RI attorney general wants judge to dismiss lawsuit over lifetime contracts

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island’s attorney general is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit by 16 cities and towns to block what, in their words, is the “financially irresponsible lifetime contracts law’’ that Gov. Gina Raimondo signed at the behest of the state’s public employee unions last spring.

In the lawsuit they filed last November, the mayors and town managers contend the new law extending union contracts indefinitely after they have expired violates both the contracts clause and Home Rule provision of the state Constitution, which grants cities and towns the authority to decide local matters.

“In other words, a municipality would be forced to honor all previous contract terms for possibly a year or longer, spend taxpayer dollars on legal fees for mediation and arbitration, and still lack leverage at the end of the process to gain concessions on wages and benefits,’’ they argued in the suit that former Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, a lawyer, filed on their behalf.

The suit -- naming House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio and Raimondo as defendants -- is winding its way through court at the same time Rhode Island’s public employee unions are pushing lawmakers to extend the new law to state employees. The House Labor Committee held a hearing on the bill in late January.

In a filing last week, Assistant Attorneys Gen. Kayla O’Rourke and Katherine Connolly Sadeck argued the city and town lawsuit is “not ripe,’’ which in this case means there is no imminent threat of harm.

Among their arguments: “The claims in this lawsuit pertain to what happens after collective bargaining agreements expire, but the complaint demonstrates that in all but one instance, none of the collective bargaining agreements at issue in this lawsuit have expired.

“As such, this case in large part — if not in its entirety — is not ripe,’’ they wrote.

“And, even if ripe, [the ] Contract Clause claim must fail because a viable claim requires the substantial impairment of an existing contract; but here,’’ they argued, the new law does not apply - or threaten ”substantial impairment’’ to an existing contract.

“Nor do the amendments [adopted last year to the state’s collective bargaining law] violate the Home Rule Charter provision of the Rhode Island Constitution, as Plaintiffs claim’’ because they ”apply equally to all cities and towns..[and] do not impact the form of government of any city or town.“

The unions that pushed for more than a decade for the continuing-contracts law said it was aimed at preventing cities and towns from ever again unilaterally cutting pay, increasing health-care contributions and imposing what they view as disruptive work shifts on public employees, as happened in a handful of communities during past contract disputes.

Senate co-sponsor Valarie Lawson, the paid vice president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, told colleagues last spring: “We can make sure no other community in Rhode Island faces what we faced in East Providence,’’ including a unilateral salary cut and a stepped up co-share for health coverage during a bitter contract war a decade ago. (The state Ethics Commission subsequently ruled she had no conflict of interest.)

In 2017, Raimondo vetoed an earlier version of the bill, saying it extinguished “existing protection[s], hurting the public’s position in contract negotiations, and placing taxpayers at risk of being forever locked into contractual provisions they can no longer afford....The likely result would be higher property taxes.”

In a statement explaining her turnaround last spring, Raimondo said the earlier continuing-contracts bill “went too far.” The version she opted to sign only locks in wages and benefits, she said.

Raimondo’s shift came after she won the endorsement of the National Education Association of Rhode Island and other unions in her 2018 reelection bid.

The lawsuit was filed by the cities of Central Falls, Cranston, Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket and the towns of Barrington, Bristol, Burrillville, Charlestown, East Greenwich, Lincoln, Little Compton, North Kingstown, North Providence, North Smithfield and Smithfield.

kgregg@providencejournal.com

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