The Hoboken City Council moved forward with hiring a public information officer for the police department, as well as an independent appraisal of the Union Dry Dock property at last night’s meeting.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
“I totally love every of trying to take some of the administrative functions off of the hands of our police officers so they can actually handle public safety,” 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said about potentially hiring a police spokesperson at $75,000 salary.
“I just wish there was a way we could absorb this role into what are a number of different people performing communication type functions. We have people we pay close to $650,000 including salary and benefits, three of which have been hired in the last year and a half. It would be great to have a full understanding of what this role will actually do and how much work is needed.”
The salary range ordinance in front of the council would budget $75,000 for the PIO, which Fisher and 4th Ward Councilman Ruben Ramos expressed trepidation about since the city already has a spokeswoman, public safety director, and deputy public safety director.
“Jersey City is the second largest city in our state, and they don’t have a public information officer specifically for their police department. This could be handled administratively,” Ramos added.
1st Ward Councilman Mike De Fusco praised the police department and their personnel, noting he’d support hiring more officers, but this particular hire did not make sense at the moment.
“I struggle with all the money we’ve put behind the police in every other area that these positions are absolutely necessary right now. I applaud the administration for working with the police. I just can’t support this right now,” he said.
Council President Mike Russo said that officers needs to be in the streets, especially in light of the murder of 28-year-old Christopher Garcia, not preparing information for the press.
“We currently are 12 officers under our table of organization. We have budgeted for every single penny for those 12 officers. That is sitting in our budget right now,” he explained.
This is a way where we get to remove one of our officers from an administrative position and put them back in the street. think it’s important that we have another police officer in the street doing their job. Councilman Ramos opened up this meeting with a moment of silence for someone murdered in our housing authority. We need more officers on the street.
The salary ordinance was approved 5-4, with DeFusco, Fisher, Ramos and 6th Ward Councilwoman Jen Giattino voting no.
The council also authorized Summit-based Lasser Sussman Associates, LLC to appraise Union Dry Dock, the 2nd Ward waterfront property that New York Waterway had coveted as a ferry refueling station for years.
The ordinance estimates the current value at $13.36 million, about 15 months after the city announced they had come to terms on acquiring the property fro NY Waterway for $18.5 million.
The first reading was approved unanimously (9-0), without any discussion from officials or the public, which is not uncommon for an initial ordinance vote.