Charges and countercharges flew last week as two of the most powerful organizations in town – PSE&G and the police department – were locked in a struggle over how to compensate the off-duty police officers who direct traffic at the power company’s local work sites.
After more than a week, PSE&G officials backed down from their stance of finger pointing at the cops, blaming a “problem with a sub-contractor” for the dispute.
The struggle over a relatively minor issue spilled out into the public arena last week after PSE&G officials fanned out across town to warn businesses that the police were preventing them from performing site work in Hoboken. To anybody who would listen, they explained that contrary to a payment plan negotiated with the city earlier, the police were demanding payment for flagman services up front even though they had been paid within two weeks of services rendered through a private security firm for years.
“They are shutting us down even though we have an agreement in place,” complained Paul Rosengren, a spokesperson for PSE&G, at the time.
Police Chief Carmen LaBruno said Monday that Rosengren and his company were out of line.
“He is a liar,” he said. “I challenge him or anybody from PSE&G to sue me and prove me wrong.”
LaBruno then said that he was taking action because the utility company, which services more than two million customers in New Jersey, owed $58,000 in back pay to off-duty officers for flagmen services dating as far back as November.
In a calm voice, the police chief explained that he had threatened to have the chief financial officer of the utility arrested if the bill was not paid – but he said he never stopped the company from doing any work in the city.
LaBruno explained that according to city ordinances, the company could hire a state certified flagman to control the flow of traffic at its work sites. “They are under no obligation to hire off-duty police officers,” he said.
But if they choose to use the officers as flagmen, LaBruno says that the company will have to pay the officers up front, just like other companies who perform work in town.
Business Administrator George Crimmins confirmed Monday afternoon that it is standard operating procedure for a company to establish an escrow account that can be drawn on as the officers perform their flagmen duties.
Apparently LaBruno’s message is getting through. He said that on July 20 and July 21 an employee from the security company that PSE&G subcontracts with showed up in his office bearing checks made out to the department for $25,000 and $10,000 respectively.
More conciliatory
This week, PSE&G officials are taking a much more conciliatory tone when talking about the dispute.
“We found that there was a problem with one of our subcontractors,” explained Richard Dwyer, a spokesman for the company, Tuesday, although he declined to elaborate further on the nature of the problem. “We found that all of [PSE&G’s] payments [to the subcontractor] were up to date.”
When asked what the utility company was going to do to address the problem, Dwyer said, “we plan to call all of our subcontractors together and make sure that they understand that so long as they are out there, they represent PSE&G and we expect them to act accordingly.”
LaBruno said that there should be no more problems so long as PSE&G paid off the outstanding balance owed to the officers and established the escrow accounts like other companies who use the off-duty officers at their work sites.
Dwyer seemed to hope that LaBruno might be a bit more flexible.
“We are still in negotiations about this,” he explained, adding that he hoped that they would be able to continue to use off-duty officers to perform the flagmen duties.
“Maintaining positive relationships with all levels of city government is important to us,” Dwyer said. “We have been here for a hundred years and we plan to be here for a hundred more.”
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