Appeals of scrap metal firings enter final stages
BRIDGEPORT — Two former public facilities supervisors fired at the start of the year for their alleged roles in illegal scrap metal sales are fighting to return to work.
Over the past few days, the wrongful termination labor grievances filed by former Deputy Director Joe Tiago and exrecycling manager Jose DeMoura entered the final stages of a state arbitration process. Mayor Joe Ganim announced their firings last February.
Fred Paoletti, the union attorney representing Tiago, said this week that both the city and the union have now finished their presentations on the case.
All that leaves, Paoletti said, is for the sides to file their final written arguments with the arbitrator.
“I’d imagine a decision sometime probably end of April or May,” Paoletti said.
That has not stopped the Ganim administration from filling Tiago’s position. On Dec. 13, Craig Nadrizny was promoted to deputy director.
DeMoura’s case is even closer to conclusion. His union attorney, Edward Gavin, said he and the city last Friday “filed their posttrial briefs with the arbitrator.”
“A decision will be rendered within the next 90 days,” Gavin said.
Mayor Joe Ganim fired Tiago and DeMoura in February following an internal review of anonymous allegations that city workers were improperly running an illicit scrap metal for cash operation.
Last December, Hearst Connecticut Media looked into those same anonymous claims and found $35,500 worth of offthebooks sales of scrap metal. The majority of that money has never been publicly accounted for.
The FBI last winter launched a probe into the scrap metal scandal and the awarding of nobid public facilities contracts. As of the summer agents were still interviewing municipal employees, but there has been no official word on the status of that investigation.
The city has never explained how Tiago and DeMoura were supposedly involved in the scrap metal sales or why they were fired.
“That is the result of actions or admissions on their part as city employees,” was all Ganim said last February.
Their union has maintained Tiago and DeMoura were unfairly treated compared to Public Facilities Director John Ricci, who recently announced he would resign in January after four years of running that massive department. Ganim took away two weeks’ pay and two weeks’ of paid vacation from Ricci, a political ally, for the director’s involvement in the scrap metal sales.
Ricci has previously admitted to allowing some scrap proceeds to be placed in an offthebooks fund that he claimed contained around $5,000 and was intended to boost employee morale.
“We believe — and the evidence has shown — that John Ricci approved scrap metal sales and directed where the funds were to be kept within his office,” Gavin said earlier this week. “The fact that individuals like Tiago and DeMoura were terminated for following their supervisor’s directive is unreasonable and disproportionate.”
Despite the scrap metal scandal and other controversies — Ricci has been accused of sexual harassment and, more recently, repeatedly giving work to a friend’s son — the outgoing public facilities director seemingly remains popular in municipal government.
Earlier this week one of his supporters, new City
Councilwoman Maria Pereira, introduced a resolution asking the mayor to refuse to accept Ricci’s resignation. But only a handful of council members voted for it, with opponents arguing they had no jurisdiction.
“We all love John Ricci,” said Councilwoman Denese Taylor Moye. “(But) this is not something we get into.”
“We don’t know whether Mr. Ricci wants him (Ganim) to take it back,” noted Councilwoman Mary McBrideLee.
Ricci did not return a request for comment about Pereira’s effort.