Sunday, July 18, 2010

Release of Hoboken P.B.A. “Staffing Study of the Hoboken Police Department"

Hoboken PBA President Vince Lombardi
I met with PBA President Vince Lombardi briefly last night after I had reached out to him and he asked me to publish on my website his Union's response to the DLGS Police Audit of the Hoboken Police force. The DLGS report was released by the State in late February of 2010 when Judy Tripodi was still acting as Hoboken's fiscal monitor. The PBA's report was done by a professional consulting firm that the PBA hired and paid for with their own funds and was sent to the Administration on July 14th as a rebuttal to the State report.

In my interview with Dawn Zimmer last Thursday July 15th,  I had asked her if she had received a copy of this report and she confirmed that her Administration has. She declined further comment stating that she would need to time to review the report and preferred to not comment to the press or the blogs until speaking with Vince Lombardi first.

According to Vince Lombardi, this report is only focused on the rank and file members and was done at around the same point in time as the DLGS report. Vince stated that Hoboken Chief Falco is expected to be releasing his own report soon giving an overview of the entire department and that it would be more reflective of current crime trends and future projections.

Below is Vince Lombardi's press release on behalf of the PBA. The link to the PBA report is below the PBA's press release as well as the State DLGS report for comparison.


Date: July 17, 2010
To: TheHobokenJournal.com / Kurt Gardiner, Editor
Re: Release of Hoboken P.B.A. “Staffing Study of the Hoboken Police Department – An analysis of the review by the Division of Local Government Services – State of New Jersey” (see attached)

On Wednesday, July 14th, the Hoboken PBA presented Mayor Dawn Zimmer our very own professional report analysis and rebuttal to the “NJ State DLGS Police Audit”. The PBA report was prepared by Northeast Labor Consultants Inc., a professional consulting firm. On this same day, at the city council meeting, each member of the City Council was given a copy of our report analysis.

In a cover letter included with our report (see attached), I highly encouraged Mayor Zimmer to disclose our report to the public via the City webpage and provided a CD-R for ease of uploading to the city website.

As of this date, our report has not been uploaded to the city webpage by Mayor Zimmer and I believe that the City will not release our report to the public despite my strong recommendation and approval to do so. However, when the city received the DLGS report it was immediately released. This is not fair to the members of the PBA or the public.

Our report analysis clearly shows the many factual data computation errors, mistakes and omissions in the DLGS “police audit”. Additionally, our report includes recommendations and other informative factual information of which the DLGS didn’t want the city or public to realize.

The PBA is completely comfortable with the total and unrestricted release to the public our own report of analysis and rebuttal and firmly stand by its comprehensive and highly competent content.

The public deserves the real facts regarding the DLGS “police audit” and to best ensure that our report is available to the community, I am releasing it to all cyber-media outlets.

Vince Lombardi
President Hoboken PBA

...........

Click on the image below to go to Google Docs to download the PBA's version of the report. The report is over 105 MB so it can't be embedded in the standard readers. I had tried several different options to upload it to be readable on this site to no avail.

 Hoboken PBA Rank and File Response to the 2010 DLGS Hoboken Police Audit: 

Click on the image above to download report - download could take a few minutes

The DLGS Hoboken Police Department Staffing Report released by the State February 2010:

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Posted by Hoboken Resistance at 9:45 AM

Comments (19)

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EricK's avatar

EricK · 765 weeks ago

The "professional consulting firm" that put this report together - Northeast Labor Consultants - is a former Jersey City Chief of Police, Ronald D. Buonocore . The firm's corporate address is the same as Buonocore's home address. Buonocore represented JC's PBA from 1977 until 1985, and its officers' union from 1995 to 2001.

Just as the HPD took issue with a former police chief from a suburban town looking at their practices, I have some reservations about taking advice from a former union rep from the JCPD.
1 reply · active 765 weeks ago
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Bill Lemp 's avatar

Bill Lemp · 765 weeks ago

I take issue with your statement for one jersey city is not a local of the state pba they dropped out years back and have their own union which is POBA -Police Officers Benevolent Association and yes I take issue with a former police chief from a surburban town looking at Hoboken police practices,how did this guy become chief was his department civil service and was his climb through the ranks by competitive civil service testing or was uncle bob the mayor.
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EricK's avatar

EricK · 765 weeks ago

But I'm funny that way.
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khoboken's avatar

khoboken · 765 weeks ago

Well, Lomabrdi admits that the report only focuses on the "rank and file". WTF? The problem as almost everyone sees it is the entire department, form the head of the rotten fish all the way down., in terms of bloat, excess supervision and improper utilization of personnel. Not sure how much thought you can give to a report that only only looks at a part of the problem. Also, at first glance it appears that the report is trotting out the Scare 'em tactics to paint a picture of chaos and violence if any substantial changes are made. Finally thought - Lomabardi is not winning any points whining about he report now being on the city site the minute after it was delivered. The state report was the subject of intense debate about its release for months and months and the Mayor had it but was not allowed to post it. Lomabrdi shouldn't play so fast and loose - it discredits his message.
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
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Redrider765's avatar

Redrider765 · 765 weeks ago

The union wants the city to officially put out the report b/c that gives it credibility. It probably isn't worth the paper it is printed on w/o that credibility. It is a fluff piece put together to scare people into continuing the wasteful practices of the PD. The report is in the public domain already so the mayor doesn't need to do anything to disseminate this rubbish.
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Hobbs's avatar

Hobbs · 764 weeks ago

Stay funny. We like you that way !
-5 Vote up Vote down
Frank's avatar

Frank · 764 weeks ago

What makes the States Audit more credible then the Police Rebuttal? I for one thought the states report was done to better serve the city's needs and the Rebuttal report will refute that. There are opinions on both, the ones who want to minimize the PD will of course accept the States version and the ones who are for the PD will accept the rebuttal. Where does that leave everyone else? I can accept the PBA report because it's more factual and up to date with current info and not dated as the States version. A former JCPD Chief with a city like Hoboken will know quite more then a former Maywood Chief who had probably 1/4 of the Hoboken PD workoad and has no clue how a city of Hoboken should be run.
3 replies · active 764 weeks ago
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guest's avatar

guest · 764 weeks ago

Why didn't the PBA just hire former Chief LaBruno to write its rebuttle?

With his Phd and years of experience he too would "likely know quite a bit more then a former Maywood Chief who had probably 1/4 of the Hoboken PD workoad and has no clue how a city of Hoboken should be run."

Instead of wasting their money on this report the PBA should be figuring out a list of concessions that would save their "brother's" jobs. The poor suckers who get laid off will have no one to blame but their union leaders who simply can't come to grips with the new reality of Cris Christie's New Jersey.
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davidd's avatar

davidd · 764 weeks ago

The state audit will generally be more credible because it doesn't have a bias for or against the current staffing levels. Its the same difference between a government study of a diet pill versus the drug company's. The drug company will tell you its safe as long as it doesn't kill you outright...
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Redrider765's avatar

Redrider765 · 764 weeks ago

You are kidding, right? The state audit was done by the Corzine administration for crying out loud. They not only don't have much of an axe to grind but I bet they were far softer on the PD than anyone the city would hire. You couldn't ask for a more benign 3rd party to come in here and do an audit that would be equally fair to both the union and the taxpayers and still the PD got slammed for its wasteful practices.
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ss1959's avatar

ss1959 · 764 weeks ago

What a shock a union leader says everything is just fine! It's not only Hoboken, but the entire county that is breaking under the weight of public compensation. Illinois is following California is not being able to pay it's bills, yet the unions still can't face reality. They need to accept significant contract restructuring or we will have no choice but to implement the state audit in full and complete detail.
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aggie's avatar

aggie · 764 weeks ago

Wow u people have no idea that the department has only 5 or 6 cops on duty on a friday and saturday night when there are an influx of drunken morons and burglars running around. They actually are the lowest paid in the county and imagine if they made as much as bergen county cops that make over 120,000. Hoboken has it too good and the cops are gonna kill the city in arbitration, Zimmer and the council knows it and that's why they are using another layoff plan as a threat to bring the police unions back to the table. The residents are gonna pay for another corrupt government, the police are not the problem. The Mayor's making 9 new directors positions earning over 125,000 each, when it takes a police officer 8 years to make 83,000. Wake up people, the government and not unions are the problem. The unions are now handcuffed by a governor who is crippling them and covering up the fact that the state borrowed the union's pension money and never allowed cities to pay into the pension fund.
2 replies · active 764 weeks ago
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davidd's avatar

davidd · 764 weeks ago

5-6 officers on Saturday night can you explain? My guess is there should be 25 officers working on Saturday night
150 officers X 35hrs/wk X 80% (attendance ex. sick/vacation) / 168 hrs/wk = 25 officers working in a given hours.
Even with our 2 to 1 leadership ratio, thats 16 officers on the street. This assumes the PD makes no effort to distribute shifts so that there are more officers at higher demand times. Anyone correct my math?
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Redrider765's avatar

Redrider765 · 764 weeks ago

They are at the beach. Do you honestly expect most of them to work when we need them the most?
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aggie's avatar

aggie · 764 weeks ago

Wow u people have no idea that the department has only 5 or 6 cops on duty on a friday and saturday night when there are an influx of drunken morons and burglars running around. They actually are the lowest paid in the county and imagine if they made as much as bergen county cops that make over 120,000. Hoboken has it too good and the cops are gonna kill the city in arbitration
2 replies · active 764 weeks ago
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deleted5542758's avatar - Go to profile

deleted5542758 83p · 764 weeks ago

I think that if there are only 5-6 cops on duty on a Friday or Saturday night, and there are other shifts that are manned with more cops, the Police Officers who are out there working on Fridays and Saturdays should file a grievance with their union that they're being put at greater risk b/c seniority allows officers to avoid Fri/Sat duty and causes such light coverage.

I'm frankly appalled that 5-6 police officers are subjected to working hte entire city at peak times when I know that more are on duty on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon (when there is less to do).

I respect what the police officers do individually, but someone needs to talk to the scheduling officer and get this mess fixed before we have a police officer get hurt.
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redraven's avatar

redraven · 764 weeks ago

"Hoboken has it too good and the cops are gonna kill the city in arbitration."

Good luck with that - do union leaders not read newspapers anymore now that they don't like what they say?

If you"re right about only 5-6 officers patroling our streets on friday nights when we have over 150 police officers on the patrol then Chief Falco will have alot of "splaining" to do. Maybe he'll get to work full time on his movie career since he's told so many people that's what he really would like to do.
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aggie's avatar

aggie · 764 weeks ago

Police need detectives to investigate crimes. traffic , anti-vice, and many other departments. There are so many people in this city now, and on the weekends there are triple that.
1 reply · active 764 weeks ago
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fordeprigot 31p · 764 weeks ago

If only we had McGruff the crime dog, he could take a bite out of crime. Failing that I'd like a police force that hasn't been poisoned by the likes of Carmelo LaBruno and Angelo Andriani.

BTW Hoboken currently has 21 detectives. How many of them work on the weekends? How many from the Investigative Services Detective Bureau do?

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