EDISON FIRE POLICIES ENDANGER PUBLIC
MYCENTRALJERSEY.COM - Recent first responder policies enacted for fire and EMS emergencies by the Township of Edison are playing Russian roulette with public safety. These are nothing more than detrimental policies cutting corners and may well result in loss of life.
With a population of more than 100,000, Edison is one of New Jersey's largest municipalities and one with a complex mixture of residential, retail and industrial development.
There are numerous hotels, a public school system with 14,000 students, one of the nation's largest industrial parks, several major highways with extensive truck traffic and more than $7 billion in taxable properties. While Edison's infrastructure more closely resembles a small city as opposed to a rural township, policy makers have been slashing away at the township's ability to adequately respond to fire and medical emergencies and potential disasters on the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate 287.
New policies mean Edison will have significant problems responding to two simultaneous emergencies. Incredibly, a resident whose house is on fire may need to rely on a department from a neighboring town to get there, if there is another significant fire in town simultaneously.
Edison's acting fire chief is no longer calling in off-duty professional firefighters to supplement the on-duty force if there are multiple emergencies depleting the available force, as in the past. Instead, he is crossing his fingers and hoping enough volunteers will show up. In December, when a townwide alert was put out to volunteers on a Sunday morning, only 14 of 50 showed up.
Fire grows exponentially by the minute and any delay can be the difference between rescuing a victim from a heavy fire and smoke condition or not. Such delays in response time imperil the lives of citizens and firefighters.
Another new mandate halts professional firefighters from responding when a 911 call comes in with a report of heart attack, stroke, choking or difficulty breathing. In such instances, fire rescue personnel are no longer immediately dispatched, deferring instead to volunteer companies. Only after volunteer companies report back that they are unavailable, would fire rescue personnel be dispatched.
In the case of any medical emergency, every second counts. This sort of policy might save a few dollars when the volunteer companies are available, but what are the victim's chances of survival when no one answers the call for 10 or 15 minutes? Fire and rescue should be first responders and not merely responders of last resort.
Training is vital for even veteran firefighters, but when new recruit training is cut from eight to 12 weeks down to just three weeks, how ready do you think these recruits will be when a major emergency occurs?
Why would the leadership of Edison's Fire Department, despite maintaining a 140-member professional fire force, prefer to rely on volunteers, some from other towns, who may or may not show up when the call comes? If these misguided policies were put in place to save money, it doesn't even save that much. The Edison Fire Department budget for 2006 was $16,796,209 or $167 per resident annually. That's 45 cents per day per resident.
Neighboring Woodbridge, with similar population size and area, has only 44 career firefighters and relies mostly on volunteers. It had a 2006 fire protection budget of $16,397,766 or $162 per resident. That's 44 cents per day.
I seriously doubt that the residents and business owners of Edison are willing to roll the dice on their lives and property to save just $5 per year. Lady luck has a place in the casinos of Atlantic City, but not when public safety is on the line.
Robert Yackel is president of Edison Firefighters Local 1197.
HOMETOWN HEROES DEATH BENEFITS IMPROPERLY DENIED, REPORTS OIG
IAFF - April 24, 2008 - The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has conducted a review of the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) implementation of the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 (Hometown Heroes Act) in response to concerns expressed by several members of Congress that OJP was taking too long to process claims submitted under the Act and that OJP’s narrow interpretation of terms found in the Act – in particular the phrases “non-routine stressful or strenuous physical activity” and “competent medical evidence to the contrary” – might be resulting in a high rate of claims denials.
The OIG report found that OJP improperly denied survivors' death benefits after the Justice Department decided they weren't responding to emergencies. The OIG made a number of additional recommendations to further manage and improve the claims process. These provisions are an important move forward in the recognition of occupational diseases that affect fire fighters.
Read the report and the IAFF PSOB Fact Sheet.
The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 amends the Public Safety Officer Benefits (PSOB) Act, and was signed into Law on December 15, 2003, establishing death benefits for public safety officers who die of heart attacks or strokes in the line of duty or within 24 hours of a triggering event while on duty. The HHA provision only covers deaths occurring on or after December 15, 2003. The Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act is not retroactive, and therefore, it does not apply to deaths occurring before December 15, 2003.
The first firefighter to die of a heart attack after the passage of the law was Fire Specialist Thomas Frank Brown of the Baltimore, MD Local 1311. On December 18, 2003, Brother Brown returned home from a shift in which he helped carry a heavy patient over a long distance to a stretcher. Some time after his wife left for work, Brown died. His survivors filed a claim for benefits under the new criteria.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) was charged with establishing criteria to evaluate these claims. The first set of criteria was published by DOJ for public comment on July 26, 2005. An analysis conducted by the IAFF at the time found that no fire fighter heart attack deaths that had occurred since the law was enacted were payable under the proposed criteria. The IAFF led a coordinated effort among the major fire service organizations to revise the criteria.
By early 2007, a revised set of criteria was in place. But despite significant input from the IAFF and other fire service organizations, DOJ was making unfavorable decisions on claims, while the process remained painfully slow. In fact, by April of 2007, 200 cases were undecided, 38 had been disapproved and only two had been approved.
On April 20, 2007, the IAFF and seven other major fire service organizations sent a letter to the president asking him to review the program’s implementation in accordance with the law he had signed almost three and a half years earlier.
Finally, in early October of 2007 the Director of the Bureau of Justice began a concerted effort to finally speed up the review of these claims. That same month, PSOB benefits were approved for the survivors of Brother Thomas Brown.
However, as of March, 2008, a total of only 114 claims were approved, 76 were not approved and 104 claims remain to be resolved. Many of the originally denied cases have been appealed and five have been approved on appeal to date.
The IAFF will continue to monitor this program and to attempt to enhance its benefits in the future.
CLEARING THE SMOKE OBSCURING THE REAL PUBLIC PENSION VILLAINS
HOME NEWS TRIBUNE - January 13, 2008 - For almost a decade, public employees have continually had their pensions under attack by the very same politicians who have disregarded their pension obligations and used our retirement money as their personal slush fund to help cover up financial mismanagement and the lining of their own pockets. In doing so, they have completely destroyed the overall health and condition of our pension fund.
Ironically, now that their free ride is coming to an end and they must start making restitution, they are blaming the same public employees for the increase in their budgets. In short, these unscrupulous politicians have saved billions of dollars on the backs of public employees and now they are attacking and threatening the jobs of these same proud employees.
While there are several different public employee pension funds, the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) seems to always be one of the funds in the spotlight when these unethical politicians start pointing fingers. As to be expected, they blame most financial problems on our pension fund but forget to inform the public of some very important details. Police and firefighters are not eligible for Social Security when they retire. With that being said, municipalities save millions of dollars by not contributing to Social Security on our behalf.
In addition, despite what some people would like for you to believe, police and firefighters have never expected a free ride. Besides the supposed employer contributions, we also contribute a large percentage to our pension fund. Furthermore, unlike those in the private sector who may be eligible for Social Security, a company pension, yearly bonuses, stock options and a company-matched 401(k), policemen and firefighters have only our PFRS pension to rely on for retirement.
So we ask, when you hear elected officials attacking public pensions, think of the policemen, firefighters and other municipal workers who unselfishly give of themselves in the dangerous professions that most people choose not to enter and put the blame where it belongs — in the laps of the lawmakers.
Scott Law
Second vice president
Professional Firefighters Association
EDISON
MORE BAD NEWS FOR PUBLIC PENSIONS
HOME NEWS TRIBUNE - December 23, 2007 - It hardly came as a surprise this week to find that when the Pew Center on the States released its findings of a year-long study on state pension funds, New Jersey was among the most troubled. In fact, since misery likes company, there may even have been some comfort in knowing that other states also have failed to adequately save for future pension and health insurance premium pay-outs. According to the Pew study, the nation as a whole is on the hook for $2.7 trillion worth of pensions and health benefits for state employees. And it is at least 25 percent short.
Still, even among all that bad news, New Jersey stood out. The state has made the smallest pension fund payments of any state every year since 2002, when it paid only 3 percent of what it owed. In 2006, it paid just 27 percent of what was due. Even next year, under a governor who claims to be fixing these problems, the state will contribute a measly 60 percent of what is due. The state simply can't afford to do more. Even the 60 percent figure represents an increase of $340 million, revenue that must be acquired from somewhere.
Pew says to be healthy, funds should carry at least 80 percent of their future pay-outs.
The good news is that, despite all this negligence, New Jersey's pension has 79 percent of what analysts say it owes its vested employees. The bad news is that that number does not include the state's unfunded health insurance liabilities. Pew said the state had $23.1 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. The state says its unfunded retiree benefits are more than double that: $58 billion.
The numbers are so big, it's almost impossible to grasp. The consequences, alas, are more immediately felt. The headline on a New York Times story on the report was "Pension Fund Shortages Create Hard Choices," and went on to say, "While some states are managing their costs reasonably well, the center found that others, like New Jersey and West Virginia, have made serious mistakes and are now cutting education and health programs as they struggle with costs incurred decades ago."
Education is the easiest target, since it absorbs such a large part of the budget. Schools got their first increase in funding in several years last year and they are promised another this year. Still, at least some educators believe the governor's new funding formula is designed to drive down the state's share of educational costs. If this is true, it will be devastating for the state.
New Jersey also has struggled to maintain vital health insurance services; a well-conceived proposal to extend insurance to low-income adults who do not qualify for Medicaid, however, remains unfunded, as does a proposal to offer universal health care to all citizens.
These are the real costs of the state's negligence. And as the years pass, those costs are likely to be felt even more.
BOOK TELLS HISTORY OF FIREFIGHTING
Proceeds from sales to be donated to St. Barnabas Burn Foundation
SENTINAL - December 12, 2007 - EDISON - Firefighting is in Edison resident Eugene Enfield's blood - his grandfather was a firefighter in Iselin. His father was a volunteer firefighter in northern Edison. He, himself, became a volunteer firefighter at age 18 and a career firefighter four years later.
With this in mind, Enfield was puzzled about why, when he ran into former Edison fire chief H. Ray Vliet at JFK Hospital, he had had no idea who Vliet was.
"I think it's kind of embarrassing if you don't know your roots, and at that point, he was only two chiefs prior to the one that is there," said Enfield. "I think it's important for firefighters, particularly in a department, to know their roots."
With this in mind, Enfield set about the task of compiling a photographic history of the Edison Fire Department, from the inception of the all-volunteer Raritan Engine Company No. 1 to the department's current incarnation. The fruits of his labor have recently been published and became available in stores on Dec. 10. The proceeds from his book sales will benefit the St. Barnabas Burn Foundation.
Enfield, a soft-spoken man who talks in a slow, thoughtful manner, began his research when he again ran into Vliet, this time at a firehouse showing people old photographs. Enfield brought up the possibility of using the old photographs to make a history book, an idea that drew strong approval from Vliet. At that point, Enfield began a nine-month-long process of collecting photographs and interviewing retired firefighters to get the stories behind them.
"[I] just kept on looking in the white pages and trying to find telephone numbers and asking if they had any photographs or any information, anything that could help me out," said Enfield.
Another great help, he said, was finding the commissioner logs, where firefighters of ages past would record meeting minutes, which were instrumental in helping to find the former chiefs and members of volunteer companies.
The result is a book with more than 200 photographs involving Edison's firefighters, with captions to go along with each one. Combined, they weave a historical narrative of firefighting in Edison.
"I enjoyed every bit of it. I liked talking to the retired firefighters and I could see them smiling and reminiscing, and when I handed over a picture … [they were] able to look at it, and you see someone light up and they go, 'Oh, I remember this day,' and they start pointing to people and identifying the people in the picture," Enfield said.
According to Enfield's book, the township, which had been called Raritan until the name change to Edison in 1954, had originally been divided into five independent volunteer fire companies: Raritan Engine Company No. 1, which covered the southern section of the township; Edison Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, which covered the Menlo Park section of town; Raritan Engine Company No. 2, which covered the Clara Barton section of town; H.K. Volunteer Fie Company, which covered the northern area of town; and Oak Tree Volunteer Fire Company, which covered the Oak Tree section of town.
Enfield said that he was surprised at how much the early fire companies emphasized personal conduct: he said that early firefighters would get a 25-cent fine, no small change around the turn of the century, every time they were caught swearing in the firehouse.
The five independent districts were formed into one department under the municipal government during a change in government in 1958 under the Faulkner Act. This transformed the various firefighting companies in Edison into the fire department residents see today.
In his book, Enfield also talks about the various ways that fighting fires has changed over the past century. Technology, he noted, has definitely come far. Some fire companies, for example, started out by bringing horse-drawn wagons, not roaring engines, to fires. The Oak Tree Volunteer Fire Company first fought fires using buckets and grass beaters (lengths of pipe attached to leather, used to beat out brush fires) and would be called to alert by having someone bang something against the nearby train tracks.
The responsibilities of the fire department have also changed, according to Enfield. The department now handles hazardous waste removal as well as rescuing people from burning cars.
"But as far as the firefighter itself, they're pretty much the same, with what I gathered in my research: you have an individual, and the individual has that desire to help people, … helping his community," said Enfield.
The book closes with a section on famous fires that the township has experienced, such as the gas explosion at Durham Woods in 1994 and a chemical fire at a pesticide plant in 1964.
Enfield said he hopes that the book can serve firefighters looking to reminisce, as well as be a history lesson for people looking to know more about how the fire department in Edison works.
"I just think that this book is beneficial not only to firefighters and their family members but to their community as a whole, because … it's a learning experience. They could reminisce about certain places and events … and I think overall it's a good way to restore history with the use of the vintage photographs and the information provided in the captions," said Enfield.
Enfield will hold a book signing and sale at the Seasons restaurant on Route 27 on Sunday, Dec. 16, starting at 1 p.m.
The book is titled "Edison Firefighting," is published by Arcadia Publishing and costs $19.99. It is available at area bookstores, independent retailers, online bookstores or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or (888) 313-2665.
TWO NEW JERSEY LOCALS CALL FOR ACTING CHIEF'S RESIGNATION
IAFF - December 6, 2007 - Members of two New Jersey locals – Edison Township Local 1197 and Edison Professional Fire Officers Local 2883 – are calling for Acting Fire Chief Norman Jensen’s resignation. Fire fighters say Jensen’s changes to fire service operations have put the lives of fire fighters and the citizens they serve in jeopardy.
Specific issues with Jensen include: changes to dispatch protocol, officers taken off apparatus and lack of recruit fire fighter training.
Past practice called for a dual EMS system with a volunteer rescue squad and professional EMTs responding. Now, if the volunteer ambulance claims to be available, they are dispatched. Local 1197 and Local 2883 are concerned that the volunteer squads do not always respond in a timely fashion.
In a recent incident, a volunteer squad was dispatched to respond to a stroke patient at one of Edison’s senior centers. Professional paramedics were sent to assist. But when the professional paramedics arrived 15 minutes after the volunteer squad was sent, they discovered that the volunteer squad never responded. The patient later died at the hospital.
“There is no way to know for sure if this patient would have survived had the response been faster,” says Scott Law, vice president for Edison Township Local 1197. “But the patient’s chances would have been much greater had help arrived sooner. This is just one example of how Jensen’s dispatch protocol change is putting citizens’ lives at greater risk.”
Another major concern is that there is no longer an officer assigned to one of the busiest stations. The officer at that station was reassigned to a slower station. Now the station with lower call volume has two officers.
“We were never given an official reason as to why Acting Chief Jensen made that decision, but coincidentally, all of Local 1197’s executive board work out of the slower fire station,” reports Law.
Jensen has also made questionable changes to recruit fire fighter training. As a combination department, Edison is required to provide the same basic training to professional and volunteer fire fighters. But, professional fire fighters require an addition 10 weeks of training.
“Now, our new recruits are not getting any additional training past the first three weeks of basic training,” says Law. “If our new fire fighters don’t get adequate training, a big gamble is being taken every time they respond to an emergency. The risk is too great when you are talking about potential loss of lives.”
This is the second attempt by Edison fire fighters to call attention to Jensen’s inadequacies. They issued a vote of no confidence in April 2007.
FIRE UNIONS CALL FOR ACTING CHIEF'S RESIGNATION
SENTINEL - December 5, 2007 - The two unions representing Edison's paid firefighters jointly released a statement Dec. 1 calling for the resignation of acting Fire Chief Norman Jensen. The unions represent all of the township's 140 paid firefighters.
The two unions, locals 1197 and 2883, said that Jensen's resignation is a matter of life and death and accused the acting chief of doing a poor job in overseeing the township's firefighters. Specifically, the complaints focused on management issues and ethics, calling Jensen incompetent.
President of Edison Local 1197, Robert Yackel, a retired firefighter currently employed by the state Department of Labor, listed several specific reasons why the acting chief, who has been in the position since May 2006, should step down. He cited changes in the dispatch protocol, elimination of the fire ground supervisor position, issues with the training of new firefighters, and what he perceived as Jensen being too close to the administration as reasons why he felt Jensen should step down.
Township spokesperson Jerry Barca defended Jensen, saying that the acting fire chief has instituted a number of positive reforms in the township that keep the residents safe, while saving money at the same time. He also said he thinks the firefighters of Edison do a great job in protecting the residents and emphasized that the conflict is with the union itself.
Yackel, talking about the changes to the dispatch protocol, said that emergency medical response has flagged since Jensen took over, claiming that first aid squads are contacted before trained emergency medical technicians (EMT) are, which he said wasted time.
"Now they try to get a first aid squad if they can, and just waste a lot of unnecessary time," said Yackel.
Barca disagreed that medical response time has suffered under Jensen, saying that there have been four new EMTs hired and more ambulances added to the fleet. Barca also said that Jensen implemented a first response program using the closest available fire apparatus to respond to medical emergencies.
"Chief Jensen has implemented a first responders program with the closest available fire apparatus to emergency medical calls such as heart attacks," said Barca.
Yackel also cited the elimination of fire ground supervisor positions around the Menlo Park Mall, JFK Medical Center, Roosevelt Hospital and near the train station as a reason the union was upset, saying that these people help coordinate emergency responses as the first people on the scene.
Barca said that is a false statement and that it hasn't happened.
Yackel also said that recalling additional firefighters has become more difficult since Jensen's tenure as acting chief began, saying that currently there is no system in place to recall off-duty firefighters. He said the department has recently implemented radio pagers for such a purpose, but that there have been significant technological hurdles in adopting them.
"We have no in-place system that works; they have a telephone pager, but they don't work, and the dispatcher sometimes calls the wrong people. And so they went to these radio pagers, but they're not in service, and it's been two years now since they were told to do it," Yackel said.
Barca said the radio pagers are still being programmed and that in the meantime, the telephone pagers currently used for calling additional firefighters still work. Yackel, though, said the telephone pagers are adequate.
The issue of training also came up, with the union saying that the training captain was abolished under Jensen, leading to inadequate training for new firefighters. Barca said the training captain is an assignment, not a position that can be abolished, and that all Edison firefighters, volunteer or paid, receive adequate training before they are allowed to work as firefighters.
The union president also said that issue had been taken with the acting chief 's management style, which he said was too close to the administration, and did not represent the firefighters. He noted that while the union had initially supported both Jensen and the current administration, as time has passed, they have needed to reconsider their stance.
"He obviously forgot what he learned from being here for 25 years. Now he does what the mayor tells him; the mayor is dangling the carrot. He's been acting chief for two years, and that's politics. You do as I say or you're not going to get appointed chief," said Yackel.
Barca said the union is simply fighting positive fiscal reform in Edison and noted that the township's firefighters are paid, on average, $85,000 a year.
"What you have here is a fire union that's used to getting everything they want, including one of the most generous contracts in the state of New Jersey. This fire department is being held accountable in a new era of fiscal responsibility, and Edison taxpayers should not be distracted by a fire union fighting positive reform," Barca said.
2 UNIONS WOULD BOOT FIRE CHIEF IN EDISON
HOME NEWS TRIBUNE - December 4, 2007 - The township firefighters' unions, locals 1197 and 2883, have jointly called for the resignation of acting Fire Chief Norman Jensen.
Robert Yackel, president of Edison Firefighters Local 1197, accused Jensen of "complete and total incompetence," citing concerns over a decrease in available personnel responding to major fires, among other issues.
Jensen could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
Yackel said the number of firefighters sent to calls at some of the township's larger buildings on ladder trucks has been lowered to two per truck. He said standard practice is to have six per truck in those situations.
Yackel also said that the recall procedure that brings off-duty firefighters back on duty when needed is not working and that the township relies on volunteer firefighters who Yackel claims are often called first. He said that puts lives and property at great risk.
Jerry Barca, township communications director, rebutted those claims, saying that procedures that bring in outside responders to fire calls and connects the department with county fire responders has increased safety and cut costs.
"There has been no reduction in the firefighter force at all," Barca said.
Yackel said that the posts of fire ground supervisors had been eliminated, but Barca said that isn't true.
Yackel said the firefighters were supposed to receive a new emergency-pager system, and pagers were supposed to be ordered in April. He claims they were not ordered until September and were delivered in October. They have yet to be put in service because they needed to be reconfigured, Barca said, but should be in the hands of firefighters by the end of the week.
Barca accused the union of being unwilling to change in the light of reforms that would lower the amount of overtime available to paid firefighters.
"This is a union that is used to getting anything they want, including one of the most generous contracts in the state," Barca said, "and now it's being held accountable."
Barca said the township invested more than $1.7 million in the Fire Department this year, with the purchase of new trucks and upgrades to the firehouses.
Yackel said in a release that the first few months of service for those trucks have been "less than stellar."
This is not the first time the unions have gone after Jensen. The union took a vote of "no confidence" in the acting chief in April, according to Yackel.
Yackel said relations between Jensen and the unions have been strained and that the measures put in place could put people at risk.
"We have no rapport with this guy at all," Yackel said."He knows better, and that's what's so disheartening."
He also said the situation has affected to morale of the firefighters, which he said he has never seen so low.
The two unions, one representing the township's 115 professional firefighters and the 25 professional fire officers, rarely agree.
"To get our two groups to agree on anything is hard," Yackel said. "That's how serious it is."
But Barca said the problems are limited to the unions.
PFANJ - NJFOP FILE PENSION PROTECTION ACTION IN STATE SUPERIOR COURT
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President Canzanella with NJ Fraternal Order |
PFANJ - On Tuesday, October 4, 2005, the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey partnered with the New Jersey State Fraternal Order of Police in the implementation of a lawsuit filed in Superior Court of the State of New Jersey calling into the question the legality of continued underfunding of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System. PFANJ President Tom Canzanella joined NJFOP President Ed Brannigan at a midday news conference conducted at the State House in Trenton for the formal announcement. Below is an excerpt from the press briefing.
The Police and Firemen's Retirement System of New Jersey (PFRS) held a surplus of approximately $938,000,000 in FY2000 drawing down to a deficit of approximately $3,574,000,000 for FY2004. This $4.5 billion dollar deterioration is largely the result of legislation (S-2586 of 2003) that permitted municipal employers of law enforcement officers and firefighters to defer and discount employer required contributions to the PFRS, in association with the State of New Jersey's own failure to make required contributions.
During this same time frame, police
officers and firefighters continued to make their own statutorily required contributions
totaling 8.5% of their base annual salaries, one, if not the highest public
safety employee pension contribution rate in the Nation.
The State of New Jersey and its municipalities
were first relieved of their obligations to make employer required
contributions in 1997, when legislation was enacted that revised the method
of accounting and valuing plan assets. Under this new and more creative method
of accounting, the value of PFRS assets was purposely and substantially increased,
resulting in intended excess or more accurately, inflated assets.
Accordingly, the State and its municipalities used those enhanced assets as a manner in which to relieve themselves of their obligation to match employee contributions for the purpose of tax relief. Despite the "free ride" afforded to both the State and municipalities, police officers and firefighters remained obligated, and so did they continue, to contribute 8.5% of their base annual salaries for which they have neither sought nor been granted any similar relief.
In 2003, with those self-created inflated assets running dry, despite facing a growing PFRS deficit, and in order to provide continued budgetary relief to municipalities who had by their own admission made no provisions whatsoever to resume employer contributions, the State Treasurer proposed, and the Legislature adopted, an initiative (S-2586) permitting municipalities to pay only a discounted fraction of their required pension contributions.
Adding insult to injury, despite the fact that the foregoing legislation in no way extended the State a like ability to skip or discount badly needed pension contributions, they did so nonetheless, paying only a fraction of their required obligation. Again, and to this day as we go forward, police officers and their firefighter counterparts remain obligated to contribute 8.5% of their base annual salaries serving as the sole and sustaining guaranteed plan income.
As a result of the aforementioned
legislation, and in association with the States non-legislated failure to required
contributions, the PFRS funding ratio, which indicates the financial soundness
of the plan, has fallen from 105.65 % for FY2000, to 100.85% for FY2001, to
95.82% for FY2002, to 88.45% for FY2003 and to 83.95% for FY2004.
Enactment of the 2003 legislation,
in association with the State's failure to make their own proper contributions
absent legal legislative authority, deprives the PFRS of the funds necessary
to maintain it on a sound actuarial reserve basis. An undeniable consequence
of this failed scheme is the alarmingly significant reduction in plan earnings
from investments and interest that would have been derived from skipped and
substandard contributions. The foregoing serving to jeopardize the financial
soundness of the plan and its ability to make good on earned benefits as they
come due in the future. In that regard, the complete and total lack of prudent
fiscal judgment demonstrated by the strategy articulated in S-2586, relying
upon the exclusive use of employee contributions to either sustain or accordingly
grow the plan, that resulted in the type of significant funding losses sustained
over the last several years represents an abdication of fiduciary responsibilities
in its purest form.
The complaint seeks to declare the
2003 legislation (S-2586) unconstitutional, to end any conflict of interest
that would allow the State Treasurer to determine type and variety of contributions
aside from statutory law, and to direct defendants to make regular full payments
to the PFRS for FY2004, FY2005, and beyond, in accordance with fiscally responsible
actuarial calculations.
The plaintiffs, Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, I.A.F.F.-AFL-CIO, and the New Jersey State Fraternal Order of Police, along with representative active and retired members and widows of members of these two unions who have been affected by this failure to adequately fund the plan, are represented by the law firm of Greenberg, Dauber, Epstein & Tucker of Newark.
The PFANJ/IAFF and NJFOP represent
the majority of career professional firefighters and law enforcement officers
throughout the State of New Jersey and this Nation.
Named as defendants in this action are the State of New Jersey, John McCormac- Treasurer, the New Jersey State Senate and General Assembly.
