A spokeswoman for Brian McLaughlin says he has not stepped aside as president of the New York City Central Labor Council amid reports he was implicated in a bid-rigging scam for the repair of city street lights, despite a mention to the contrary in a SpinCycle item two days ago.
“Brian is and fully remains the active President of the New York City Central Labor Council and continues to lead all Executive Board meetings and manage all issues and staff,” CLC spokeswoman Carolyn Daly said in a statement of the departing state Assemblyman.
“He has received the full, unanimous support of the Executive Board and the labor community and continues to maintain his long-term, strong leadership of the CLC,” the statement continued.
After the FBI raided the union’s group office in March, however, there were several reports that the labor establishment had tried to distance itself from McLaughlin.
New York Daily News reporter and columnist Juan Gonzalez wrote on March 7: “Under a plan fashioned by Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, McLaughlin would continue to serve as president, but Ed Ott, a top staff person, would assume some of the public functions normally handled by the president.”
Also on March 7, New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse wrote: “The president of the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O., Denis M. Hughes, announced yesterday that he would appoint a special committee to handle matters at the New York City Central Labor Council regarding a federal investigation of the council and its president, Brian M. McLaughlin.
“Mr. Hughes said that Mr. McLaughlin, a Democratic assemblyman from Queens, would remain in charge of the council, but would not have a voice in decisions regarding the investigation,” the Times story said.
Neither newspaper seem to have corrected or clarified their original stories.
A spokesman for Hughes, Mario Cilento, said today, though, that as far as he knew McLaughlin was still in charge of the labor group.
Asked about those newspaper stories, McLaughlin’s spokeswoman replied: “The Daily News report by Juan Gonzalez, as well as all other news reports indicating the same rumors, was wrong and inaccurate.”
Our original blog item mentioned that the labor group’s web site had a 2004 photo of McLaughlin with actor James Gandolfini, who plays mobster Tony Soprano on the HBO series, “The Sopranos.”
http://www.nycclc.org/labordayrally2004.asp
Bill Murphy