Parsippany’s attempt in the
1990s to have a public safety director oversee the police department was a
debacle, with a judge calling it a blatant tactic to rein in and humiliate the
police chief.
The Dover mayor and board of
aldermen now are weighing an ordinance that would have a civilian public safety
director oversee the police, fire department and office of emergency management
in the 2.7-square-mile town.
The overt hostility and
suspicion that existed in the 1990s between Parsippany’s then-mayor Frank
Priore and then-police chief Michael Filippello is not present in the
relationship between Dover Mayor James P. Dodd and Police Chief Harold “Butch”
Valentine.
But Parsippany’s experience
could serve as a cautionary tale — and the president of the New Jersey State
Association of Chiefs of Police, South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond J.
Hayducka, said a close eye would be kept on the power a public safety director
wields in Dover if the ordinance passes.
Mount Olive Police Chief Mark
Spitzer, president of the Morris County Police Chiefs Association, noted that
civilian safety directors are severely restricted, with no police powers, no
access to confidential police reports and barred from using police terminals to
access criminal history information.
“They are an unnecessary layer
of government and especially in a time where budgets are stretched so thin and
2 percent cap laws are shrinking police agencies, it is important that we have
as many boots on the ground out there as possible. Police chiefs are police
officers, and public safety directors are not. With a police chief, you get an
administrator and a police officer, when needed,” Spitzer said.
The New Jersey State League of
Municipalities, however, fully supports the right of a municipal governing body
to hire a civilian police or public safety director to act as a department
manager, said league Executive Director William G. Dressel Jr.
Of the state’s approximately
400 municipal police departments, only about 18, including Hoboken,
Springfield, Elizabeth and Newark, have public safety directors.
Besides Parsippany in Morris
County, Netcong had a civilian police director between 1999 and 2009 — retired
State Police Master Sgt. Robert Weisert — and no police chief. After Weisert
retired, the Netcong Council named James Blesson police chief in January 2010.
The ordinance to create a
public safety director in Dover was introduced Tuesday by a 7-2 vote at the
board of aldermen meeting; a public hearing and possible adoption are scheduled
for July 24.
Dodd stated at the meeting,
and again in an interview last week, that the goal is to enhance all emergency
services in Dover and not to undermine the authority of the chief or anyone on
the police force of 30 officers.
Dodd also squelched speculation
in the community that Alderman James Visioli, who serves on the personnel
committee that proposed the safety director ordinance, is in line for the job.
Dodd said that interviews have been under way with retired State Police
troopers and other former law enforcement workers and their salary demands have
ranged between $90,000 and $140,000.
“I can assure you the director
will not be Mr. Visioli,” Dodd said. “This is not a case of a politician
looking to get his cronies a job. I’m taking an opportunity to enhance safety
in our community. I can assure residents this is not political.”
Dodd said the timing is
optimal to hire a safety director. The recent retirements of two police
captains, a police lieutenant and a fire department captain — whose salaries
totaled about $485,000 — present an opportunity to bring in a director who will
“take the administrative workload off the current department heads,” Dodd said.
The proposed ordinance mostly
pertains to the police department because the fire department has just four
paid firefighters and a large volunteer unit that includes a volunteer fire
chief.
Under the proposed chain of
command in Dover, the police chief would answer directly to the public safety
director, who would be accountable to the town administrator. The captain
positions and one lieutenant position would be eliminated.
At the ordinance introduction,
a half dozen residents criticized the concept or asked the aldermen to
reconsider the plan. Alderman Michael Picciallo quietly voted against introduction
while Alderman Dominic Timpani more vehemently opposed it and later called the
proposal “a complete waste of money” and a ploy to push Valentine, the chief
for the past 12 years, into retirement.
Valentine is eligible to
retire but said he has no plans to do so. Valentine said more police officers
on the street are needed instead of an administrator.
“We have all intentions of
hiring additional police officers this year,” Dodd said. But he noted that the
number of new hires also will depend on what salary step increases are
negotiated during current contract talks with the police union.
Dover’s police department
between 1998 and 1999 had court-ordered oversight that many officers welcomed.
Valentine and other officers sued the town and a now-deceased former police
chief, alleging mismanagement. As part of the remedy, a Superior Court judge
directed a member of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to manage the
department until it was back on track. Valentine was named police chief 12
years ago.
The experiment of a public
safety director/police director in Parsippany illustrated how the position
could be misused. In April 1993 an ordinance was enacted that appointed a
retired police captain as police director. The director, James P. Bock, started
interfering with day-to-day operations, demanded that the chief, Filippello,
wear a uniform, and tried to deploy officers to certain assignments and
vehicles.
The chief sued, and the Morris
County Prosecutor’s Office, under the administration of W. Michael Murphy,
entered the fray out of concern that the director was overstepping his
authority.
The lawsuit became moot when
Bock abruptly resigned and Priore was removed from office after being convicted
on federal corruption charges. But the county’s then-Assignment Judge, Reginald
Stanton, already had conducted hearings and opined that the director ordinance
was a blatant tactic “to rein in and embarrass the chief and bring him to
heel.” The police director ordinance in Parsippany was abolished in 1994.