Top of the bills
LEGISLATIVE REPORT
A look at the legislation the State PBA is watching
as a new session begins
The start of a new State Legislative session brings
with it a whole new set of opportunities and problems. These opportunities and problems come in
the form of legislation, some new but most older
than you realize. In fact, when one legislative
session ends and a new one begins, it is routine for
legislation to be rolled over and simply given a new
bill number.
ROB NIXON
Each one of these bills also goes back to the starting gate as well no matter how far they travelled
through the process last session. So even a bill that passed unanimously but didn’t become law has to go through the entire committee process again.
In less than a month, members of the Senate and General
Assembly have reintroduced nearly 300 bills that are of interest to
the State PBA. While that number seems really high, it is not
unusual for a new session. The reality is that most of these bills are
at least two years old with some having been introduced more
than a decade ago. And only a small number of them will ever
come close to becoming law.
The NJ State PBA’s goal in Trenton at the start of the session
therefore is to get as many of our priority bills to the governor and
block all the bills that would harm the law enforcement community and PBA members.
The following is a small sample of the bills the State PBA is tracking and their status as this session gets underway:
Assembly Bill 532 (Schepisi): Limits certain unused sick leave
pay and vacation leave carry forward for school and local employees; limits sick leave use by new public employees before retirement. PBA MONITORING.
Assembly Bill 574 (Handlin): Establishes the “New Jersey Right
to Work Act;” prohibits payroll deduction of union dues from
wages or salaries of public employees. PBA OPPOSES
Assembly Bill 1115 (Oliver): Requires Attorney General to
appoint special prosecutor when criminal complaint is filed
against law enforcement officer. PBA OPPOSES
Assembly Bill 1695 (Dancer): Requires interior light of motor
vehicle be turned on when stopped by law enforcement under certain circumstances. PBA SUPPORTS
Assembly Bill 2010 (Green): Establishes professional standards
for county sheriffs and their employees. PBA OPPOSES
Assembly Bill 2126 (O’Scanlon): Prohibits law enforcement
agencies from considering number of arrests made and citations
issued when evaluating police officer's professional performance.
PBA SUPPORTS
Assembly Bill 2347 (Benson): Establishes compensation program for State and Juvenile Corrections Officers and Parole
Officers injured while performing official duties. PBA SUPPORTS
Assembly Bill 2690 (Johnson): Expands list of retired law
12
NEW JERSEY COPS
■
FEBRUARY 2016
enforcement officers eligible to carry a handgun. PBA SUPPORTS
Senate Bill 1 (Sweeney): Encourages local unit sharing of services. PBA OPPOSES
Senate Bill 86 (Bucco): Establishes Class Three special law
enforcement officers to provide security in public and nonpublic
schools. PBA SUPPORTS
Senate Bill 395 (Barnes): Establishes pilot program in Edison
Township requiring Attorney General to perform police internal
affairs functions. PBA OPPOSES
Senate Bill 401 (Barnes): Provides for Attorney General to handle investigation and prosecution of crime involving death caused
by law enforcement officer while in performance of officer's
duties; requires officer indictment by state grand jury. PBA
OPPOSES
Senate Bill 653 (Turner): Requires law enforcement officers to
wear body cameras. PBA OPPOSES
Senate Bill 788 (Sarlo): Exempts law enforcement camera and
911 recordings from state's open public records law. PBA SUPPORTS
Senate Bill 790 (Sarlo): Requires Police Training Commission to
develop accelerated training course for certain County
Corrections Officers. PBA SUPPORTS
Senate Bill 879 (Greenstein): Prohibits termination of law
enforcement officer based upon determination that officer is
physically unable to perform duty under certain circumstances.
PBA SUPPORTS
Senate Bill 1070 (Turner): Concerns private entities that own,
operate or manage correctional facilities or jails. PBA SUPPORTS
This isn’t an all-encompassing list by any means. There are at
least five bills to cap or ban sick leave payouts for example. There
is a bill to exempt law enforcement officers from jury duty that has
been reintroduced every session since 1994. There are bills on pensions, arbitration, union activity, retiree benefits, disabilities and
all forms of changes to law enforcement authority. The reality is
few will ever get a hearing.
Our goal is to single out those bills that mean the most to PBA
members and try to get them to the top of the list for
consideration, while at the same time working with legislative
leadership, committee chairs and sponsors to pull back on the
ones that are harmful to the law enforcement profession.
The State PBA is going to be active during the next few months
as some of the bills listed above, and many that aren’t yet introduced, get called for consideration in committee. Fortunately, the
depth of our relationships and our continued presence in Trenton
and in legislator offices throughout the state ensures we are
engaged and ready for whatever the State Legislature throws at the
NJ State PBA. d