Waiting until next year Agreement forged on fire department table of organization

An agreement forged between the city and its firefighters’ unions – made an hour before a scheduled council vote on July 13 – will put a time limit on a proposed change to the Fire Department’s table of organization

Rather than engaging in a legal dispute over the new city-backed ordinance, firefighters agreed not to challenge it, in exchange for a one-year time limit that would require the city to re-examine the policy next June.

The ordinance makes a critical change in the department’s table of organization, which is a list of how many firefighters and superiors there should be at each position. The council wants to put “up to” before each number. This is the result of a recent lawsuit that suggested that the city should always fill every position in its table of organization. With the city adding this new language, it allows the Finance Department to determine how many firefighters the city can afford at one time.

Many firefighters, however, objected to the change, because it could affect possible promotions and could result in shortages in personnel and the closing of firehouses.

City Law Director John Coffey II said the ordinance’s provision also hinges on the appeal of a lawsuit elsewhere in the state after a court ruled municipalities have the right to put such language in the table of organization ordinance.

“If the court rules on appeal that municipalities cannot do this, then we’ll have to change it,” Coffey said.

The agreement between the town and the firefighters came as a result of a last-minute agreement between representatives of the fire department’s two fire unions and Council President Vincent Lo Re Jr., city management, and council member Maria Karczewski.

Bill Urbanski, president of the Firemen’s Mutual Benevolent Association, Local 11, said later that the agreement would give the firefighters and the council an opportunity to review the changes at a later date – though he made it clear that some other firefighters did not agree with the changes.

“I don’t like the ordinance, but I’ll abide by it,” said Firefighter Donald Haiber, noting that he had gone through the loss of time and money to train for promotional tests that may not happen because of this ordinance

In the council vote, Councilman Anthony Chiappone voted against the measure, saying he opposed the change, with or without the sunset provision.

“This agreement does not change my feelings,” he said.

The ordinance has to go through one final reading and vote at the next council meeting, in August

Trash contract awarded

The City Council also voted to award the city’s $6.5 million five-year trash hauling contract to Suburban Disposal, Inc. of Livingston after a court voided the original contract to Nacirema of Bayonne.

The City Council responded to a ruling by State Superior Court Judge Arthur D’Italia, which said the bid submitted by Nacirema had included an invalid insurance document.

Suburban, which had the contract with the city, sued to stop Nacirema from getting the contract, despite Nacirema’s lower bid.

Chiappone asked if the city intended to sue to regain legal expenses incurred by its involvement in the lawsuit. Assistant City Attorney Peter Cresci said all the work was done in-house, and while this may have taken hours away from other work, no additional cost was incurred.

Cresci reported that the insurance document submitted with the bid was not valid, and that the legal process had uncovered this fact. But he also said that the city would have caught onto the fact as it progressed in awarding the bid

The Suburban bid was about $60,000 more than Nacirema’s, or about $12,000 a year for trash collection.

Suburban also has the city’s contract for picking up recycling materials.

Other business

The city will pick up the salary of a Parking Authority employee and will take over maintenance of city lots, according to a resolution passed by the City council.

The city will plow and perform other functions to the 12 municipal parking lots, freeing up Parking Authority people to concentrate on collecting fees or fines. The employee, whose salary is $31,000 a year, will become a member of the Department of Public Works and will be among those assigned maintain the parking lots.

The council also agreed to pay an additional $274,000 for paving of streets, bringing the total cost of the contract to $650,473. Because the change order exceeds 20 percent of the original contract, the matter will have to be reviewed by the state.

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