Local 246 lost Officer Scott R. Thompson, who died suddenly April
10, while working out at the police department gym.
“I was running the detail at the funeral that day, and I turned
around and saw Pat and Mark,” Cronk said. “They made it down
here just for that. That meant so much to me for them to be there
just for a few hours.”
Members get the message and get involved
Communication became the mechanism that gave every action
an affirmative reaction. With the help of a public relations firm the
PBA retained, Colligan and Kovar have been able to spread the viewpoint of law enforcement throughout statewide media.
Colligan showed members of the press he is a great interview,
which enabled the PBA to get its comments out when any major
issues arose. Kovar showed his unique penchant for delivering the
message, which members said they often picked up in the pages of
the PBA’s official magazine.
“We wanted to make sure members would never wonder about
how we are feeling about something,” Colligan said.
And they have gotten through loud and clear.
And this from Settle: “You see when Pat spoke about how the primary election and what it did just being a part of it for that one day
made a difference. If that’s what we need to do to make positive
changes throughout the state, then I think everybody should get on
board and get behind Pat and Marc.”
Their own way of getting the job done
Some of the successes, like PBA Day in Trenton, the initiation of
the PAC fund and the best-ever Collective Bargaining Seminar and
Mini-Convention, were planned. But a lot of it wasn’t drawn up on
a chalk board.
“We didn’t always sit down and say we have to do this,” Colligan
imparted. “It was more our personalities.”
Colligan contends that what members like about Kovar is his
prowess as a negotiator and his straight-ahead demeanor that
warns, “Sorry if you don’t like the answer, but that’s the answer.”
Kovar says that what resonates about Colligan comes from being
quick on his feet and propensity to, “come up with the right idea that
gets members behind him and going in the right direction.”
“As far as leadership is concerned, being an advocate for change
is as powerful as anything Pat and Marc have done,” stated Joe Biamonte, State Delegate for Wood-Ridge Local 313. “I can’t remember
the last time we actually introduced the Speaker at a meeting.”
Lakewood Local 71 State Delegate Steve Kelusak reasons that
members getting behind Colligan and Kovar has a lot to do with
their age. “When you see Pat and Marc, they seem like your older
brothers,” Kelusak said. “You can really make a connection with
those guys.”
Added Burgess: “They have taken a pro-active, aggressive
approach to rebuilding relationships that were gone for reasons
probably beyond our control. I think it was a new look, a fresh look
on things and a different way of doing things we needed.”
Members added that they believe both Colligan and Kovar are
great listeners who take it all in, formulate and answer, and whether
you agree or not, they present an opinion they know is not the beall, end-all.
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JULY 2015