Dear Editor:
Thank you for continuing to update our community about the situation within the UC Police Department. When I first saw the interview 12NJ did with the UC Chief Everett I was quite taken aback by his curt and arrogant responses to the reporter, very unprofessional. Mayor Stack handled the matter in a proper manner and I do hope the investigation he is now conducting through an outside law firm will result in some changes in how a Chief of Police can hold a second job – period – and on top of it – not showing up for it to do the work! Maybe what has to be changed is the requirement that any outside employment goes according to tenure. If not this way, then how? Who makes the determination of who gets what extra jobs?
Any executive that has a salary of $248,000 a year should be available for his/her job 24/7 and not allowed to have other paid positions, let alone within the same employer (in this case Board of Education/City Hall of UC).
Further questions that arise here
(1) Is there indeed a need to have a security officer at the midtown athletic field? That property is very well secured by its fences (except the one from the Monastery parking lot) and there is little to steal. It can be easily included by the UC police during their regular patrol of the area.
(2) If there is indeed such a need then why would this security person be paid $60.00 per hour? Surely there are less expensive options.
(3) A person making $248,000.00 a year certainly is not in dire need of such extra income. The Chief of Police is supposed to take care of his officers and patrol persons, and I am sure there are some on his staff who would welcome such additional income. Or better yet, why not give this job to one of the many unemployed individuals with the proper credentials? That would at least help out one person or maybe even more in these depressed times and they would gladly do it for less than $60.00 an hour.
May I hope that City Hall officials take this as a wake-up call and do a proper audit of their expenses, not only how much each position pays (compare positions to similar ones in other towns and cities; $248,000 is quite a high salary for a Chief of Police in a town with less than 100,000 people), but also whether positions can indeed be eliminated (there is little need for extra security at the midtown athletic field).
As I walk around the Jose Marti School over the summer, I see that not only are the hallway lights on all night long, but also the lights in the office, the auditorium and all the class rooms. What a waste of energy and certain a lot of money for PSE&G. These are thoughts for a start.
Anonymous