Employees at the Hudson County Schools of Technology Community Resource Center (HCST CRC), which is slated to close at the end of the month, have asked the county government to be made whole on accumulated vacation and sick time.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
HCST Career Development Center Association Vice President and CRC Outreach Coordinator David Morel made their case to the commissioners made the case to the commissioners at Tuesday’s budget hearing.
Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) initially was not going to let Morel speak on the subject, but ultimately relented.
“We’re not discussing that,” Romano said.
Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2) disagreed: “There is funding in this budget for the schools of technology, and that funding impacts employees.”
After officials ruled that it was part of the budget so it could be discussed, Morel expressed his thanks to the county for allowing him to speak and for reviewing the resumes of laid off HCST CRC employees.
“We are grateful that you have been willing to explore ways to integrate us into the county workforce and to consider placing us in any position that may be available,” Morel said.
“Your willingness to hear us and help us transition means a great deal. But we are here tonight because we need something very specific, something that determines whether we can survive this transition without being financially harmed.”
Morel asked that the county consider a resolution that would allow the laid off HCST CRC employees to be made whole for accumulated vacation and sick time as they move into county employment.
“Right now, we are losing everything we have accumulated over the years of service, our vacation time, our sick time, and our comp time,” he said.
“These are not luxuries. These are benefits we earned throughout years of showing up, doing the work, and serving the residents of Hudson County. Losing them is not just a financial loss, it is a loss of stability and loss of fairness.”
Out of 15 employees, five are not seeking employment with the county and two feel forced into retirement because they believe they have no other choice.
And three others don’t want to work for the county because they will be “worse off” than where they started.
“This means one third of the workforce is being pushed out entirely,” Morel claimed.
He added that the laid off employees also asked for 60 days of continued health insurance amid the transition to county employment to ensure no gaps in coverage, but the district denied their request and only gave them 30 days.
“Because of that, many of us and our families will have full month with no health insurance,” he said.
On top of that, Morel said the laid off employees learned yesterday they would have to pay their full employee contribution for the month of July even though their employment ends on June 30th.
“For many of us, that means if we normally pay $400 per month, we will be charged an additional $800 out of our final paycheck. After years of service, to have our last check reduced by that amount while losing on accumulated time facing a month without coverage is demonstrably unfair and financially damaging,” he stated.
“Commissioners, we are not asking for anything excessive. We are asking to be made whole. We are asking not to lose what we earned. We are asking not to be left uninsured. We are asking not to be forced into retirement or unemployment because of decisions we did not make.”
Morel hoped the commissioners would stand with the laid off employees to ensure their transition to county employment is “fair, humane, and reflective of the years of service they have given to the community.”
“You have the power to help us,” he concluded, noting they could preserve their accumulated time via resolution, adding that they will be paid one sick day for every three days they accumulated as it stands now.
After getting the gist of it, O’Dea felt it was wrong.
“It’s not fair to me. If for no fault of yours, you get severed from employment, you should get paid every day that’s owed you, especially by an institution that has allowed individuals to not work for two years and continue to get paid a full salary.”
Morel added that he felt HCST could have hired at least eight or nine of the employees in other positions in the school district instead of the current situation.
“They’re cutting off our union entirely. We could have transitioned easily into the school. We would have switched to the school’s insurance and have been keeping our jobs. We feel this is totally unfair,” he declared
“We’re being punished for politics here. That’s what really we’re being punished for here and we’re just collateral damage, not because we failed to do our jobs or anything.”
O’Dea said that no one asserted that they don’t do their jobs, while Commissioner Bob Baselice (D-8) asked if that meant insurance coverage for the laid off employees ends on June 30th.
Morel confirmed it did, and while the district’s offer of 30 days of continuing coverage shifts that to July 30, he reiterated that they need at least 60 days of health insurance coverage for an easy transition to county employment for those that opted that route.
The commissioners opted to wait to go into further detail at the next regular meeting today, as no representative from HCST was present – something Morel noted as he has attended the previous two budget hearings and various other meetings.
“It seems like the school cannot be here in person for whatever reason. I see other directors here that have been here earlier.”
Recently, Morel told commissioners that HCST CRC employees who have been “the backbone of the workforce development in North Hudson” are losing their jobs based on “incomplete information” and “incorrect audit findings,” both as HCV first reported.
The preliminary findings of the forensic audit stated HCST officials budgeted incorrectly for years due to “systemic failure of the accounting and finance department” resulting in a multi-million dollar budget deficit for the school district.
According to the 12-page audit findings, the HCST CRC lost grant funding to the tune of $1.5 million in 2024.
And while the services were then provided by another organization, the majority of employees that were part of the program were not transferred or laid off resulting in the district “operating at a significant deficit for a program that no longer exists.”
This followed an intense discussion in May, where HCST officials squared off with the commissioners over program and staffing cuts made in the vocational school district’s 2026-2027 school year budget, as only HCV reported.
HCST was the second biggest line item in this year’s over $769 million county budget, totaling $53,915,069.50 for the upcoming school year, an increase of nearly $11 million from last year.
At the prior meeting that month, O’Dea and Commissioner Kenny Kopacz (D-1) sounded the alarm on some of those cuts, specifically those made to vital post-secondary career programs.
