Re: your article about members of the Assembly rethinking their positions on the filtration plant (Oct. 4 – 17, 2007).

I seem to recall that the elected officials who promised jobs actually did nothing to secure a Project Labor Agreement. If they had used standard PLA language, they could have invoked zip code radius hiring in order to ensure that some Bronx folks got interviewed for the jobs. While several local elected officials – including members of both the Rivera and Diaz clan – said that job creation was a goal, I suspect that they knew as well as everyone else that the trades wouldn’t have too many members who would meet the zip code requirement.

I saw no efforts on their part to secure a PLA or even to secure an expansion in apprenticeships to fill slots. Community groups that might have undertaken such an effort were conflicted due to their basic opposition to the project. The elected officials who supported the plant exploited – without demands on them to put teeth into their "jobs" request – the fact that there would be none and then they could blame the city later, if necessary.

My view is that the Bronx politicians wo supported the plant had no intention of winning Bronx jobs. It was my impression at the time that they simply wanted more financial support from labor so that they could underwrite the campaign expenses associated with running their children for elected office.

Mary Dailey

This letter was originally posted as a comment on our Web site.