The President’s Message
Rememb
ering Bobby
Smith
Hey chiefs,
we are
and matters related to PFRS
NEW JERSEY STATE
POLICEMEN’S BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PATRICK COLLIGAN
State President
MARC KOVAR
Executive Vice-President
Peter Andreyev 1st Vice-President
Henry Werner 2nd Vice-President
Michael Pellegrino 3rd Vice-President
Mark Aurigemma 4th Vice-President
Eugene Dello 5th Vice-President
Keith Bennett 6th Vice-President
Richard Kott 7th Vice-President
Frederick Ludd, Sr. 8th Vice-President
Luke Sciallo 9th Vice-President
Frank P. Cipully 10th Vice-President
John Cernek 11th Vice-President
Ed Carattini, Jr. 12th Vice-President
Michael Kaniuk Financial Secretary
Margaret Hammond Recording Secretary
John Monsees Treasurer
Michael Freeman Trustee
Bryan Flammia Trustee
Robert Ormezzano Trustee
Terrance Benson, Sr. Trustee
Rodney Furby Trustee
Charles Schwartz Trustee
Patrick Moran Trustee
Joseph A. Macones Sergeant-at-Arms
Sean Plasket Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Tardio Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Heller Sergeant-at-Arms
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
Kelly Polack Sergeant-at-Arms
Glenn Pagano Sergeant-at-Arms
4
NEW
NEW JERSEY
JERSEY COPS
COPS
■ MARCH
2017
OCTOBER
2016
■
all on the same side!
On Sept. 16, those of us who were at the PBA Convention in Phoenix had the
extraordinary honor of hearing Louisiana State Trooper Bobby Smith tell the
story
of his incredible,
and Mini-Convention
truly unbelievable,
journey
through
life. The
His num-
story
Another
NJ State PBA
is in
the record
books.
had
be a the
profound
and
lasting for
impact
on venue
many of
our
bers what
don’t I know
lie; we will
moved
meeting
to Bally’s
a larger
and
set lives
the
that
day.
room
for 928 people. It was soon obvious we needed more seats. That isn’t a
bad
to woke
have when
seems news
to be declining
interest
in
On problem
Oct. 2, we
up to there
the surreal
that Bobby
Smith nationally
had passed
unions.
Our numbers
gone
up begin
every to
single
year, and
proud
of it.
Patrick
away
through
the night. have
I can’t
even
adequately
tell we
his are
story
on these
We ended
up weren’t
with more
than
1,000 members
the to
first
two about
days! his inspiring
Colligan
pages.
If you
at the
convention
and want
learn
Unfortunately,
some
of visit
you who
are duly elected representatives
have to
story
please
see
page
52
or
www.visionsofcourage.com.
We lost another
Patrick
jump
through
hoops
to even
get
to taught
the convention
in
the first people
place. since
Like
true
hero
on
Oct.
2,
a
blind
man
who
more
than
1
million
Colligan
1986 how to see. many things in this business, it boggles my mind. We wrote the Convention
Leave Act and successfully got it passed. Unfortunately, we haven’t been as
If you follow New Jersey politics, even a little bit, you witnessed one hell of a ride in the first
successful in passing the Common Sense Act, and I could be back at my police department
days of October. If you weren’t happy with the political landscape at any one moment in those
handling cases (my Franklin Township Local 154 members laughed), and the State PBA office
days, you only had to wait about 15 minutes for the score to change. The score changed often.
would be yet another CVS or Walgreens on a corner in Woodbridge.
It forced us, for many reasons, to endorse a gubernatorial candidate much quicker than we
What I’ve discovered during my time here is that the agencies that make the union repre-
had
anticipated. I will explain the landscape and how quickly it moved at our Oct. 18 state
sentatives jump through those hoops usually have problems with morale and working condi-
meeting.
also
have
the great
honor
of introducing
our endorsed
candidate,
Ambassador
tions, and We
legal
bills
to match.
Does
anybody
see the correlation
besides
me? I am
well aware
Phil
Murphy,
at
that
meeting.
that we are living in a time of Russian hacking, but these administrations need to know that
in the
pages
of this
issue you
will
hear
more
about
the plan to split
PFRS
we Later
do much
more
at our
meetings
than
talk
about
their
administrations.
In fact,
we from
do a the
lot
state
as
a
stand-alone
system
run
as
a
public
labor
management
plan.
I
will
say
that
more for their welfare and working conditions than any other organization in the state. after
Our
almost two years
of research,
I haven’t
found
one we
single
reason everybody
not to do it, to but
many
reasons
conventions
are open
to all PBA
members
and
encourage
join
us. They
are
to
do
it.
informative, often inspirational and full of important and pertinent knowledge that is im-
portant
to ALL
members.
The on
super
secret systems.
meetings
we contract
discuss with
administrations,
The plan
will our
have
zero impact
the other
We where
will still
the Division
chiefs
of
police
and
public
safety
directors
will
remain
Top
Secret
and
will
remain
to cut checks and administer parts of the plan so nobody gets laid off. Standing restricted.
alone, our
If will
you be attended
the top 150 pension plans in the country, and we will still be able to
plan
ranked in the
Mini-Convention,
you
purchase investments at
the best possible rates.
heard
from
the
very
pas-
The NJ State pension investments lost almost 1 percent this past year. When compared
sionate President of the
nationally, you should know that took a lot of work. Quite simply that should not have hap-
NYC PBA P