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Court deals Christie Administration a The Appellate Division recently dealt the Christie administration another blow to its efforts to undermine members’ pension rights. The court put the brakes on an attempt by the acting director of the Division of Pensions & Benefits to undercut the authority of the PFRS Board of Trustees. In a decision that we litigated on behalf of Woodbridge Local 38 and SOA, Harrison Local 22 and SOA and Ramsey Local 155 and the NJ State PBA, the court held that the acting director did not have the authority to refuse to implement a decision by the PFRS Board of Trustees. A number of other PBAs and municipalities took part in this consolidated appeal. The issue in the appeal was whether certain longevity and senior officer pay provisions of agreements constituted creditable, or pensionable, compensation under New Jersey’s pension laws. The issues involved in this appeal have been pending for some time. We have discussed them at Board of Delegates meetings, at the Collective Bargaining Seminars and at the Mini-Convention. In each of the cases before the Appellate Division, the provisions at issue involved senior officer pay clauses which become effective after an officer had more than 20 years of service. They also involved longevity clauses which did not follow a consistent progression with the same percentage increases at regular intervals during an officer’s career. Instead, each of the longevity provisions at issue included some type of increase late in an officer’s career, either an extra increase in the percentages or a shortening of the eligibility years. By way of example, in Woodbridge, the senior officer pay differential of 5.5 percent was available to officers who completed 22 years of service. In the longevity benefit in Woodbridge, the guide provided for 2.5-percent increases at the start of the 5th, 11th, 15th and 21st year of service, then, there was another 2.5-percent increase at the start of the 23rd year of service. The last increase came two years after the previous one. The Division of Pensions & Benefits staff initially concluded that these provisions, and similar provisions for PBAs in other municipalities, were not creditable compensation because they were increases in anticipation of an officer’s retirement. We appealed these determinations on behalf of the PBAs we represented. The PFRS Board of Trustees disagreed with the Division staff and concluded that these provisions did constitute creditable salary. That should have been the end of the case. However, after the Board of Trustees issued its decisions in each of the cases, the Acting Director of the Division of Pensions & Benefits notified the PBAs that she would not implement the Board of Trustees’ decisions in each case because she believed they were contrary to law. Although we won before the Board of Trustees, we were in the unusual position of having to appeal to the Appellate Division. In effect, we appealed a decision which we won. However, we had no choice because the acting director refused to enforce the PFRS Board’s decisions. Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman Representing the New Jersey State PBA, local PBAs, and law enforcement officers for more than 40 years: Contract negotiations and interest arbitration; Contract grievances and grievance arbitration; All disciplinary appeals and unfair practice charges; Discrimination and whistleblower cases; Disability pension appeals; All aspects of State and Federal litigation; State PBA Legal Protection Plan; Practice before PERC, Civil Service Commission, PFRS and other State agencies. 10 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MAY 2015 www.zazzali-law.com [email protected] Newark One Riverfront Plaza Suite 320 1037 Raymond Boulevard Newark , NJ 07102 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Trenton 150 West State Street 3rd Floor Trenton, NJ 08608 Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]