The President’s Message
Thank you, Governor Christie!
NEW JERSEY STATE
POLICEMEN’S BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PATRICK COLLIGAN
State President
MARC KOVAR
Executive Vice-President
Mark Butler 1st Vice-President
Peter Andreyev 2nd Vice-President
Jerry Tolomeo 3rd Vice-President
Andy Haase 4th Vice-President
Henry Werner 5th Vice-President
Kenneth Burkert 6th Vice-President
Michael Pellegrino 7th Vice-President
Domenic Cappella 8th Vice-President
Mark Aurigemma 9th Vice-President
Manuel Corte 10th Vice-President
Mark Messinger 11th Vice-President
Eugene Dello 12th Vice-President
Michael Kaniuk Financial Secretary
George Miller Recording Secretary
John Monsees Treasurer
James Crilly Trustee
Keith Bennett Trustee
Richard Kott Trustee
Richard Brown Trustee
Bruce Chester Trustee
Margaret Hammond Trustee
Frederick Ludd Trustee
Luke Sciallo Sergeant-at-Arms
Frank Cipully Sergeant-at-Arms
John Cernek Sergeant-at-Arms
Kevin Hibbitt Sergeant-at-Arms
Ed Carattini Jr. Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Freeman Sergeant-at-Arms
Bryan Flannia Sergeant-at-Arms
Robert Ormezzano Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Biamonte Sergeant-at-Arms
Terrance Benson Sergeant-at-Arms
4
NEW JERSEY COPS
■
JUNE 2015
I’m not sure how I let this go for so long. I am long overdue in offering
a sincere and heartfelt “thank you” to the Governor for all he has unwittingly done for the PBA and our membership. He has helped us in ways
we could have never dreamed of doing on our own, and for that I am
eternally grateful.
As I write this, yesterday was the Primary Election here in New Jersey
and the polls have long been closed. At 11 a.m. yesterday morning,
Patrick
thanks to Governor Christie, we had close to 100 of our members here
Colligan
and already at polling locations ready to work in three different districts.
We had so much help here at our phone bank they had to bring in more
phones. I think they underestimated us. I apologize if you had difficulty calling in on
June 2 because we resorted to using every open hard line, too. Delegates, Presidents,
rank-and-file, a spouse or two and a very healthy contingent of our Local 600 members
hit the phones until just after 7 p.m. I hope that I thanked each and every one of you
that was here. For those that headed directly to polling locations, THANK YOU!
The results from our efforts? We batted a thousand yesterday and landed onto the
political playing field with a very loud thump. I can’t lie, I was a little nervous on my
way into the office, but as usual the men and women of the State PBA did not disappoint.
“If you think you are leading and turn around to see
no one following, then you are just taking a walk.”
– Benjamin Hooks, retired director of the NAACP
So thank you, Mr. Christie. We couldn’t have done any of that without you! Since
2010, you have taught us so much. We’ve learned that your “sacred trust” letter serves
a better purpose at the bottom of a bird cage than any scant representation of your
word. You taught us that $5.5 billion in corporate welfare and tax breaks ranks higher
on your list than our retirement or COLA, and you taught us that your Wall Street
friends certainly deserve that $1.5 billion in fees more than our families that have sacrificed so much. Thank you for the $7.7 million dollar Bridgegate “investigation” you
were nice enough to give us 344 more pages to line our bird cages with. We were almost
out of those yellowed “sacred trust” letters that have been hanging in briefing rooms
throughout the state for years now.
You have given us our first PAC in the history of the PBA. You have compelled 100
percent of our membership to register to vote. You helped us set records at our Collective Bargaining Seminar and absolutely shattered attendance records at our Mini-Convention. You have engaged our membership like never before. Even our recruitment is
up. Governor, if you told me a few short years ago that our own members would be
standing around this PBA office waiting patiently to make a few thousand phone calls
into the night or set up at polling locations throughout this state, you could have sold
me a huge bridge with one-lane access. But no sir. You did it! When you head to New
Hampshire, Iowa and spots around this great country of ours blowing the rest of next
year’s pension obligations and squeezing the juice out of the orange, you let all those
nice folks know you didn’t have many successes in New Jersey but, goshdarnit, you sure
woke up those 33,000 PBA Members!
On behalf of our entire membership, THANK YOU, GOVERNOR! We’ve reached
astounding new heights and none of it has been possible without you. d