PROVIDENCE – A Superior Court judge today rejected another legal effort by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri to unilaterally increase health care fees for the Council 94 member working in the executive branch.

The Carcieri administration immediately appealed the ruling to the R.I. Supreme Court.

This morning, lawyers representing the governor had asked Justice Patricia A. Hurst to stay her order issued yesterday blocking Carcieri from implementing his executive order to hike the health-care deductions for about 5,000 unionized state employees. (READ MORE)

But she denied that motion today and another one in which the governor sought a security bond from Council 94 “for the payment of any costs or damages in the event restraining orders by this court are found to be issued wrongfully,” the judge’s ruling said.

In her ruling today, Hurst said she felt that her decision last week, and a supplemental issued yesterday, were clear: Carcieri is not allowed to act unilaterally while the Labor Relations Board proceedings are pending.

“The governor clearly misconstrued the import of my decision,” Hurst wrote. “I tried to clarify it for him yesterday. Obviously, to no avail. He is here today still seeking permission to implement Executive Order 08-06.

“For the third time, the answer is ‘no’.”

“The governor must adhere to the law,” she continued. “The governor may not agree with the law, but that’s the law nonetheless. He is required to obey it.”

The Carcieri administration immediately appealed Hurst’s ruling, according to a court statement.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams met this afternoon with lawyers from the administration and Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. The meeting ended after 40 minutes with no resolution, and discussions were set to resume tomorrow, a court statement said.

Carcieri administration lawyers had attempted to go to the Supreme Court this morning, court papers said, but the case was quickly sent back to Hurst. Once Hurst’s ruling was issued, that allowed the administration to return to Supreme Court.

In her decision yesterday, Hurst had ordered the Carcieri administration and Council 94 to appear before Labor Relations Board immediately and report back to her every two weeks.

Hurst’s earlier ruling had ordered that the dispute over whether Carcieri could implement changes in health insurance cosharing without union approval should be sent to the labor board.

In doing so, Hurst chided the governor for allowing the $6.89 billion fiscal 2009 state budget to become law even though it assumed $60 million of saving from labor negotiations that were not complete. Administration officials have said increasing health care fees for Council 94 members would save $10 million.

In that initial ruling, the judge made it clear that Carcieri had no jurisdiction to unilaterally change health care fees for Council 94 employees in the judiciary and legislative branches.

But, while she said health care changes involving union workers in the executive branch should be addressed by the labor board, the administration believed that Hurst was not clear as to whether the governor could implement those changes while the case proceeded at the labor board.

So Carcieri moved forward with plans to deduct additional health care costs from Council 94 members in executive branch – about 98 percent of the union’s 5,000 members work in the executive branch, the governor’s office has said.

Rhode Island Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), AFL-CIO, is the state’s largest public-employee union, with about 4,100 members or a third of active state employees. Additional information is available from the union at www.RICouncil94.org. News and information from the R.I. Governor’s Office are available at www.governor.ri.gov. The R.I. Labor Relations Board, a division of the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, oversees collective bargaining elections and resolves charges of unfair labor practices. Additional information is available at www.dlt.ri.gov/lrb.