Unions representing Atlantic City’s municipal workers need to prepare for a fight if a management team appointed by Governor Chris Christie recommends the city declare bankruptcy, according to a memo signed by the city’s union lawyers.
The memo, obtained by the Press of Atlantic City, was sent in January right after Christie appointed Kevin Lavin as the city’s emergency manager and Kevyn Orr as a consultant.
It was signed by Robert F. O’Brien, Mark E. Belland and Steven J. Bushinsky of O’Brien, Belland and Bushinsky, which represents all city workers except its blue-collar employees, and was circulated to union heads in January, the Press reported.
The memo said the “appointments raise grave concerns” that Christie was moving the city toward bankruptcy. Both Lavin and consultant Kevyn Orr had been involved in high-level bankruptcy declarations before.
The lawyers said bankruptcy would be “an attractive option for the Christie Administration,” enabling it to break and renegotiate labor and pension agreements and “generate enormous fees for politically connected law firms and consultants, such as Orr’s prior firm, Jones Day.”
The bankruptcy could also offer political cover for Christie as he planned a likely run for the presidency, the memo said according to the Press report.
The lawyers advised against a lawsuit challenging the legality of Lavin’s appointment, saying it would be difficult to win. But the unions should challenge a unilateral bankruptcy declaration that hasn’t obtained the support of the state Local Finance Board and two-thirds of the resort’s city council immediately.
The lawyers also called for “a public relations campaign” aimed at residents and community groups.
“The public must let the mayor and the city council know that the citizens of the city do not want a bankruptcy court deciding the city’s future,” they wrote. “The city should not be treated as a campaign tool for Christie’s presidential aspirations.”
The unions also have to prepare for “a protracted claim litigation in bankruptcy court,” the attorneys wrote.
