2/12/20 Caucus
By: Carolyn Maxwell
PERTH AMBOY – During the 2/10/20 Caucus Meeting, there was a question regarding Ordinance First Reading No. 1 (no public discussion) – To amend an ordinance entitled Ordinance fixing and establishing a schedule of salaries and salary ranges and increments and employees of the city of Perth Amboy (Ordinance No. 218-79 as amended). Re: FOP (Fraternal Order of Police).
Business Administrator Frederick Carr simply said, “This is adding a title of Acting Captain.”
Ordinance No. 2 Re: Non-union and management started off a lengthy discussion. Carr explained, “This will be adding a new title which would be Director of Community Development. This is a transfer of personnel from the Housing Department into the Community Development Office in City Hall. It would be a civil service title.” (Tashi Vasquez will be transferred to the new title). There was also a stipend budgeted for a firefighter who will be taking over additional duties for an employee who is retiring from the Fire Prevention Department.
Councilman Helmin Caba said he was concerned because the numbers he was looking at were not adding up. “Do we have the money to pay for all of this?”
Carr responded, “It will be your (the council’s) call.”
Council President Petrick then commented, “We need a projection (of expected costs).”
Caba still wasn’t satisfied, “The Mayor had requested a 2.5% increase in the budget, but we are still in negotiations with the PBA, the Fire Department, and the DPW. Will there be bigger tax increase next year?”
Carr stated, “I can’t speculate about that now.” Caba continued, “Raises were given to nonunion members while we are negotiating with the unions. The council is being left in the dark.”
Carr responded, “We have to give you the budget by February 26th.”
Law Director Peter King stated, “There’s a salary for a prosecutor and assistant prosecutor in the budget and presently the people in those 2 positions will not be getting any city benefits. “In the past, there was an assistant prosecutor who sued the city and was able to get a pension.”
Councilman Joel Pabon asked, “What is the lowest salary for police officers?”
Carr responded, “$33,500.”
Pabon then said, “We can do pay increases between $3,000 to $6,000 for other employees, but officers who protect us only get a 2.5% raise and they risk their lives every single day. Those employees that are getting those larger raises are pencil pushers and I will not give them raises.”
Councilman Caba agreed, “That’s why I brought this up. We need the numbers to look at before voting, especially with these projected raises.”
CFO/Comptroller Jill Goldy came up to clarify some of the issues, “There are numerous items that you can or cannot afford to do.”
Caba still wasn’t convinced, “If we approve all of these raises and only give the unions anywhere from 1.2% to 2.5% raises, can we afford this (giving all of these other employees thousands of dollars in raises)?’
King stated, “This is just a guideline.”
Goldy then explained, “We only work with the salary ordinances regarding the unions.”
Carr then added, “Each union has their only salary ordinance.”
Goldy then said, “There is no specific resolutions reflecting salaries.”
Carr then explained, “We’ll be meeting with the white-collar union on Wednesday.”
Petrick then questioned, “Are we getting ahead of ourselves by just voting on these few titles?”
Goldy then explained, “The auditors have to make sure that the titles are within the ordinance. You (the council) have to decide how you will pay for the items.”
Councilman Fernando Irizarry asked, “Did the mayor know if the city could afford this (salary increases)?”
Goldy responded, “I had no conversations with the Mayor about this.”
Carr spoke up, “The Mayor knows about the budget. We then will discuss the items with the council.”
Pabon then insisted, “The 2.5% increase for the PBA contract is set. There should be no further discussions about it.”
Irizarry still wasn’t satisfied and asked, “Are you telling us things are not set (with the PBA contract)? We don’t have the information that we need.”
Petrick agreed, “There are too many variables that are going on.”
Goldy then stated, “I personally did not talk to the Mayor about any contracts.”
Councilwoman Milady Tejeda spoke up, “This is just for the year 2019. Can we cover just these items? We are still in limbo.”
Goldy responded, “In my opinion, yes these items can be covered.”
B.A. Carr then told the council that there has been a decrease in the number of police officers. “Overall there has been a 12.5% total increase in the salaries for the last 5 years.”
Goldy also reminded the council that there is also a retroactive pay increase for those officers who retired last year.
Carr then told the council, “There are two things you can do: what you would like to do or what you can afford to do. There’s a fine line as to what you can do until we have a conversation about this.”
Pabon concluded the discussion by stating, “We keep spending money we don’t have, but I keep seeing $3000+ raises for certain people.”
Discussions were then opened up to the public. Ken Balut was the first to speak, “Cops do more public service than one individual whose starting salary will be going up to $55,000 on February 1st. We’ve given millions of dollars for PILOTS. When I was a union representative for the Police Department, I did around 7 or 8 PBA contracts. Give the police their money. There are 4 of the Mayor’s people whose raises are totaling $12,000. It’s easier to do a calculation to see what a 2.5% pay increase will be.”
He then talked about two ongoing lawsuits. “The attorney fees have to be approaching $400,000. There is something wrong with the GIF (General Insurance Fund). The Y owes us over $2 million. Have we gotten any payments, yet? When is this going to stop?”
Petrick then asked Carr, “Why aren’t we getting any money from the Y?”
Carr explained, “There is a contract renegotiation. We are meeting with our auditors and requesting additional information from the Y that they will be providing us.”
Petrick stated, “I talked with people from Woodbridge who said they could take over our YMCA.”
Law Director King then spoke up. “The YMCA gives the city their financial reports every year.”
The next person to speak was Mark Abramson who stated he had represented the PBA for 40 years. “I’ve never had to come before the council before. I have negotiated about 8 or 9 contracts. You (the city) were represented by a labor council. On 11/26/19 a deal was struck. Your labor council dictated the terms and the Business Administrator Frederick Carr signed off on the PBA contract. We submitted documents. I can’t understand why costs were not presented to you (the council). The settlement is fair, and the PBA even withdrew some other proposals. I am asking you to live up to those terms. He (Carr) should not have signed off on the contract if he did not understand the terms. There were some impartial discussions. The mayor and mediator were also there at the contract signoff. I was not there at the vote for the contract. The PBA supported the agreement. At no time was it addressed to me that we couldn’t afford the deal. We even decided to wait for another time to discuss the other proposals.”
Irizarry then requested, “How much time was spent? And what were the attorney fees for the labor negotiations?”
Abramson responded, “We also have to factor in the cost for Greg Fehrenbach’s time.”
Chief Roman McKeon came up to speak briefly, “Two more officers just recently just left the department to go work in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. That’s a total of four officers. One of the officers who left said she had doubled her salary. Whatever you can do to help us, I would appreciate.”
Resident Vince Mackiel came up. “I saw a notice in the Home News Tribune which had the salaries for the city employees, consultants, and contractors. There is a rising cost for insurance, healthcare, and infrastructure. There has been nothing resolved on the bridge that is closed off on Market Street. We need to move forward with this with NJ Transit. People use that area to come to Smith Street and to the council meetings.”
Adele Tawfik, who has a towing company came up to speak next, “We need to take a look at the tow rates. They have not had a raise for 25 years. Our expenses have gone up and we have been trying to change the ordinance. Even my lawyer has come up to speak about this.”
Council Comments:
Helmin Caba said, “The PBA deserves a raise. We have the money only if we possibly raise taxes. We have been left in the dark and have been set up. The mayor overrules the experts and there is a lot of politics in play which should not be happening. The police should be the priority. Don’t give ridiculous raises for political gains. Hopefully by Wednesday, we will have the information to make a wise decision for all the residents. Most live and invest here. A lot of people move because the taxes and rents are high.”
Fernando Irizarry said, “My goal is to be fair to the taxpayers and the police department. I’m hopeful that this will happen. I’m not playing any political games and I’m looking out for everyone involved.” He then asked Frederick Carr if there are any updates on the Rte. 35 bridge.
Carr responded, “The DOT is not taking down the bridge, yet, but the work will be starting soon. I suggested taking down the barriers until the actual work starts.”
Joel Pabon addressed the members of the police department who were at the meeting, “I don’t know who told you to come here on Monday, but I’m glad you did so you could here the discussions (regarding your contract).” He then talked about PSEG’s slow response to getting lights fixed. “The only way the Rte. 35 bridge work started on is if something happens.” Pabon continued, “When talking about contracts, PILOTS should be part of the conversations and where the money is coming from.”
Milady Tejeda said, “It’s unreasonable to give increases without having all of the information. We are making promises on things we can’t afford. I understand your position, but we have to look at each employee and the community. We have to balance everything. The police deserve a raise, but I can’t promise anything.”
William Petrick said, “The mayor and administration can’t give us answers we need until the end of the month. The city attorney who is doing the negotiations said he never experienced issues that came up in the final stages. He said he was in shock in what he saw. We have to certify the contract and are getting mixed messages. Home ownership in the city is only 28% and the rest are rentals to poor people. We (the council) all have emails and the employees can tell us how much their raises have been.”
