FEDERAL GRANT HELPS NORTH PLAINFIELD BOOST FIREFIGHTING FORCE
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MY CENTRAL JERSEY.COM - July 1, 2010 - In difficult economic times, governments face difficult choices, and when the choice comes to protecting the public or preserving salaries, it's a no-brainer, said North Plainfield Mayor Michael Giordano, Jr.
On Thursday, the mayor joined members of the borough's fire department for the swearings-in of four new firefighters to a force reduced by retirements, additions provided by a combination of federal funds and the firefighters union's flexibility.
"It means safety for firefighters and safety for the public," said a happy Fire Chief William Eaton.
The additions bring the borough's paid department up to 25. But more importantly, the four new men significantly raise the force's ability to have at least four firefighters on the initial response at a fire scene, something that Eaton said means better protection for the first responders.
"Staffing, response and operational standards established by the National Fire Protection Association, call for two in and two out," Eaton said, referring to the recommendation that two firefighters be positioned on the outside of a structure while two work the scene from the inside. However, a series of recent retirements left the paid force sending only three firefighters at times, the chief noted.
"This is a huge boost for the morale, said Robert Beattie, delegate treasurer for IAFF Local 2958, the firefighters union. "We always felt short-numbered. With the recent retirements, we were really afraid that we weren't going to see replacements for these guys."
The additions of Kris Piccola, T.J. McDonald, Michael Kennedy and Shane Bell were funded for the first two years under a grant from the federal government. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants (SAFER) are dispensed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help local fire departments comply with standards established by the National Fire Protection Association and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The grants will fund the first two years of each firefighters' salary — $28,000 in year one and $29,000 in year two. In order to receive the aid, the borough had to agree to fully fund the firefighters for at least a third year, when they'll earn $31,000, according to Eaton.
The chief and Mayor Michael Giordano said the key to securing the grant was the union's agreement to lower the department's starting salary from $37,000.
"They worked very hard to get this done," Giordano said. "Hopefully, the economy will be better in three years," he added.
Lower starting salaries for those who succeed higher-paid retirees are a trend for cash-strapped governments, but Eaton said the new firefighters are single, striking out a career path and eager to work.
McDonald, 27, has been a per-diem Emergency Medical Technician for five years and said it took nine years of waiting for acceptance onto a paid force in a competitive field. "You get 100 guys going for two spots," he said. But he called firefighting a field that offers new challenges with each response and advised others who want that for a career to persevere.
"Don't give up," he said.
NIOSH RESPIRATOR APPROVALS TO BE REVOKED
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is issuing this notice to inform respirator users that Global Secure Safety Products., Inc. is no longer producing NIOSH- approved respirators or replacement parts and is not planning to resume production in the future. Global Secure Safety Products, Inc. stopped production of respirators in April 2008 and has ceased doing business.
Global Secure Safety Products, Inc. (formerly CairnsAir Inc. or Neoterik) Respirators will be listed on CEL as Obsolete and Certificates of Approval will be Revoked
NIOSH will revoke the approvals of these respirators on December 31, 2009. Revoked status means that the respirators in question will no longer be listed as NIOSH-approved respirators. Once revoked, respirators bearing these approval numbers may no longer be manufactured, assembled, sold, or distributed as NIOSH-approved respirators. Furthermore, they may not be used where NIOSH-approved respirators are required regardless of the current state of maintenance.
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.
