NEW JERSEY STATE
POLICEMEN’S BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PATRICK COLLIGAN
State President
MARC KOVAR
Executive Vice President
Peter Andreyev 1st Vice President
Michael Pellegrino 2nd Vice President
Mark Aurigemma 3rd Vice President
Eugene Dello 4th Vice President
Richard Kott 5th Vice President
Frederick Ludd 6th Vice President
Luke Sciallo 7th Vice President
Frank P. Cipully 8th Vice President
Ed Carattini, Jr. 9th Vice President
Michael Freeman 10th Vice President
Bryan Flammia 11th Vice President
Robert Ormezzano 12th Vice President
Michael Kaniuk Financial Secretary
Margaret Hammond Recording Secretary
John Monsees Treasurer
Terrance Benson, Sr. Trustee
Rodney Furby Trustee
Charles Schwartz Trustee
Patrick Moran Trustee
Joseph Macones Trustee
Michael Tardio Trustee
Michael Heller Trustee
Keith Curry Sergeant-at-Arms
Christopher Ricciotti Sergeant-at-Arms
John Granahan Sergeant-at-Arms
Andrew Pacucci Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Nigro Sergeant-at-Arms
Mark Piercy Sergeant-at-Arms
Christopher Ebert Sergeant-at-Arms
Brian Brownlie Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Palmentieri Sergeant-at-Arms
Stephen Warren Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Sles Sergeant-at-Arms
4
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ NOVEMBER 2018
Attention, Retirees!
John Glenn was a fighter pilot, prolific test pilot and astronaut, and he
was incredibly successful at all three. John Glenn isn’t around anymore to
ask, but I can’t imagine for one second that John Glenn ever wanted to fail
at any of those missions. In his case, failure would have been deadly.
Imagine being strapped to the top of Friendship 7 in 1962, waiting to be
the first American in orbit in a very young and extremely ambitious space
Patrick
program that aimed to ultimately put a man on the moon. Now, again, I am
Colligan certain that John Glenn wanted to complete a successful mission and land
safely. He did land safely, and we know what an incredibly important step
that was leading up to Neil Armstrong becoming the first man on the moon just seven
years later.
Thinking of other failure-is-not-an-option objectives, I don’t think a NASCAR driver
ever strapped himself or herself into a race car and planned to lose a race. And I sure hope
an engineer doesn’t design a building to collapse shortly after it is built.
On Dec. 5, ballots will be mailed out to retired PFRS members, who will have the choice
to vote for one of two retired law enforcement officers to be your representative on the
new PFRS board. Voting will close on Jan. 7.
One of those candidates has been vigorously opposed to this new pension system since
the very conception of the plan. In fact, I’m not sure there was any one person who lob-
bied against it any more than he did. His efforts included countless emails, speeches,
phone calls, pleas, meetings and even attempts to lobby the legislature – all in an attempt
to either stop, or somehow derail, the bill to establish our independent governance of
PFRS. At every turn, he was criticizing its concept, right up to the signing of the bill on
July 3.
Yes, it might be a stretch to compare our pension governance to the U.S. space program
and an American hero, NASCAR races and a building engineer. But I hope you get my
point by now. This new board will launch on Feb. 1, 2019, and it will be handed full con-
trol on July 4, 2019. We need a pilot who wants to fly a successful mission and land safely.
A successful mission will lay the foundation for the funding of the system and a healthy
PFRS that will withstand the enormous political pressures on defined benefit plans and
those who would like nothing more than for this new system to fail.
I have known Bruce Polkowitz for many years now. He will be the second of four candi-
dates on the PFRS ballot. You will get to know him, too, in this issue (see story beginning
on page 32).
Bruce knows how to navigate politics. He knows how to run a successful business. He
knows how to negotiate. He knows how to be fiscally responsible. He has a long history of
protecting PBA members and, most importantly, like all of us, he depends on his pension.
He was excited about this concept since its inception. He realizes the commitment and
how much important work will have to be done in a very short amount of time.
Watch your mailboxes beginning on Dec. 5. Vote for a successful mission, and vote for
someone who shares our vision of a new PFRS system that needs to be around forever.