4
NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MAY 2014
Executive Vice President
‘Keeping the Hammer Down’
is their favorite tune
Jersey duo may be singing at a town hall
meeting near you soon
Keith Dunn
If Gov. Christie ever put the same amount of effort (or even half for
that matter) into getting to the bottom of his “Bridgegate” scandal as
he has into pushing the arbitration cap down the throats of law
enforcement officers and firefighters, then maybe the public would
have some answers that the one million dollar taxpayer-funded
whitewash (I meant internal investigation) could not uncover. Rumor
is that the Mastro legal team is now awaiting the approval to conduct
a study (at taxpayer’s expense AGAIN) into how the 2-percent arbitration cap will solve all the state’s financial woes, reduce property
taxes and bring world peace.
Christie’s venom against
police officers and firefighters having the
ability to collectively negotiate a fair contract
with their towns and cities culminated with
his April press conference when he stood
with elected officials and double dippers
wanting to keep the “hammer” down. It’s
nice to know that certain county executives
have become so interested in fiscal responsibility after they whack the system by retiring, collecting a pension, and returning to
work the next day at more than $220,000.
Can you say “do as I say- not as I’m doing”?
There really is NO shame in their game, but
luckily for us that individual is the PERS pension system.
This politically orchestrated distraction about the arbitration cap is all being done
of course to keep the focus off the humiliation of the legislative and federal investigations into the “so-called” traffic studies that were conducted on the George Washington Bridge and possible misuse of Sandy Relief Funds. Add to that the Dawn
Zimmer allegations, sweetheart real estate deals approved by the Port Authority Commission, failed fiscal budget management that has led to the continued downgrading
of our state’s credit rating, and let’s not forget a guy named David Wildstein, who just
can’t wait to tell his story (when given immunity), and you would be doing the town
hall “love fest” meetings circuit too.
I have to give kudos on the real estate vote debacle in which the Port Authority
Chairman (who has since resigned) actually made a retroactive recusal on a vote he
cast two years prior. I never knew such an action existed and you can only imagine
what your employer would say if you ever tried that trick. Remember, his change of
vote came only after it was uncovered that his law firm was paid 1.5 million dollars
by NJ Transit for legal advice on property in which he had a voting stake on. Most logical people would say that these things couldn’t possibly happen. We Jerseyans live this
reality show daily and unfortunately know that you can’t (or don’t even have to) make
this “stuff” up. Welcome to life in the Great Garden State. d