City loses case, Senesi’s job threatened
By George P. Hassett

   The City of Somerville should not have hired Frank Senesi as its director of veterans‚Äô services and must appoint another applicant to that position with full back pay, said Middlesex Superior Court Judge H.J. Smith in his June 19 decision in City of Somerville vs. Somerville Municipal Employees Association (SMEA).

   Assistant City Solicitor Matthew J. Buckley said he was surprised at Smith‚Äôs ruling but was confident the city would prevail on appeal.
   ‚ÄúFrank Senesi is a man who has served his country in very impressive fashion. He has earned a bronze star for valor and a purple heart for his heroics. But aside from that experience, he was simply a very qualified candidate with vast managerial and administrative experience,‚Äù Buckley said.
   The city took the SMEA Union to court after an arbitrator ruled in July of 2005 that Paul Nelson, a veteran working at the Somerville Public Library at the time, should have been appointed to the position because he was a SMEA member and ‚Äúat least substantially equal to Senesi in terms of those qualifications posted for the position,‚Äù the Arbitrator said.
   ‚ÄúNelson has a bachelor‚Äôs degree and Senesi does not; Nelson is computer literate and there is no evidence that Senesi is; Nelson‚Ķ had familiarized himself with the various statutes pertaining to veteran statutes {and} there is no indication from the record that Senesi had,‚Äù wrote the Arbitrator.
    In the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the SMEA, it stated that an SMEA member must be hired for the director of veterans services position if their qualifications are ‚Äúsubstantially equal‚Äù to those of an outside applicant. Senesi was not a member of the SMEA and  Judge Smith upheld the Arbitrator‚Äôs finding that ‚Äúthe City failed to establish that the qualifications of the outside candidate, Senesi where {sic} demonstrably superior to those of Nelson, the senior candidate.       
   Smith also upheld the Arbitrator‚Äôs awards to Nelson. The city is required to appoint Nelson to the director of veterans‚Äô services position and reimburse him for lost wages and benefits, including interest compounded quarterly at 12 percent.
   Yet Buckley is confident the city can win an appeal because of a Massachusetts law he said provides mayors with exclusive authority to appoint the position. In the Superior Court case, Smith ruled that the guidelines set forth in the collective bargaining agreement ‚Äúshall prevail‚Äù when there is a conflict with a state law.