were the finest of their kind, perhaps in the entire country. So
Freeman took the approach of trying to maintain the informa-
tion that has kept members coming back year after year. But he
also knew that there was an opportunity to make the seminar
more interactive to attract younger members and more engag-
ing for those who would keep coming back.
The result appears to be a program so scintillating that Kovar,
who has been to more than 20 seminars, says, “I’m anxiously
anticipating sitting through every session.”
Some of those sessions include:
• “Me First Policing” featuring Peter Paris, an attorney
with Beckett & Paris, discussing ways officers can protect
themselves against false accusations and turn the use of
body cameras and other resources into positive eviden-
tiary items. A first-time seminar presenter, Paris will be
using actual cases he has worked on to offer best ideas
and practices.
• “Negotiating Outside the Box,” parts 1 and 2, will be two
separate presentations by committee to relate real expe-
riences at the negotiating table.
• “PERC & Mediation (with cost-out exercises)” will be a
session with PERC Director of Conciliation & Arbitration
Mary Beth Hennessy-Shotter to help members under-
stand the actuals of a mediation. “They will be able to
find out what a proposal costs a municipality in total,”
Freeman says.
• Attorney Jim Mets of Mets Schiro & McGovern, LLP, will
moderate a panel on grievance arbitration that will bring
in mediators to render actual decisions based on case
studies. “They will explain what they heard and why they
made the decisions they made,” Freeman adds.
• Stuart Alterman and Arthur Murray of Alterman & As-
sociates will upgrade their “Officers’ Rights’” sessions of
the past several years into an interactive segment titled
“Mock Internal Affairs” that will help members better un-
derstand how an IA investigation is supposed to be con-
ducted.
Some of the sessions that have formed the bedrock of the
seminar will remain. As he has for the past 31 years, Paul Klein-
baum, of Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman, will
lead off with “Legal Updates and Regulatory Issues.” His part-
ner, Bob Fagella, will reprise his presentation on “Navigating
Arbitration and Civil Service.”
Additionally, NJ State PBA Pension Benefits Coordinator Pete
Andreyev will combine with attorney Christopher Gray to pres-
ent “Retirement and Disability Pensions,” but this year they will
focus on Tier 1 and 2. And attorney David Beckett of Beckett &
Paris will join PBA Health Benefits Coordinator Kevin Lyons for
a session on health benefits.
Finally, the PBA Collective Bargaining Seminar is going pa-
perless. It is BYOD, Freeman says, or “Bring your own device.”
A laptop, tablet or smartphone will be needed to access the
collective bargaining manual through Dropbox, Google Drive
or other online mechanisms. Flash drives will also be available
with the data.
“Mike has done a great job of bringing the seminar up to
date,” Kovar adds. “I think it will be so engaging that even peo-
ple who have been coming for the past 20 years will see it as a
brand-new seminar.”
Freeman has tried to fill the two-and-half days using a some-
thing-for-everyone approach. It will for sure be an event that
will keep members riveted until the very last session.
“Information that every officer can benefit from knowing,”
Freeman accentuates. “Even if they are not part of a negotia-
tions team, they can find out what they are facing, what is avail-
able and what is impossible.”
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ JANUARY 2019 41