Mount Vernon City Hall was closed Thursday amid major problems with the building and ongoing strife with
unpaid bills and wages.
Mount Vernon Mayor Shawn
Patterson-Howard says City Hall will be closed Friday too because there is
no heat in the building. She blames mounting unpaid bills from the
comptroller’s office for the lack of heat inside, boiler problems and flooding.
City workers are also
targeting the comptroller. It was just less than 24 hours ago when they took to the steps of city hall
demanding the city pay them for overtime wages chanting “No pay, no
peace, No pay, no peace!”
The workers claim that they
haven’t been paid overtime hours they’ve been working for about the past three
months.
But that’s not all, they also
say working conditions are not safe. They say the inside of the city’s garage
leaks profusely when it rains.
But Comptroller Deborah
Reynolds is pointing at the mayor saying, “Mayor
Patterson-Howard and her administration violated the labor law by letting the
DPW work overtime, knowing her city’s 2021 budget was not adopted until
Wednesday. Her failure to do her job creates this type of hostile environment.”
Patterson-Howard
says she stands with the union members, saying, “It’s
a shame that the comptroller tries to vilify their workers and deny them
overtime wages.”