Free at last: Carpenters union nearly rid of court-appointed monitor

Judge OK’s reduced oversight years after mob, corruption scandals

From left: Joseph Geiger and Glen McGorty (NYC District Council of Carpenters, LinkedIn/Glen McGorty, iStock)
From left: Joseph Geiger and Glen McGorty (NYC District Council of Carpenters, LinkedIn/Glen McGorty, iStock)

After nearly 30 years of court supervision, the city’s largest construction union just moved a step closer to shedding its corruption monitor.

A federal judge recently signed off on reducing the role of the New York City District Council of Carpenters’ overseer, who will now intervene in union affairs on an “as needed” basis. The monitor will also no longer be involved with the union’s benefit funds.

Joseph Geiger, the union’s executive secretary-treasurer, said the decision “validated” the organization’s steps toward self-governance, including its creation of the office of the inspector general, which has been gradually taking over the monitor’s corruption oversight responsibilities.

“This and many robust steps we’ve taken towards self-governance were validated entirely by this decision and mark an official new era of trust and competency for the Council,” Geiger said in a statement.

The change is a major step in the union’s journey to independence. The union agreed to court-appointed supervision in 1994 to settle federal racketeering charges and in an effort to root out the mob’s influence. It was a bumpy ride for the union in the two decades that followed, with the indictment of subsequent leaders and persistent accusations of ties to organized crime.

In recent years, however, the monitor has commended the union’s efforts to ferret out corruption, and has encouraged its leaders to take over more investigative duties.

“We have been much more reactive in the past couple years,” said Glen McGorty, the monitor, noting that his office has increasingly relied on the union’s inspector general to investigate complaints related to the union’s 1994 consent decree.

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There have been a few setbacks. Two consecutive presidents stepped down, one after allegations of misconduct, while the other cited “mistakes” from several years ago (he had worked off the books earlier in his career as a carpenter).

The union also recently increased the monitor’s authority to bring charges against members with connections to organized crime. The change was partly inspired by the 2019 indictments against leaders of two local union chapters, who were charged with accepting bribes in exchange for union membership.

Last year, a union leader retired after the monitor concluded that he should be removed from office; an investigation found that he had associated with a “barred” person at a golf event.

The monitor is still able to pursue such charges, alongside the inspector general. The monitor will also still oversee the union’s elections and maintain veto power over “personnel or actions” in violation of the 1994 agreement with the federal government.

The union’s benefit funds were at the center of leadership shakeup in 2010. At the time, the head of the union was convicted for cheating its benefit and pension funds out of millions of dollars. More recently, a high-ranking official in a New Jersey-based carpenters’ union pleaded guilty to embezzling $140,000 from that group’s pension funds.

But the benefit funds have their own “anti-corruption structures and programs” in place, according to attorneys for the District Council. They argued in a letter to the judge that the monitor only became involved in investigating matters related to the benefit funds upon request and that “no such requests have been made for a number of years.”

The carpenters union found itself at odds with the real estate industry during the latest state legislative session, by opposing a proposed replacement for 421a. The group demanded prevailing wages for projects receiving the tax break and that wage requirements not be limited by geography. The proposal did not pass, and 421a expired, bringing apartment project financing to a halt.