Somerville mayor sticks with Russell Disposal despite wage violations

By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe correspondent

Trash hauler Russell Disposal will lose $90,000 in a wage-and-hours settlement with the Attorney General, but not its contract with the City of Somerville, Mayor Joseph Curtatone said last week. The city signed a five-year, $10.9 million contract with Russell, its existing trash hauler, in late 2009. Russell's bid was the lowest by $1 million.

Russell agreed to three intentional and one unintentional violation of state laws, according to the Attorney General's Jan. 21 press release, and will "pay $70,000 to 352 current and former employees as well as a $20,000 penalty to the Commonwealth." Specifically, the company didn't pay overtime and failed to report "accurate working hours." The state will monitor Russell for two years.

At the Somerville Board of Aldermen meeting a week later, Alderwoman Rebekah Gewirtz asked the city solicitor to provide options for the city to end its deal. However, that decision is up to the mayor, Curtatone said in a phone interview, and from the facts he has "I will not be making any recommendations to terminate the contract."

"I think that's disappointing. Somerville should only do business with companies who respect their workers," Gewirtz said in an interview, calling Russell's actions "unacceptable." She noted that co-owner Charles Carneglia is a Somerville constable.

Controversy has long swirled around Russell, a non-union shop. In December 2007, violence erupted at a Teamsters Local 25 picket line, requiring police to move in. At the time, union chief Sean O'Brien claimed that Russell mistreated its employees; Russell management countered that they paid more than the going union wage. The AG's investigation began immediately thereafter; Curtatone said that the city had participated.

Judging from the interpretation he received from the city solicitor, Curtatone said, Russell made mistakes but "there's no evidence and nothing in the statement ... to say they specifically intended or conducted a systematic scheme" against employees. You have to make decisions on facts, not speculation, he added.

Spokesman Harry Pierre of the Attorney General's office said, however, "Our citations were for intentional violations of the wage and hours law ... for not compensating their employees properly."

Pierre was puzzled by Curtatone's take. "I'm not saying the mayor's wrong or that he doesn't understand," Pierre said, but "maybe somebody told him something that doesn't jibe."