A former investigator with the New York City District Council of Carpenters claims he was fired after complaining about selective investigations of corruption in the union, The Real Deal reports.
Peter Marsalisi, who worked as a senior investigator with the union’s inspector general’s office, claims that union officials discouraged him from investigating certain cases “involving fraud, corruption and criminal activity.” For the union, which has been under federal supervision for more than 20 years, the inspector general’s office is a key part of its return to self governance, according to the published report.
Marsalisi claims that the union’s inspector general, Scott Danielson, was removed after the monitor conducted an audit of the IG’s office “amid unspecified allegations of misconduct.” A report filed by McGorty in March 2018 indicates that the monitor reviewed the IG’s office. After McGorty shared the findings of the review and conveyed his “expectations moving forward for the IG’s office,” Danielson announced that he would retire, according to the report. The report doesn’t indicate any wrongdoing on the IG’s part, but states that an “independent and effective IG’s Office is perhaps the most important goal along the road to self-governance for the District Council.”
“The District Council, one of the city’s largest construction unions, is expected to renew its monitor’s term for at least another year,” the Real Deal reported. “Earlier this year, one of the union’s New York chapters, Local 926, was temporarily taken over by the international umbrella organization for the District Council, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. A panel of union officials are still working to determine whether or not UBC’s supervision should be permanent, following the indictment of Local 926’s president on bribery charges.”
