As a result of a lawsuit filed against the city over an aspect of its promotional practices, the City Council will be voting on an ordinance later this month that would amend the table of organization for the police and fire departments.
A table of organization (or “T.O.”) maps out the structure of a department, listing the number of positions it should have, such as captains or lieutenants.
A lawsuit recently claimed that the Police Department lacked the proper number of employees in each position. John Coffey, director of the Bayonne Law Department, said the city did not need to fill every position listed. He said the number was an ideal to which the city could aspire provided it had a need and the financial resources.
Coffey said the city will introduce changes to the table of organization that would add the words “up to” before each number on the chart, thereby giving the city the option of whether to fill the table of organization’s optimal numbers.
The suit, according to Coffey, said that the city had promoted police “outside” the table of organization, or in other words, not in accordance to the exact numbers the T.O. claimed the city should have.
But Coffey also noted that the suit was not filed immediately after the promotions two years ago, but only recently.
The City Council is being asked to vote on the T.O. that would apply retroactively to cover the promotions two years ago.
Police Director Mark Smith said this would not change the number of police currently employed.
Councilman Anthony Chiappone asked if this meant the city’s Law Department was asking the council to endorse the promotions, and if so, would this give the council any liability in a lawsuit?
“I would not want to ratify a mistake,” Chiappone said.
“This would be correcting a mistake,” Coffey said, noting that the request was to protect the town from future lawsuits and possibly put the city in a better position in regards to the suit filed.
“A judge could say we can’t pass this retroactively, but I’m basing this on what I’ve seen in other towns,” Coffey said.
Coffey said no one is being hired or fired as a result of the ordinance. The table of organization will merely reflect the current makeup of each department.
“We always saw the table organization as the maximum number of people we could have in each position,” Coffey said. “Others might interpret it differently and claim we must have that number. This makes it clear what we meant all along.”
Although several firefighters expressed some concern about possible layoffs as a result, Coffey said no plans were in the works. “Layoffs can’t be associated with this,” he said. “Workers have certain rights this does not violate.”
Public records show that the Fire Department is already 35 people below what the T.O. calls for.
“This is not an indication of pending cuts or refusal to hire more people,” Coffey said. “We’re just taking a legal precaution.”
Before the change, it might have been possible for a firefighter or the firefighters’ union to sue to make the city hire 35 more employees.