of their retirement.”
The Labor Department’s action “is harmful to states’ rights to make difficult but necessary reforms as they see fit,” says the letter by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona.
Other signers include Reps. Tom McClintock, Ed Royce and Dana Rohrabacher.
Contact Andrew McGall at 925-945-4703. Follow him at Twitter.com/andrewmcgall.
