New Jersey Public Safety Officers Law Blog : New Jersey Public Safety Employee Lawyer & Attorney : Pellettieri, Rabstein & Altman Law Firm : Workers Compensation, Discipline Representation for Police & Firefighters : New Jersey

As reported by nj.com, talk of fiscal belt-tightening has become common over the last year in the halls of Union County government. Now, with an executive budget set to be unveiled Thursday, the real scope of Union County’s money troubles is coming into focus: Officials say they must close a $36 million deficit, and nearly 300 layoffs could be part of the tab. They attribute the large deficit to a significant decrease in state reimbursements, coupled with rising operating costs.

As part of the proposal, some 280 employees will be laid off unless the county receives an infusion of state funding and reaches last-minute accords with labor unions, all of which have been asked to voluntarily agree to annual salary cuts equal to three days’ pay. Layoff plans have already been filed with the state, and as many as 44 positions will be eliminated May 1, with the remainder on June 1. It’s the first time in three years the county has eliminated workers’ jobs and the largest layoff plan in at least 13 years.

Prior to the announcement, three unions, Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 73, County Police Rank and File, PBA Local 73A, County Police Superior Officers, and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 68, had agreed to the three-day reduction in salary. Freeholders, the county manager and department heads will also take the pay cut.

Several unions are still discussing the give-back with county management, including the leaders of PBA Local 199, which represents the jail’s rank-and-file officers. They’ll ask their membership to vote on the pay cut this week. The county hasn’t said how many positions may be eliminated at the jail, said Ken Burkert, a delegate for the union.

Even if every union agreed to the salary cuts, the savings would not preserve all the jobs slated for elimination, said Human Services director Frank Guzzo. He said it would net about $1.8 million, enough to save 40 jobs. Between layoffs, the elimination of 72 unfilled positions and the termination of several events and programs, the county expects to save about $10 million. The additional $26 million in cuts will come from broad and sweeping expenditure reductions and a tax increase, officials said, though it’s too soon to say how big the hike will be.

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As reported by nj.com, in a case that could affect the NJ Supreme Court itself, a state judge tried to stop Governor Chris Christie from increasing the cost of pensions and health care benefits for judges and justices. Taking the case directly from the lower court, the Supreme Court will decide whether a new law requiring judges and justices to make larger contributions reduces their salaries, which is prohibited by the state constitution.

The state contends pension and health benefits are part of an overall compensation package for all public employees and that the increased contributions do not reduce the judicial salaries. “This is a deduction, not a reduction in pay,” Assistant Attorney General Robert Lougy, who represented the state, said. 

The state has contended health benefits and pensions are part of an overall compensation package that includes salary. But Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale, who filed the suit, contends there is no difference between a salary and compensation, and the deductions result in a cut in pay.   

When the state constitution was drafted in 1947, it included a provision preventing the salaries of judges and justices from being “diminished” in an attempt to protect them from political interference from the legislative and executive branches. 

Lougy, questioned by Justice Barry Albin, agreed an across-the-board salary cut for all employees would violate the constitution as it applies to judges and justices. But Lougy did not agree higher pension and health benefits contributions is a violation. DePascale said past increases in contribution for judges and justices had always been accompanied by a corresponding pay increase, a recognition that the Legislature knew the larger contributions amounted to a pay cut.

Five of the seven justices weighed in on the matter. There is currently one vacancy on the Court and Chief Justice Stuart Rabner recused himself. The court did not set a date for issuing a decision. Although the outcome of the case will affect the justices, there is case law that allows them to hear the matter when there is no other appropriate court.

Judges currently contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health care benefits. The new law requires them to pay 35 percent of the premium cost. DePascale has said that would more than double his contribution toward health benefits to $5,230.86.

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As reported by nj.com, the question of whether Governor Chris Christie and the Legislature can order judges to pay 9 percent more toward their pensions is headed to the New Jersey Supreme Court. The justices will hear arguments today in a case brought by Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale of Hudson County.

DePascale hopes to invalidate a 2011 law requiring judges to pay more toward retirement. The law hikes the judges’ pension contributions from 3 percent of their salary to 12 percent after a seven-year phase-in period. Most judges earn $165,000.

Christie initiated the law requiring higher contributions from all government employees because the state pension system is underfunded by tens of billions of dollars. Judges’ contributions were increased more than other groups. They say the result is an illegal reduction in salary.

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As reported by nj.com, a former state trooper and veteran of the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office has been selected by Mayor Tony Mack to head Trenton’s police department, the city’s legal counsel confirmed. Ralph Rivera, Jr. rose to the rank of major during his 27 years with the New Jersey State Police and was a candidate to lead the agency as superintendent in 2003. Upon his retirement, he was hired as executive undersheriff in Bergen County and served as the second-in-command of that department for five years.

Rivera and former New Brunswick Police Director Michael Beltranena were the two names the state Department of Community Affairs sent Mack following interviews with a number of candidates. Beltranena was not selected because he refused to move into Trenton as part of accepting the post.

Rivera’ selection must be confirmed by City Council, and the city’s legal counsel expected they would take up the matter at their next meeting on April 3. George Dzurkoc, the Policemen’s Benevolent Association president, said he was not familiar with Rivera. “We’re just going to wait until he gets here and hopefully he’ll get indoctrinated to the city and we can move forward,” he said.

Rivera’s confirmation would make him Mack’s first permanent police director in 20 months of his administration. Current acting Police Director David Armitage said today he’d been given no instructions by City Hall as to how much longer he would serve.

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As reported by nj.com, as hearings on Governor Chris Christie’s two Supreme Court nominees draw near, the state’s largest public employee unions say they are alarmed by a potential shift in the Court’s political balance, and Democrats are poring over new information about the pair.

In a letter to the Senate last week, the unions and other advocacy groups accused Christie of masking an overhaul of the Court by nominating a Republican posing as an independent, which they fear will tip the bench in the Governor’s favor on issues like school-financing and same-sex marriage. “We urge all senators to reject Governor Christie’s new partisan approach to court appointments and demand that he, like his Democratic and Republican predecessors, respect partisan balance by replacing at least one of the appointees,” the letter said.

For their part, Democrats said Monday they were looking closely at new information provided Friday by the Governor’s office on the nominees, Phillip Kwon, the first assistant state attorney general, and Bruce Harris, the mayor of Chatham Borough. Questions have arisen about the Court’s balance because kwon, who has been a registered independent in New Jersey since last April, was a registered Republican for more than a decade while living in New York.

In an unusual show of concerns, more than 30 organizations, including the AFL-CIO, CWA, New Jersey Education Association, signed the letter questioning the Court’s balance. “People need to know what they’re getting,” said Hetty Rosenstein, state director of the Communications Workers of America. “This is a court that will go forward for years and years to come.”

Since a new state Constitution was adopted in 1947, Republicans and Democrats have had an unwritten agreement that the seven-member Supreme Court would have a 4-3 political split. In the decades that followed, Republicans held the majority only twice, compared with the Democrats’ seven. But that tradition changed in 2000, when Governor Christie Whitman, a Republican, appointed Jaynee LaVecchia, an independent who had spent 12 years in Republican administrations. If Harris and Kwon are confirmed, the court will for the first time have two independent justices.

Critics of Christie contend the resulting court of three Republicans, two Democrats, and two independents, considering LaVecchia and Kwon’s Republican pasts, have five Republicans. Christie has made no secret of his intention to remake the Court, but has rejected arguments that he stacking the Court any more than his predecessors.

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As reported by nj.com, on Thursday, Old Bridge Township laid off 10 officers and issued notices that some supervising officers, including captains, lieutenants, and sergeants, would be reduced in rank. Mayor Owen Henry said the department was reduced from 91 officers to 81 because of a recent arbitration award resolving a police contract dating back to 2008.

The settlement, Henry said, would have increased the budget this year by $850,000. He said the 10 layoffs of the most recently hired officers covered most of that cost, but he was taking $250,000 in reserve funds to cover some of the costs. “These are very good people,” he said of the officers losing their jobs. “They deserve better than this. The residents deserve better than this.”

This week Henry met with the police unions in unsuccessful negotiations aimed at preventing the layoffs. This is the second round of layoffs. On February 24, 12 municipal employees in other departments were laid off, with some of the people taking retirement, as part of an effort to close a $2 million budget gap.

He blamed the fiscal problems on the prior Democratic administration. Democratic Councilman G. Kevin Calogera disputed Henry’s claims. “I think it’s unnecessary. I think there are other options,” he said. Former Mayor James Phillips, who left office last spring, said the township had the resources to save the jobs. Henry said he is seeking ways to re-hire the officers. 

State PBA President Anthony Wieners issued a statement saying police layoffs provide only short-term savings at best. “In communities that lay officers off, crime rises and the quality of life issues suffer,” he said.

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As reported by app.com, a federal lawsuit brought by New Jersey public employee unions, in an attempt to overturn last year’s pension and benefit reforms, has been dismissed. U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson ruled Monday that the issue is not under federal jurisdiction because of the 11^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which courts have held gives the states sovereign immunity over their own matters.

The ruling was widely expected even by lawyers who are representing unions in pension cases around the country. The state’s largest teachers’ union, the New Jersey Education Association, and a host of other unions and pensioners, had argued that the pension and benefit reforms approved last June represented a violation of their federal contractual and other rights.

As states across the country have enacted pension reforms, a flurry of lawsuits have been pursued. Plaintiffs in New Jersey and Maine are among the very few to seek action in federal court. Plaintiffs in other states, to a greater or lesser degree, have found some initial rulings in their favor.

New Jersey’s reforms forces workers to contribute more toward their pensions and work longer before retirement. However, two-thirds of the savings for the state comes from freezing the annual cost of living raises given to retirees. The question in New Jersey’s case, if it is ultimately heard in the state courts, is whether those changes, and the annual cost of living adjustment in particular, are protected as contractual rights.

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As reported by nj.com, Governor Chris Christie told a town hall crowd in Westwood why he thinks reforming the state’s criminal justice system will save money and reduce the number of repeat offenders.

This week he said he will release details about the mandatory drug treatment program for nonviolent offenders first unveiled in his State of the State address. He’s also pushed for a constitutional amendment that would give judges at the state level the discretion to consider not only “risk of flight” but also “dangerousness to the community” when setting bail, as federal judges do today.

Violent criminals often make bail immediately, “and oftentimes they’re back out on the street before the officer who arrested them leaves their shift,” he said. “This is incredibly demoralizing to the police.” The situation also leads to witness intimidation and makes it more difficult for prosecutors to win convictions.

Christie joked that when he was U.S. Attorney, people would ask him if New Jersey was the most corrupt state, and he would say, “Thank God for Illinois and Louisiana.”

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As reported by nj.com, local governments could save more than $100 million annually by opting for the state health benefit plan instead of costlier alternatives, according to a State Comptroller’s Office report released Tuesday. The audit looked at four local governments of varying locations and sizes, Essex County, Brick Township, East Brunswick, and Haddon Township, and found that joining the State’s plan would have saved them collectively $12.5 million over a two year period starting in 2009.

Three of the local governments hired insurance brokers to assist them in securing coverage from insurance carriers and collectively paid more than $1 million in broker fees over a two-year period. Insurance brokers receive hefty commissions when they secure private insurance, but no money if the local government joins the state health plan. Thus, there is no financial incentive for brokers to select the state health plan and local governments don’t do enough to evaluate the costs and benefits themselves, the report said.

State Comptroller Matthew Boxer said, “Health coverage for public employees is an area in which substantial savings can be realized for taxpayers. Too many public entities in New Jersey are not taking basic steps to ensure that they are getting the best deal.”

The New Jersey Health Benefits plan was established in 1961 to provide health insurance coverage to all state employees, retirees, and their dependents. In 1964, it was expanded to all public employees in the state. It provided coverage for about 850,000 participants, the report said. As of April 2011, seven of the state’s 21 counties and 349 of the state’s 566 municipalities participated in the state plan.

Local government officials noted that switching into the state health plan is not easy because of existing union contracts. Often, union contracts have certain provisions like limits on co-pays and coverage that differ with the state plan. “Due to the number of collective bargaining agreements, 26 in total, all recommended changes to employee health benefits must be negotiated at the expiration of each agreement,” Essex County Administrator Ralph Ciallella said in a written response to the report’s findings. “Wholesale changes to employee health benefits must be negotiated at the expiration of each agreement.”

Hetty Rosenstein, state director for the Communications Workers of America, said the audit confirms what they have known for years. “The more cities and towns join the plan, the more taxpayers can save,” she said in a written statement.  “And the more efficient our healthcare system becomes.”

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As reported by nj.com, a Senate panel today approved a bill to give voters in New Jersey towns a stark option: either share the services the state has recommended for you and your neighbor, or lose state aid equivalent to what you would have saved. 

It was an idea born out of Senate President Stephen Sweeney’s frustration that the state’s 566 municipalities were not doing enough to share services or merge with the aim of reducing property taxes. “We collect more than enough money to run government in the state. Probably too much,” said Sweeney. “But we have too much government.”

According to the bill, the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization, and Consolidation Commission would conduct a study as to whether towns should share services, consolidate agencies, or even merge. The commission would estimate how much the towns would save, then ask the State Treasurer to certify the figure. The town could either adopt the legislation, or put it up as referendum. If voters reject it, they’ll lose state aid equivalent to what the state estimated they would have saved.

The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee approved the bill 3-2. The bill will be heard again in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee before it heads to the full Senate.

The bill also eliminates civil service protections for workers whose jobs are made redundant by sharing services, which drew opposition from public workers unions. “S2 is a veiled attempt to remove civil service regulations and tenure rights granted through collective bargaining,” said Rex Reid, political action director for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 1.

League of Municipalities Executive Director Bill Dressel said he’s happy Sweeney worked to address his organization’s concerns, but he still opposes the bill because it punishes towns that refuse to share services. “Voters should hold elected officials accountable, not the other way around,” he said.

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As reported bynj.com, a judge ordered Billy Heisler to pay nearly $6 million to Joshua Hahn, the Mercer County Sheriff’s Officer he shot during an off-duty encounter outside a Hamilton pizzeria in 2007. The civil judgment was awarded after Hahn took the witness stand and described how his attempts to intervene in a domestic dispute between Heisler and his sister culminated in a career-ending injury to the 34-year old officer. The 32-year old Heisler, who is awaiting sentencing for attempted murder in Hahn’s shooting, had not responded to Hahn’s lawsuit.     

Superior Court Judge Pedro Jimenez said the shooting, and Heisler’s immediate flight from the scene, showed “particularly callous and evil conduct.” He awarded Hahn $963,871 in lost wages, $1.5 million in pain and suffering, $2.5 million in punitive damages and $1 million for losses incurred by his wife, who was also a plaintiff in the suit. Just how much of the money Hahn will recoup remains to be seen.

According to an attorney who represented Heisler after the shooting, Heisler has been living off funds from a settlement from a lawsuit he filed after being severely injured in an explosion when he was 11. 

Under oath, Hahn testified that he suffered two punctured lungs and a shattered vertebra from the single gunshot to the chest. His injuries forced him to retire on permanent disability. After court, Hahn spoke very little about the civil case. He said he prefers to keep quiet until Heisler is sentenced next month.

“The criminal case has always been my main concern,” Hahn said. “I’m confident he will be sentenced appropriately.” Two weeks ago, a jury convicted Heisler of attempted murder and weapons offenses. Jurors rejected a defense argument that the gun went off accidentally during a struggle between the two men.

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As reported by nj.com, for 14 months, Governor Chris Christie and Democratic lawmakers have been at an impasse over payouts to public workers for unused sick time when they retire, further straining the budgets of municipalities. On Tuesday, however, Senate President Stephen Sweeney introduced a measure that would end the practice for new employees and bar payouts to current workers for additional time accumulated, bringing the two sides closer than ever.

Still, neither Christie nor Sweeney’s Assembly counterpart, Speaker Sheila Oliver, were prepared to endorse the plan. In December 2010, Christie rejected a measure sponsored by Senator Paul Sarlo that would have limited the payouts for both new workers and more than 430,000 public employees to $15,000. In his conditional veto message, the Governor wrote that “sick leave is to be used when you are sick, not as a supplemental retirement fund.”

Currently, the payouts to state workers are capped at $15,000, while most local governments have no limits. Last year, The Star-Ledger reviewed eight cities that borrowed to make their payments or made layoffs that drew attention: Newark, Atlantic City, Camden, Jersey City, Trenton, South Brunswick, East Orange, and Hackensack. They paid more than $39 million to over 700 employees who cashed in unused sick days and vacation time, about $54,000 for each employee. 

Neither Christie nor the Democrats have proposed eliminating the payouts that workers have already accumulated, although Christie did seek to reduce them. Under Christie’s plan, ill workers would have to take days off from sick time already accumulated, reducing their payouts when they retire. Sweeney’s proposal has no such provision.

In addition, unlike Christie’s plan, Sweeney’s proposal does not include a one year cap on accumulating unused vacation days, does not require doctors’ notes for absences of six or more consecutive days, and would not make workers forfeit unused sick days if convicted of work-related crimes.   

Although Sarlo did not say how he felt about Sweeney’s plan, he said he was confident Democrats would work something out. “Whether it’s $15,000, $7,500, or $0 for new employees, at the end of the day we’ll get to something we all can live with,” he said, adding that he though Christie’s plan to make workers use up accumulated sick time before retirement was unconstitutional.

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As reported by nj.com, amid a rising tide of violence in Trenton, including a murder in the shadow of the Statehouse on Route 29, the State Attorney General sent officials yesterday to discuss helping Trenton’s layoff-depleted police department, Mercer County Prosecutor Joe Bocchini said today. The meeting between Bocchini, Trenton acting Police Director Dave Armitage, and officials from Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa’s office was hosted at Bocchini’s office and included the discussion of State Police help.   

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack laid off roughly one-third of the 300 member police department in September amid sweeping city budget cuts. Some police officers were rehired through grants, but the department ended the year with at least 80 less officers. “Unfortunately it goes back once again to manpower, the department is severely understaffed,” Bocchini said.

Bocchini said he believes Trenton needs at least 50 more police officers to make a dent in the violence. Armitage wrote a letter to the State Police Superintendent seeking assistance on Monday and State Senator Shirley Turner has previously offered to broker a meeting regarding State Police intervention. Turner and Attorney General Chiesa had a lengthy meeting on the topic last week, Bocchini said. 

The State Police fall under the Office of the Attorney General. Bocchini said no guarantees have been made and he cautioned that any plans were still in the discussion stage.

Trenton had three reported murders in January, following a December that saw six slayings in the city. The city’s homicide rate spiked to a four-year high for 2011. The Mercer Prosecutor’s office and Mercer County Sheriff Jack Kemler have already sent additional manpower to augment the Trenton police anti-crime unit.

Bocchini said yesterday’s meeting with Director of the Division of Criminal Justice Stephen Taylor was set up last week, prior to a drive-by shooting on Route 29 that left a 23-year old city man dead a few hundred yards from the Statehouse.

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As reported by nj.com, public pension funds may have gotten a much-needed boost from Governor Chris Christie’s landmark overhaul last year, but reports released show the funds continue to be hampered by the State’s failure to make full payments into the plans. 

Christie and Democratic leaders joined together last year and shifted a greater share of the pension costs on to public workers and cut out cost-of-living increases for future and current retirees. The move helped drive the State’s nagging unfunded pension liability from $53.9 billion to $36.3 billion when they revised 2010 figures, the report shows. 

But the State’s pension hole grew by $5.5 billion by the end of the 2011 budget year, largely because Christie followed in the tradition of his predecessors and failed to make a pension payment, an annual actuarial report on the pension funds shows. Overall, the State has only 67 percent of the money it needs to meet its future pension obligation, and that figure is expected to worsen as the State phases in its full pension payment over the next seven years.

The State was supposed to pay about $3 billion into the pension fund this year, but will only be paying about $480 million. Next year, the State will only pay about $900 million of its $3 billion bill, records show.

By 2018, State taxpayers will begin paying more than $5 billion a year for pensions, roughly ten times higher than the partial payment being made in this year’s budget, according to administration estimates. The tab for local taxpayers will rise by about $600 million by 2020, estimates show.

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