Police officers filled the council meeting.
A Pleasantville City Council meeting revealed a major breakdown in communication between public safety and city leadership Monday night.
Police officers lined the meeting room as Mainland PBA Local 77 came out in support of what the union alleges is a change in how public safety has been treated under the new council leadership.
The issues include allegations of failure to follow contractual stipends for detectives and SWAT members and failure to promote four officers already doing — and being paid for — the higher-ranking positions, including acting Police Chief Stacey Schlachter.
They also have stopped paying retiree health benefits for an officer’s widow that the labor attorney said have been required under the contract since 2001.
“We’re here because we want to know what happened,” attorney Christopher Gray said as he addressed council. “What was the breakdown in communication between the bargaining unit, the council and the mayor?”
The Public Safety Committee also now has meetings where neither the chief of police nor the fire chief are allowed.
“So you have public safety meetings without actually engaging with public safety,” Gray said.
But chiefs are not the only ones excluded from conversations, City Council President Carla Thomas said.
Mayor Judy Ward's discussions on the issue have not included the council president, Thomas said.
“The communication between council and the mayor isn’t there,” she said after public comment. “So this is why we are here today.”
Thomas said it would help if the mayor let her in on why certain costs may be necessary, and then she could bring that information back to the full council.
Instead, Thomas said she had a bill list in front of her, and asked questions, including maintenance for vehicles that were being taken home.
“Everyone knows what our budget looks like,” she said. “Everyone knows we’re crunching for dollars.”
City Council President Carla Thomas addresses the attorney. Thomas indicated that the promotions did not happen because they need to go through a process that has not been followed in the past.
There also are questions on necessary manpower.
The city already has a study from Stockton University on the issue, but is awaiting a second study from the state Department of Community Affairs. That is expected Dec. 1, Thomas said.
She promised that going forward that communication would be open.
“We’re not saying that we’re saying yes,” Thomas said. “We’re not saying that we’re saying no. Whoever we need to talk to, we’re going to talk to. But the disrespect stops tonight.”
The mayor said that any conversation needs to include public safety, with both chiefs at the table.
Thomas then said the mayor knew why public safety leaders were being kept out of the committee meetings. When Ward questioned it again, Thomas said she would address it with the mayor privately.
After the meeting, Ward told BreakingAC that she could not say why public safety was not welcomed at the table, but confirmed that is the case.
Councilman Charles Oglesby, who heads the Public Safety Committee, was one of the only councilmembers not to comment on the issue during the meeting.
Charles Oglesby heads the Public Safety Committee. Oglesby once was a Pleasantville police officer himself.
He was suspended from his job in 2008, after he was indicted for official misconduct on allegations that he stole from a suspect during an investigation and then falsified reports to cover it up.
Oglesby never admitted wrongdoing, but agreed to give up his job under a plea deal in 2010.
The meeting included a battle over time given to discuss the issue.
Gray, the PBA’s attorney, tried to continue beyond his three minutes, noting that several of the officers in attendance signed up for public comment just to defer their three minutes to him.
When Thomas insisted Gray’s time was up, he continued speaking.
“Acting chief?” Thomas said to Schlachter in trying to get Gray to give up the mic.
“He has a right to be here,” Schlachter responded.
“I know he has a right to be here, but you have a job to do while you’re here,” Thomas said.
“I’m here attending the meeting,” replied the acting chief.
Thomas then asked Ward about the officer assigned to the meeting.
An officer next to Schlachter then said he was assigned, but made no move to try to assist with Gray.
“We’re well aware of what we can do with public comment,” Schlachter said. “We have a policy in place.”
Thomas then called the next speaker on the list, an officer who said he signed up only to defer his three minutes to Gray.
“We don’t defer,” Thomas told him.
City attorney Edward Hill backed this up after more discussion.
Thomas eventually allowed Gray three more minutes, saying she would now have to allow the extra time for all speakers.
At one point, Councilwoman Joanne Famularo came off the dais in an attempt to help, saying she would read Gray’s remaining speech into the record.
“What you they going to do, fire me?” she asked council. “Take my $12,000 away?”
“We always had a great relationship, but it disappeared,” Gray told the council of the union and city
Famularo later questioned his sincerity in fixing the broken relationship after Gray’s later comment, which bothered several councilmembers.
“We don’t want to come here,” he said. “We don’t want to start bringing out the things that we know about all of all the council. About everyone that’s here. We don’t want to embarrass people.”
Tim Jones, who spoke on behalf of Pleasantville Concerned Citizens, said residents want and need good police and firefighters, but “within the reasonable constraints of our budget.”
“It’s not against you all,” Dale Archie told the officers. “It’s money. We don’t have it.”
Resident David Carrington addressed what he called “rumors” that city vehicles were being taken home by those who live outside the city.
“We cry that we don’t have any money,” he said. “If (taking home cars) is true, I wonder how much money we’re spending on E-ZPass. I wonder how much money we’re spending on gas.”
It was not clear after the meeting how conversations would change going forward.
