NJ Cops July18 | Page 28

INDEPENDENCE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 strong as it could be for the remainder of the state. So it’s a big day.” If there was a Thomas Jefferson of this endeavor, it had to be NJ State PBA Director of Government Affairs Rob Nixon. He spent this past Fourth of July with his feet up, finally able to rest after three years that culminated with giving life to some- thing that will benefit every law enforcement officer past, present and future. “It truly is Independence Day,” Nixon proclaimed. “Inde- pendence from an awful state pension management system over the past two decades.” As a reminder, Senate Bill 5 – the PFRS Governance and Investment Act – enacts its own board made up of employ- ees and employers independent of political interference. The board will have police and fire representatives elected by the members, as they are now, but also have professionals, in- cluding an executive director, general counsel and chief in- vestment officer, rather than members of state government making all the decisions. Modifications made after the governor’s conditional veto allow the $20 billion in the PFRS pension fund to be main- tained by the state but still grant control of the investments to the PFRS. The PFRS Board of Trustees will also have auditing power over the Division of Investments handling of invest- ment decisions, accounts and funds, and the board will also maintain control of future changes to PFRS benefits and COLA through a process that requires actuarial certification. To get the bill to the goal line, Nixon said the PBA was fortu- nate to have the guidance of Senate President Steve Sweeney, 28 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JULY 2018 The long journey to singing the bill to make PFRS independent led to all smiles for NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan, Governor Phil Murphy and FMBA President Ed Donnelly. the SB 5 sponsor who offered his support three years ago. In the end, they never lost sight of the most important goal. “The most important thing we had to do was establish the PFRS as autonomously as we could,” Nixon detailed. “That way it would focus on nothing more than fully funding the pension system.” Colligan, Kovar, Nixon, Donnelly and the rest of the SB 5 founding fathers wanted to make sure the governor never lost sight of that objective. Following the conditional veto, achiev- ing that objective required some early-morning negotiating sessions in the office next to the conference room where the bill was signed. Spirited discussions, to say the least. “We had some very contentious meetings with some col- orful language,” Colligan revealed. “We were persistent. Even when it got to the last-minute negotiations, we had decided that if it wasn’t what we originally set out to do, we weren’t go- ing to go forward with it.” Given that the administration and state legislature are now considering proposals for the other public employee pension systems that even include turning them into 401K programs, PFRS independence seems even more historic. It’s almost as if the PBA was able to rely on the principle that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Consequently, the governor found a certain pursuit of hap- piness, even though outside the PFRS the state is mired in what he called a woe-is-me pension crisis. “These folks have shown that if you stay the course and work both within your organization and with government and with pension and investment reality, you can get to a good place,” Murphy proclaimed. “So I think this should be a celebration.” Ironically, the new PFRS will go through its formation during the next year. The new Board of Trustees will officially begin work 366 days following the signing of Senate Bill 5. That would be July 4, 2019. Independence Day, to be sure. d