Meet the new State Delegates
Marc Kovar Executive Vice-President
All in a day’ s work
February 7 turned out to be one of those days that makes serving the NJ State PBA so rewarding, so worthwhile.
At 8 a. m., we were outside the ballroom at Harrah’ s in Atlantic City where the 2017 PBA Collective Bargaining Seminar was about to begin, having coffee with hundreds of members dedicated to gathering as much information as possible to successfully negotiate their contracts and create better working conditions for their Locals.
Later that morning, State President Pat Colligan and I had the opportunity to represent the PBA at the NJFMBA convention and further our efforts to create an independently run pension system.
After spending the rest of the day at the Collective Bargaining Seminar, Pat and I drove an hour south to a meeting with approximately 200 members from Local 59 in Cape May County, where they had not experienced a visit from PBA Leadership since Frank Genesi was president in the mid-1990s.
Driving home to complete what would be an 18-hour day gave me time to think about the one or two members in Cape May who waited for more than an hour after their meeting to shake hands and ask a question or two. The day reaffirmed how we have to go the distance so members can ask the questions and we can answer them.
We have been honored and proud to work the 18-hour days because so many of them transpire like the meeting in Cape May. Pat had the opportunity to give more members the details about the pension plan, and we were able to reinforce the impact of our political action and how it can make a difference.
Telling members about how their support and contributions to our Political Action Committee Fund can lead to PBA-preferred candidates being elected is so important, especially this year when every assembly and senate seat is up for election.
Lots of days you start at 7 a. m. and go until late at night for the opportunity to enjoy a moment like this in Cape May that might have longer-lasting impact than anything we said about the pension or the PAC. We had the chance to see five of their new members sworn in. Maybe 10 or 15 years from now, when they have experienced many of the benefits the PBA offers, one of these members might become State Delegate. I will have retired and see him at a convention. He will tell me I was at his swearing in, and maybe that’ s the greatest benefit of visiting a Local. That’ s another way we can reinforce the message that it’ s your PBA and it’ s successful because of the members.
So we will continue to go to the meetings because, you never know when a Chosen Freeholder who was a former Local 59 member might show up to say hello, as E. Marie Hayes, who eventually became captain of detectives in the Cape May County Prosecutor’ s Office, did on this night. Meeting Marie and seeing the new members would have been the biggest thrills of the night until Frank Casey introduced himself to Pat and me.
As a young officer and newly active member in the PBA, I had heard the name,“ Frank Casey,” often and always with reverence. He was a renowned Ridgewood Local 20 State Delegate and State PBA Executive Board member. I had heard about how much he had done for the union, and, here he is, retired and living in Cape May County, in his late 70s or early 80s, giving his time to advise members of Local 59.
I’ m sure Frank put in his share of 18-hour days for the PBA, and I know I will continue to do so if we can get the chance to meet as many Locals as we can get to and perpetuate what makes serving the PBA so rewarding.
As always, I ask you all to be safe and make sure you go home at the end of your tour each day. I would also like to extend thanks to two of our members who serve the PBA tirelessly: Congrats to Labor Consultant George O’ Brien and Collective Bargaining Committee Chair John Cernek, as well as the entire PBA Collective Bargaining Committee, for putting together another record-breaking seminar. And I ask that all of you send your thoughts and prayers out to the family of Delaware State Corrections Lieutenant Steven Floyd, who was killed in the line of duty on Feb. 2. d
Meet the new State Delegates
The following State Delegates were sworn in on Feb. 7 at the NJ State PBA meeting held at Harrah’ s Resort in Atlantic City.
• Jason Luis, Elizabeth Local 4
• Patrick A. Elwood, Ridgewood Local 20
• Nicholas R. LaLena, Burlington County Local 37
• Robert Hartman Jr., Wildwood Local 59
• Chris Rinaldi, Secaucus Local 84
• John A. Hanrahan, North Brunswick Local 160
• Stephen J. Gallo, Spotswood Local 225
• Daniel J. Hargrave, Northern Valley Local 233
• David Ebert, Tinton Falls Local 251
• Robert Mader, Bergenfield Local 309
• Mark Torsiello, Wood-Ridge Local 313
• Patrick Miller, Plainsboro Township Local 319
• Erik Haefner, Milltown Local 338 www. njcopsmagazine. com ■ FEBRUARY 2017 7