Page 5 - Work Force December 2024

December 2024 5 5
The Work Force
WHITE PLAINS — CSEA members
who sign on as parking code
enforcement officers at the City of
White Plains understand that some
of what their job entails, whether it’s
ticketing cars or calling in tow trucks,
can upset the city’s motorists.
What none of them sign up for,
however, are the constant verbal and
physical attacks they’ve weathered
these past few years.
“They were getting verbally
abused and assaulted on a daily
basis,” said City of White Plains Unit
President Vincent Buffone.
Seeking a solution
Since those attacks ramped up,
finding a solution and creating
safer working conditions has been
a top priority of unit leaders and
our union’s staff. In a bustling
small city such as this one, parking
enforcement is a necessity, but
Buffone said he and former unit
President Joe Longo felt that couldn’t
come at the expense of worker
safety.
Earlier this year, Buffone
approached the city’s public safety
commissioner and the supervisor of
parking enforcement to emphasize
the need for enhanced safety
measures and training, picking up the
baton after Longo’s retirement.
The answer was roughly an hour
away in Queens: the New York
Police Department’s (NYPD) Traffic
Enforcement Training Unit.
As it turns out, the department’s
supervisor had a connection with
someone there and arranged for the
majority of the City of White Plains
parking code enforcement officers to
spend a week there to sharpen their
skills and learn new tactics to stay
safe on the job.
The academy instructors tailored
the weeklong course to address
issues the White Plains workers
were facing. To maintain adequate
coverage in White Plains, half of the
group attended one week and the
other half attended the second week.
“It felt good to get this done,”
said Buffone, who noted he’s
received excellent feedback from the
members.
In fact, the training was so
well-received, members hope to have
regular refreshers and see new hires
attend as well.
“What I took away
from the training
was learning how to
be more courteous
and more kind, as
well as the verbiage
we should be using
with the public,”
said CSEA activist
Keith Graves, a
shop steward and parking code
enforcement officer. “Ideally, we
should be training like this every six
months.”
“The standards
at the academy
are really high.
The NYPD training
for their traffic
enforcement agents
is actually around
three months,” said
Kiaama Hudson-
Mack.
Body language and the use of
certain verbiage can reduce the
chance of encounters escalating.
Members were taught to use what is
known as an interview stance when
approaching vehicles and substitute
certain words, such as using
“however” instead of “but,” to help
prevent escalation.
“I catch myself using the interview
stance now and using the word
‘however’ more frequently and I do
think that has been helpful,” said
In top photo, front row, from left are parking code enforcement officers Joseph Nardelli, Mark Casarella, Jessica
Smith, Tamara Jenkins, Kiaama Hudson-Mack and Keith Graves. Back row, from left, Supervisor of Enforcement
Ed Ignaszewski and City of White Plains Unit President Vincent Buffone.
Tamara Jenkins, a
senior parking code
enforcement officer.
Ed Ignaszewski,
the city’s supervisor
of enforcement,
confirmed that the
training has yielded
positive results.
“Since the
training, we’ve changed the way we
do things,” Ignaszewski said.
The outcome has shown that
when our union advocates for
workplace safety and health on the
labor-management level, activism
can help make workplaces safer.
“Our union has always been good,”
said Jessica Smith, a parking code
enforcement officer. “Now people are
a little more confident on the job.”
— Jessica Ladlee
Training gives parking enforcement Training gives parking enforcement
officers a new take on job officers a new take on job
Jenkins
Hudson-Mack
Jessica Smith,
a parking code
enforcement
officer, monitors
parking meters
on Main Street in
White Plains.
Graves