The Robinson-Briggs administration is apparently moving full throttle on its budget proposal, which will be presented to the City Council at a special meeting on Monday at 7:30 PM.
A second item on that special meeting's agenda will be a proposed layoff plan for FY2011 (which began this past July 1).
While a general letter is sent to all employees warning of possible layoffs, the plan will not go into effect until a) presented by the Administration, b) adopted by the Council, and c) approved by the State. Only at that point would actual layoff notices be given, to take effect 45 days from the date issued.
I am told that vis-a-vis the Police Division, the Robinson-Briggs administration is --
- Putting a freeze in place on all open positions;
- Demanding 10 furlough days or a 5% wage cut;
- Canceling the scheduled hiring of 7 new cops in October**;
- Canceling promotions;
- Reducing overtime.
Robinson-Briggs, who won office initially with strong backing from the police unions, may be risking touching the third rail here. We shall see.
It is going to be another wild ride, though at least the budget is being delivered to the Council months earlier than last year.
**The figures cited in the Ledger's online UCR report for Plainfield gave a total of 135 officers in the Police Division -- a lower than we have ever been told to date.
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Introduction of the FY2011 Budget
and proposed Layoff Plan
Monday, October 4 | 7:30 PM
City Hall Library
-- Dan Damon [follow]
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13 comments:
Sad day for Plainfield...
This has come about because the citizens of NJ continually put the very people who go us into this mess back in office.
In less than 10 years there have been over 115 tax increases and NJ property taxes have increased 70%
We simply have no money. Those at the trough should be thankful they got what they did. Now it is time to look at reality.
Who are you voting for in November? And, when it comes time to re-elect our State Congress, who are you voting for?
Why is everyone so upset? Thanks to Marty and Sharon, (I think he was sending her the racy e-mails), violent crime in Plainfield is at an all time low . . . it's great how well they work together!
Spend all that money on technology that might or might not prove effective . . . layoff and furlough as many Police as necesary to bring the budget into line, and while you are at it . . . pass an ordinance that makes it against the law to be a victim of crime, punishable by a fine and/or jail time! If there are no victims, there is no crime problem!
Well thats no surprise. Let the crime spree begin Well better start cutting your special units like the super high impact team get rid of that traffic unit and pull the school resource officers better buckle in for this wild ride.
No happy ending here....
Dan the city wants 15 furlough days now or 5 percent pay cut
thanks for reducing crime. Have a hot dog ,juice and layoff notice thanks. We appriecate you
Dan - you got that right about the Plainfield Police Department being a strong supporter of the Sharon for Mayor campaign. I remember clearly during the mayoral campaign debate held at Plainfield Library -many of the Plainfield Police were in the back jeering Adrian Mapp saying, "Yeah he is going to fire most of the police department". Ignorant as that statement was I actually had a conversation with two of those police officers outside of the library. I told them I heard their conversation and wanted to know where they got that "ignorant" information from and their response was (drumroooooolllll) SHARON!!!
I SUPPORT Plainfield Police Department but those two and the other police who believed Slimey Lying Jerry Green's candy giving kissing assistant Sharon RobinsonBriggs [also known as Plainfield's Mayor] . . . deserve exactly what they GET!!!
RECALL!!!
Layoffs will happen, the crime and murder rate will increase. The Administration will eventually find money to hire more cops to counter. By then it will be a little to late. A new administration will run and win on, among other things, public safety. The police will have to endure another reorganization, and another outside director. The citizen will have to suffer...You will have a younger, poorly trained, low moral Police Department. As the world turns.
Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
P. J. O'Rourke
How is it possible that the council thinks the city has a 1,000,000 dollars for shotspotter but the Mayor is even considering Police layoffs. In my mind both are responsible for what seems to be happening. I can tell you this prepare to see more Mayflower moving trucks than you ever have in your life if we see a steep reduction in police personnel.
You need to take a look at salary settlements over the last 10 years. The other bargaining groups for the City have settled for a lower salary increase every year and the Police and Fire continued to get higher settlements bringing their salary guides substaintially higher than the other bargaining groups. Additionally, the other bargaining groups have always been targeted for layoffs.
While nobody wants to see a reduction in Police staffing, the PBA needs to realize that they have to take a hit once in awhile. Perhaps a pay freeze or giveback or furlough is in order to protect their own but I doubt if you would ever see that.
You will never see the PBA coming to the defense of layoffs of other unions but they will be the first to try and rally all the troups togeather when it affects them
Well, if the police were dumb enough to believe her and vote for her, they got what they wanted.
Tough times call for smart decisions. Unfortunately, Sharon ain't too smart. Smart decisions begin with doing what's right for the City not her political croonies.
Police used to be paid a middle class wage on par with other middle class occupations. Now their pay and benefits places them far above the middle class. Gov. Christie was right about there being two classes in New Jersey, those who work for the government and those who pay. This imbalance must be corrected and a 5% pay-cut is a good start. Yet it doesn't even rectify the mistake of the 14% pay increase in the last 3 year contract.
When faced with a shrinking pie, will the police "union" prefer kicking officers from the table rather than have all officers take a smaller slice?
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