[S]enators are set to wade into a heated dispute over the governor’s controversial appointment of retired lawyer Karen O’Neill to the Vermont Labor Relations Board.
Gov. Phil Scott’s spokesperson said it would be “shocking – and clearly political” if the Democratically controlled Senate blocked O’Neill’s confirmation.
Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, said the Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, which he chairs, will take testimony this week from O’Neill, Timothy Noonan, executive director of the state labor board, and others involved in the dispute.
“If the full Senate does not confirm her appointment, the ball will be back in the governor’s court,” Sirotkin said.
At that point, Scott could either put forward a new candidate or repeat the process with O’Neill, according to Sirotkin.
The Vermont State Employees Association, which has led the opposition to O’Neill, called on its members to “keep the calls/emails coming” to senators ahead of the committee hearing on Wednesday morning.
Soon after her appointment to the board, O’Neill found herself at the center of a months-long dispute between Scott’s administration and the VSEA over contract negotiations that had to be sent to arbitration.
O’Neill was among the three board members who decided in the administration’s favor, despite workers complaining that Scott’s “last best offer” meant meager raises and cuts in their health care coverage.
Another board member, Alan Willard, withdrew from hearing the case because of a conflict — he’s covered by the state employee health insurance plan. Union leaders say they didn’t learn of O’Neill’s appointment until a month after the fact.
O’Neill served in senior management positions with two Vermont utilities and was a senior member of Gravel & Shea, a Burlington law firm that advertises itself as successfully defeating union efforts.
The VSEA has said she would be a better fit for one of the management slots on the labor board, as opposed to the neutral seat to which she has been appointed. There are two spots each for management, labor and neutrally selected members.
“While Ms. O’Neill might be eminently qualified to serve as a management member of the board, her appointment as a neutral makes a mockery of the Labor Board process, and would leave working Vermonters with little faith that their cases before the Board would be adjudicated in a fair manner,” according to a letter to the Senate from the Working Vermonters Caucus, a labor rights group comprised of House and Senate members.
Rebecca Kelley, Scott’s spokesperson, said in an email Monday that O’Neill was “well-qualified, adds diversity to the Board composition, was unanimously recommended by a panel of labor and management professionals.”
Kelley said “it’s exceedingly rare for the Senate to not confirm a Governor’s appointee” and that “it would be shocking – and clearly political – for the Senate not to confirm her.”
Sirotkin said he would need to hear testimony from O’Neill and others before taking a position on the appointment himself. He conceded that the vast majority of the governor’s appointments move through the Senate with little resistance.
“The senate does have the authority and responsibility to confirm those appointments,” Sirotkin said.
The VSEA also filed legal action with the Washington County Superior court on Friday claiming that the administration bypassed the statutory appointment process in placing O’Neill on the board, failing to inform or engage unions. It calls of the court to force new negotiations over the disputed contract.
“Our hope is for state employees to get a new hearing in front of the VLRB so we can make our case again for VSEA’s very fair last-best-offer — hopefully without the state misusing the appointment process to stack the deck in advance,” VSEA President Dave Bellini was quoted in a statement announcing the legal action.
The VSEA has also filed a labor complaint over O’Neill’s appointment and the contract decision, and asked for O’Neill to be recused from the case moving forward.
Scott and senior administration officials have said that O’Neill is highly qualified for the position and pushed back at the suggestion of a pro-management bias on the labor board.
Kelley pointed out that labor was represented on the panel that unanimously recommended O’Neill. “The Labor appointee to this panel came to us as a result of the Commissioner’s outreach to the appointee’s labor organization, in accordance with the statute,” she said.
That panel is composed of the following members:
— Therese Corsones, executive director of the Vermont Bar Association (statutorily appointed by virtue of position)
— Lindsay Kurrle, Commissioner of Labor (statutorily appointed by virtue of position)
— Pat Gable, State Court Administrator (statutorily appointed by virtue of position)
— Jeff Wimmette, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 300 (Representative from a Labor Organization, per statute)
— Betsy Bishop, Vermont Chamber (Representative from Management, per statute)
