Dear Editor:
As Mayor and Council members duly elected by the people of Parsippany Township, we are disappointed that our colleague, who cast the lone no vote on the PLA ordinance, is taking public shots at us. The PLA ordinance only applies to public projects in excess of $5Million. There is, in our view, a significant public interest in ensuring that large scale public projects get done correctly, on schedule, and at (or below) cost.  Our colleague has argued that union labor will cost 30% more.  We disagree because the studies that he was referring to were years old and only compared jobs of the same square footage and not the complexity of the job (i.e. both jobs were 100,000 square feet, but one was a warehouse and the other was a high tech computer building). We believe that significant public projects, funded with public money, should be performed by skilled labor who know what they are doing – who have the training and experience to ensure these projects are done correctly.
To this end, the PLA ordinance requires that all apprentices on the project shall be Parsippany residents, and that 20 percent of the project’s total labor hours shall be performed by Parsippany apprentices. The PLA ordinance also contains several provisions aimed at increasing job and apprenticeship opportunities for minorities and women.
The PLA ordinance is the best way to ensure that large projects get done correctly.  The Administration has supplied the Council with all the information it needed to make an informed decision.   Unfortunately, one of our colleagues has decided to play politics by taking baseless politically motivated shots at the administration.
Mayor James Barberio
Council President Michael dePierro
Council Vice President Loretta Gragnani
Councilman Paul Carifi
Councilman Frank Neglia
