I have worked in the archaeology often required by law in New York City. I've also "shaped-up" with Teamsters, my dad part of the local (804) that produced it's president before the current one, James P. Hoffa, a UPS driver from Queens, NY, Ron Carey, cleared of any election impropriety during his re-election campaign. Prior to Rudy Giuliani's mayoral term and during it, the Fulton Fish Market, now moved to better facilities and closer to highways in the Bronx, (many a year has passed since a fishing boat docked with catch in the South Street Seaport Historic District, though one was proposed, I think built, but they never came to Brooklyn) the fish market was investigated for organized crime links by the former federal prosecutor Rudolf Giuliani. It's reported after five years of investigations one misdemeanor was charged against one Mr. Cirillo, and the Teamster led unloaders were taken out and replaced by a perhaps personal choice of the then Mayor Giuliani, an entrepreneur of lawn mowing from out on Long Island. With new stipulations, i.e., the business could not be in federal court at the time of hiring, they were even, according to the NY Post reporter, given hi-los that belonged to NYC that were so new they had not even been properly registered for the streets they ran on. A court case ensued by the Teamsters. It was also found, that the hired "firm" was in Federal court for abusing employees, which without clearance, they had been hired to unload the trucks full of fresh fish, now unloaded in the Bronx.
More recently a similar "background check" has shown the primary construction company for the EPA ordered filtration plant of Upstate water, on a selected site from three sites, next to a prison in Westchester, alongside the Harlem River or on the 9 hole golf course of the City's Van Cortlandt Park, the Park chosen over the others, where originally it had been proposed in another neighborhood and fought off, was found to have failed to meet the same criteria and the filtration plant, with a cost of perhaps double ($2 billion) turned over to another firm which will hire and train locals. The difference of the original slightly more costly prison location, which would have had an arguably better benefit to more consumers, paid however to upgrade various Bronx Parks, in general is almost a moot point from a financial perspective, though still a much needed benefit to the parks here.
During his administration I worked in City Hall Park, which they've restored and have created a plaza marked in outline by some of the other places that have been located as part of the landmarked African Burial Ground and The Commons Historic District, such as the prison where Ethan Allen was tortured, the British Army barracks, the "First Almshouse" and the burial ground there I worked on in 1999, that Mayor Giuliani came to visit a couple of times. He also had the flag of Arkansas flown over City Hall while visiting there, considering a run for the US Senate against then former First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The City Council quickly passed a law that no future mayor could issue a similar order. Currently, needed interior upgrades has City Hall meeting in Brooklyn.
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