After Coup Vote, Police
Union Prez Changes Mind

Angered by a hand-delivered letter stripping him of his powers, the embattled chief of New Haven’s police union declared Monday that he might not step down, after all.

The declaration by Police Union Local 530 President Arpad Tolnay (pictured in file photo) was the latest twist in an emotional drama that began in April, when he returned home from a honeymoon to learn that a coup was brewing in the ranks over an agreement he’d struck with city officials protecting veteran cops’ pensions and changing rules for firing cadets. Tolnay survived that insurrection. Then a new one erupted over allegations that he had misused a union credit card. (He denied the charge.)

The drama seemed to have come to an end on June 21 when Tolnay announced he will step down mid-way through his term.

But he didn’t give an exact date.

Meanwhile, his executive board already voted in a successor, Lou Cavaliere Jr.

Cavaliere showed up Friday on Dixwell Avenue, where Tolnay was working an extra-duty job. He delivered a letter from the executive board. The letter officially stripped Tolnay of his duties and bars him from negotiating with the city on a new union contract. It put him on a 30-day suspension while the parent union conducts an investigation into the credit-card allegations.

Now, Tolnay said, he has rescinded his offer to the executive board that he step down Aug. 1 after informing the rank and file about the situation at the upcoming July 18 union meeting.

All this is occurring while the police force continues to work under the terms of an expired contract. Negotiations over a new contract have stalled.

“As arrogant as it sounds, I still feel that the membership has a better chance of a contract with me than it does this riff-raff board. I’m going to make an appeal to the membership and I’ll let them decide. And I’ll respectfully go with whatever [the majority’s] decision is,” Tolnay told the Independent Monday.

“I feel I need to fight for this. I had agreed with them to lay down. I was going to walk away quietly, go to patrol and do my job.

“That board is not going to accomplish a goddamned thing for the membership. None of them have any guts. None of them have any knowledge of what needs to be done. They haven’t been around for an entire goddamned year.”

As an example of his point, Tolnay said that Cavaliere told him Friday that he was delivering the letter because none of the other board members ​“had the balls to do it. That’s a precursor to the entire attitude of that executive board. That’s what they’re going to get when it comes to negotiations, no balls.”

Asked about that Monday, Cavaliere said he’d prefer not to reveal details of a private conversation between him and Tolnay.

He did address the points of contention. He said the executive board had been under the understanding that Tolnay would resign his post effective July 1, not Aug. 1. When that didn’t happen, the board felt a need to act.

Cavaliere called the latest developments the result of ​“a miscommunication” that has left him feeling ​“down and out.”

“I wanted this to go smoothly,” Cavaliere said. ​“We have a lot of other issues that we’re trying to fight. We’re in the middle of contract negotiations. We’re getting sidetracked right now. I wanted to stay focused” on the contract.

He added that he hopes Tolnay steps down on his own and the resulting investigation and hearing over his fate can be avoided.