WEST ORANGE, NJ — At the Oct. 30 Township Council meeting, the West Orange Police Department asked the council to expedite progress on its contract negotiations with the town; WOPD personnel have worked without a contract since the last one expired at the end of 2017. The council held an executive session, which is closed to the public and the press, to discuss the issue during the public meeting.
Michael Cassidy, president of the West Orange Police Department Superior Officers Association, spoke on behalf of the officers sitting in the audience at the meeting.
“We reached out to the township last year to begin the negotiation process,” Cassidy said on behalf of the union. “We have attempted to act in good faith. We don’t want to be here appearing before the council asking for assistance.”
The police contract is negotiated between the police union and the township administration. Cassidy said that when the department attempted to set up meetings with the township, it was met with resistance. Shortly after, officers started going to town residents for help and distributing lawn signs asking for the town to settle the contract.
“The township employees are easy to scrutinize,” Cassidy said. “We are a line item in the budget. We make an easy target to blame the township’s financial problems on.”
He said a statement that Mayor Robert Parisi released Oct. 23 cited the top pay for a police officer after seven full years of service as $107,943. Cassidy disputed this, saying that the correct pay is $90,994 for any officer hired after Feb. 28, 2014.
He also said West Orange officers pay for part of their health care costs, either $9,951.45 per year or $382.75 biweekly. The most recently retired officers pay about $1,000 a month for their health care costs in addition to tax payments.
“We did make a counteroffer which we believe was fair and less than other Essex County agencies are receiving,” Cassidy said. “I would argue that we are willing to make concessions. I transferred from another agency in 2002 and the No. 1 reason I came here was due to a substantial pay increase. Remember, there is no savings with a non-negotiable offer. It will cost much more to train new officers when it becomes a revolving door when we pay to train officers only to have them leave for better paying agencies.”
In response, Councilman Victor Cirilo said the council does not have a lot of knowledge about the negotiations, but would learn more in executive session.
“Our role is to ratify whatever contractual agreement is entered into between the administration and your leaders,” Cirilo said at the meeting. “We don’t have the level of involvement at this stage, but know that, with respect to supporting your initiative, we’re there. Hopefully today we can find out some of the facts. We’re listening and paying attention.”
Councilman Joe Krakoviak also thanked the officers and Cassidy for being at the meeting, saying he was looking forward to learning more in executive session.
“Hopefully we will get a much better understanding,” he said at the meeting. “It’s not just the two police unions and not just the two fire unions that are out of contracts, all of our employees are out of contract since the end of last year. I think we should be trying to move forward on that and reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”
In the statement, Parisi said that he wanted to pause negotiations while he was up for re-election.
“I recently put a hold on negotiations with our collective bargaining units as my term is up for re-election. As I may not be re-elected, I do not believe it is fair to burden a new administration with terms of a contract that a new administration may not agree with. After the election, if re-elected, I will resume negotiations with unions in the hope that a settlement can be reached quickly. If I am not re-elected, the mayor-elect can finalize a contract that his administration is willing to honor,” he said.
“Our township employees provide an important and valuable service to our community, but resources are limited and negotiating employee contracts involves many details and often complex issues. I regret that the process often creates frustration among the employees, but that cannot replace the responsibility an administration has to represent the entire community, the taxpayers that fund our government and the financial impact these contracts will have in the future.”
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