The city contends the firefighters union shouldn’t be permitted to intervene in a civil lawsuit filed by a state board seeking an injunction to stop Youngstown from reducing the number of battalion chiefs.
It also argues in a Monday filing that the State Employment Relations Board, which filed the lawsuit Dec. 18 against the city, isn’t entitled to seek an injunction in this matter.
In the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court filing, Jeffrey Moliterno, the city’s senior assistant law director, wrote the union’s request to intervene should be denied because its filing was “procedurally deficient as it does not contain a pleading of any form.”
Moliterno wrote: “Although the union has supported its memorandum with arguments for why it should be entitled to intervene, it has not set forth its claim or defense for which intervention is sought. Thus, the union’s motion to intervene must (be) denied. This is particularly so because of the very tight briefing schedule in this matter.”