For the record, JCPD officers DO PAY for their own retirement, to the tune of 8.5% of our salaries each and every check...it's the city that is being allowed, by Trenton, not to make their share of the payments to the pension fund...the pension fund that was "accessed" by Christie Whitman and every governor since her to "balance" state budgets...BILLIONS of dollars that police officers will never have returned to their pension system.

A Healy fundraiser??? For what purpose??? Does this guy really think he has the proverbial "snowballs chance in hell" of even smelling re-election? And if he does, who is his political adviser(s)? Not sure if Fulop is the answer but positive that things need to change.

Waste in the JCPD
With 82 Police Officers facing the loss of their jobs, and 12 supervisors facing demotion, maybe we can take a look at other options: The JCPD currently has an Academy Director on the payroll, a retired Sergeant already collecting a pension in excess of 50K a year working his second job at the expense of the taxpayers. Wasteful, especially since there is no longer a JC Police Academy for him to ?direct?. Along those lines we also have a Police Director, another retired Sergeant collecting a pension in excess of 60K a year. The Director?s position comes with the usual salary in excess of 100K. Ask any officer on the front lines in Jersey City what the Director?s function is and get ready for a blank stare or a shrug of the shoulders. The Director is ably assisted by a Deputy Director, another?you guessed it retiree, this time a Deputy Chief collecting a pension in excess of 80K along with a salary close to / over another 80K. He does publish the Jersey City Watch newsletter monthly, so I guess in these tough times, that?s a bargain. Of course these two positions come with their own individual secretaries. Three wasteful positions. I?m positive the overall working of the department could well be handled by Chief Comey, and the elimination of the Director?s Office would not affect the operations of the JCPD in the least. Another area to cut in is the obscene amounts of overtime in the depleted supervisory ranks. Although Civil Service has standing promotional lists for all ranks that were effective in early 2009, and although the top 20 candidates on the lists have made it known to the City that they are willing to waive the pay increases that come with the possible promotions, the City chooses to keep paying overtime to supervisors at the top of the pay scale. This concession by the candidates would replenish the openings created by the large amount of retirements, especially those in 2010, and would save the City money by having the supervisory personnel in place at a reduced cost instead of at overtime rates.
Politics in the JCPD
The looming demotions of 12 supervisors in the JCPD has some unusual coincidences. Two Captains are facing demotion. One of those Captains happens to be the president of the Supervisors union, the same union who was just awarded an arbitrators award against the City. The City is also demoting 4 Lieutenants, although they are at an all-time low of 21 in the rank. Sergeants to be demoted is 6, but I guess it?s a good place to stop, since the 7th Sergeant to be demoted would be the nephew of the County Executive, and this being Jersey City and Hudson County?well, we just can?t have that now can we?

The number of JCPD layoffs now stands at 82 police officers losing their jobs and 12 supervisors being demoted. A few months ago our illustrious mayor stood in front of the press and announced a record setting decrease in crime, and now he and Business ?As Usual? Administrator Kelly, he of the combined $307,000 annual salary from his FOUR jobs, decide to reward the police departments efforts by cutting back an already understaffed and under-supervised department even further. A few interesting points that they neglected to mention: Since January 1, 2008 to November 1, 2010 the JCPD has seen the loss of: 1 Deputy Chief, 5 Inspectors, 13 Captains, 17 Lieutenants, 22 Sergeants, 19 Detectives and 39 Police Officers. Just looking at BASE salary ALONE, this amounts to over $7 million dollars not paid out in 2010 alone. Current staffing levels in the supervisory ranks now stand at: 1 Deputy Chief, 4 Inspectors (Soon to be demoted to Captains), 21 Lieutenants (An all-time low) and 98 Sergeants. Not one of those retired supervisors has been replaced. The department hired 30 Police Officers in 2008 and 27 Police Officers in 2009. These officers, along with an additional 25 are all slated for lay-off within the next few months. This will bring the number of Police Officers to roughly 520. With the low numbers of Police Officers and Supervisors the dangerous conditions these officers will face on the streets will only increase beyond what they are now. No matter what rhetoric City Hall spews out about savings, the demotions will save approximately $175K and the lay-off of 82 police officers will in no way come close to the savings they are touting. The real losers here are the citizens of Jersey City, who will see decreased response times and lesser services for their tax dollars, not due to lack of concern from the men and women of the JCPD, but simply because they cannot be in three places at once, it?s just simple math.