UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff,

-against-   Index No.

90 Civ. 5722 (CSH) DISTRICT COUNCIL OF NEW YORK CITY

AND VICINITY OF THE UNITED BROTHERHOOD

OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA,

et. al.,

Defendants.

THE THIRD INTERIM REPORT OF
THE INVESTIGATIONS AND REVIEW OFFICER

KENNETH CONBOY

INVESTIGATIONS AND REVIEW OFFICER

LATHAM & WATKINS 885 Third Avenue

New York, New York 10022

(212) 906-1200

• Dated:   October 30, 1995 New York, New York

provided a copy of my election certification to the Secretary/Treasurer of the District Council.

III. THE JAVITS CENTER INVESTIGATION AND THE FIORINO HEARING

A. The State Takeover Of Hiring at the Javits Center

As the Court is aware, on March 13, 1995, after conducting a lengthy investigation of the District Council's involvement in the trade show industry, predominantly at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center ("Javits Center"), I filed an application with the. Court seeking an order (1) invalidating certain portions of the collective bargaining agreement governing District Council job referrals in the trade show industry and the manner in which District Council representatives are compensated in that industry; (2) requiring the District Council to refer jobs in the trade show industry in accordance with the job referral rules of the Consent Decree; and (3) authorizing the IRO to oversee District Council activities in the trade show industry. The application was filed after my investigation revealed, among other things, that a favored pool of 94 men with connections to organized crime, a third of whom had criminal records, received the first chance at all trade show industry jobs under the auspices, of the

District Council. The District Council officials directly responsible for this corrupt referral system, Anthony Fiorino and Lenard Simon, were revealed to be closely associated with members of the Genovese Crime Family.

A parallel investigation conducted by Charles Carberry, Esq., the Investigations Officer under the consent decree in United

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States v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, et al., similarly demonstrated the influence of organized crime over Teamsters Local 807, a union active at the Javits Center. On March 5, 1995, the Teamsters Independent Review Board issued a report containing the findings of this investigation. That report led Teamsters General President Ronald Carey, on March 8, 1995, to impose a trusteeship on Local 807.

On March 16, 1995, members of the New York State Senate held a hearing chaired by Senators Joseph Bruno and Ronald Stafford into corruption and mismanagement at the Javits Center. The hearing included testimony by Governor Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, As well as Devine and former Javits Center President Fabian Palomino. Devine and Palomino gave conflicting accounts of their involvement in the promotion of Anthony Fiorino and Lenard Simon at the Javits Center. See New York Times, March 17, 1995 at B3,

attached hereto as Exhibit 15. Palomino claimed that he had nothing to do with Fiorino and Simon becoming the stewards responsible for hiring and negotiating labor-contracts. Id. Devine claimed that he had appointed Fiorino and Simon largely on Palomino's recommendation, and said that he knew little about them when he appointed them as the District Council's representatives at the Center. Id.

The combination of the Teamsters report, the IRO's application to the Court, and the State Senate's hearings, focused public attention on the influence of organized crime at the Javits Center. Public awareness of Javits Center corruption was further magnified by the disciplinary hearing of Anthony Fiorino, the

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District Council representative at the Javits Center. As described in greater detail below, the Fiorino hearing, which began on March 20, 1995, and lasted ten hearing days, received substantial coverage in the media.26

In response to the growing public outrage over the influence of organized crime at the Javits Center, the Governor's office, in June 1995, devised a plan for eliminating the corrupt referral practices at the Javits Center: the state would hire its own permanent work force at the Center. Under the plan, the state would hire between 400 - 500 new employees who would perform the work previously done by the Teamsters, Carpenters, and Exposition Workers Unions. The new management at the Javits Center would not be bound by the collective bargaining agreements between the unions and the trade show contractors, and all new employees would be scrutinized to eliminate those with extensive criminal records or ties to organized crime. See New York Times, June 24, 1995 at 21, attached hereto as Exhibit 18. The Javits Center placed newspaper advertisements seeking "neat, hard-working, courteous, dependable, cooperative and respectful people" to apply in person on Saturday, July 1, 1995, for jobs at the Javits Center. See New York Post, June 28, 1995 at 4, attached hereto as Exhibit 19. The Javits

26 Prior to the Fiorino hearing, I provided Devine with the documentary evidence supporting the IRO's charges that Fiorino associated with individuals connected to the Genovese Crime Family. See letter of Kenneth Conboy dated March 13, 1995, attached hereto as Exhibit 16. Even in light of this evidence, which included the sworn affidavits of individuals with personal knowledge of Fiorino's role at the Javits Center, Devine refused to remove Fiorino from his position at the Javits Center. See letter of Frederick Devine dated March 17, 1995, attached hereto as Exhibit 17.

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Center did not require applicants to have prior experience in the trade show industry.

New workers were hired in July 1995 and asked to begin work immediately. Negotiations between the state and the District Council led to an agreement providing for new work rules. Under the agreement, signed by Devine on September 13, 1995, but effective as of July 17, 1995, the District Council is recognized as the exclusive bargaining representative for "exhibit builders" at the Javits Center, and all persons working within this jurisdiction at the Javits Center will have to become members of the Union; however, all hiring will continue to be done by the Javits Center,not by the Carpenters Union. See Undated Notice to Javits Center Employees from Frederick W. Devine, attached hereto as Exhibit 20; see also Convention and Exhibition Field Agreement, attached hereto as Exhibit 21.

One of the arguments made by. the District Council in defense of the "pool list" referral system was that the men on the "pool list" were given preference, not because they were connected to organized crime, but because they were experienced in the trade show industry and the Javits Center could not function without such experienced workers. The four months of experience under Governor Pataki's new system demonstrates the spuriousness of the District Council's argument. In July 1995, the Javits Center hired a cadre of workers which included many people with no prior trade show experience. All the trade shows since July 1995 have been successfully completed, on time and within budget. Indeed, major contractors at the Javits Center have informed my office that they

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are pleased with the new environment at the Javits Center and with

the work being done by the new employees.

B.   The Fiorino Hearing

On December 5, 1994, following an extensive investigation, this office filed eight disciplinary charges against Anthony D. Fiorino, alleging violations of the Consent Decree, applicable union constitutions and by-laws, and federal labor statutes. These charges alleged that Fiorino, through the course of conduct specified in the charges, engaged in improper conduct and committed offenses discreditable to the Carpenters Union.

Specifically, it was alleged: (1) that from in or around August 1991, Fiorino. knowingly associated with members and associates of the Genovese Crime Family, including Liborio Bellomo and Ralph Coppola; (2) that from in or around April 1994, Fiorino discriminated against his fellow union members by regularly referring for Javits Center work a small group of favored individuals (i.e., "pool list" members); (3) that in or around 1984, Fiorino threatened a fellow union member with physical harm; (4) that in or around November 1985, Fiorino interceded on behalf of a contractor seeking to avoid employing union carpenters at a job site; (5) that in or around October 1985, Fiorino demanded and received window blinds from a contractor at a job site at which Fiorino was a steward; (6) that from in or around May 1988, Fiorino allowed individuals to work at the Javits Center while they were not members in good standing of the union; (7) that in his 1982 application, Fiorino falsely represented his qualifications for union membership; and (8) that in or around July 1991, Fiorino

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