Judge: PBA Stuck With Linn in Pact Arbitration

The Police Benevolent Association’s attempt to have former city Labor Commissioner Robert W. Linn disqualified as the de Blasio administration’s representative on a three-man contract arbitration panel has been dismissed by an Albany judge who concluded that his past work on behalf of the union did not give the city improper insight into confidential material pertaining to the union’s strategy.

The March 15 ruling by Acting Supreme Court Justice David A. Weinstein clears the way for the arbitration, which has been on hold since late last summer, to proceed on a successor contract for the PBA deal that expired Aug. 1, 2017. The union had filed for arbitration less than two months after that contract ran out, and later made clear it was not interested in the terms the administration reached last year in separate settlements with District Council 37 and the United Federation of Teachers.