Quid pro quo

In Latin, it means something that is done for something else; a fair exchange. Hypothetically speaking, if the sitting mayor of a certain upstate city wanted to ensure the demised of her political arch-enemy in November, he or she might wave the carrot of better health benefits for the city’s unionized workers in exchange for those workers endorsing her opponent’s challenger.

Of course, this is hypothetically speaking and would never happen in real practice. And this illustration is merely a way to explain such a term to those who might not be well versed in a 2,000-year-old dead language.

In other Spa-centric developments, Union President Joe O’Neill is grand-standing for Skip Scirocco, the Republican candidate vying for the commissioner’s seat now occupied by Tom McTygue. During a news conference last week, O’Neill railed out against McTygue with the bravado usually reserved for a man who just realized his neighbors has made a habit of micturating on his lawn each morning with their coffee.

“We won’t back down,” O’Neill said during the Scirocco rally Wednesday.

O’Neill was also quite candid about the fact that his union doesn’t usually endorse political candidates. But this time, it’s time to send a message about professionalism in the work place, he told The Saratogian. This time, it’s personal.

But perhaps what he meant was that it’s personnel, not personal. See, there are now roughly 300 unionized city workers that are vying for a new contract with the city, The Daily Gazette reported Saturday. City Finance Commissioner Matt McCabe said a main sticking point in these negotiations is working out a health insurance co-payment system like most private-sector businesses do to quell burgeoning costs. Naturally, this idea isn’t popular with anyone now offered full benefits through the city.

So who is negotiating these contracts for the city? Well, oddly enough it’s Mayor Valerie Keehn, according to the Gazette article. When asked about the negotiation, the oft-long winded mayor was quite glib and non-committal.

“We need to look at all of these things when we’re negotiating a contract, including health care,” she said.

So let’s put two and two together for a moment: despite her admissions that say otherwise, the mayor is quite clearly backing Scirocco. Her singular reason to for doing this is to boot McTygue off the council and, more than likely, make another run at changing the city charter. All this information is presented in a ‘by the way’ manner during the mayor’s office negotiations with O’Neill.

In other words, come out and support Scirocco and you’ll sway the favor of the main negotiating force in contract talks. Even more peculiar is the fact that many members of O’Neill’s union didn’t even know they were endorsing a candidate. After all, even O’Neill himself admitted the union hasn’t made a history of getting into local politics until now; strange how the puzzle pieces seem to fit together so snuggly.

Then again, perhaps O’Neill is thinking of himself when throwing support behind Scirocco. It’s well rumored that Pat Design, the DPW deputy in exile, will rise to become Scirocco’s deputy, leaving one very important position open in his cabinet: public works director. After all, no one truly believes Bill McTygue would survive much past the first of next year if his brother is deposed.