The Jersey City Council expressed doubts about amending the off-duty police detail rates proposed by the administration during yesterday’s caucus meeting.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Basically, it is simplifying and removing what I’ve been told is the possibility of misinterpretation of the fees for the off-duty police officers, eliminating a lot of what probably shouldn’t have been in there in the first place, and then simplifying just by day and time what the rates are,” explained Public Safety Director James Shea.
“It also adds the crossing guards and traffic people who we used in a pilot project for the last third of the last year, it adds their rates so that we can use them and bring the price down.”
Ward B Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey said that when the council received the proposed first reading of the ordinance, a conversation began about having a specific off-duty rate for nonprofit organizations.
While she didn’t mention it outright, she indicated this would help to avoid a situation like the one that happened with the Milad parade in October.
Counsel for the parade committee, a nonprofit, threatened litigation after the city attempted to charge them $150 per hour, but the event ultimately went ahead as planned after they paid $50 per hour, as HCV first reported.
“Can somebody walk us through all of these changes because we’re being told two different things, we have a lot of groups that quite honestly might not be able to afford these whether they are smaller nonprofits or even some of our SID [special improvement districts] that have had off-duty programs outside of the UEZ funding that is now back – they were just doing this on their own,” Prinz-Arey stated.
“So I don’t want to speak for anyone else but can someone explain this, why we keep going back and forth.”
Shea argued that “everyone has been charged exactly the same price” for the past year, therefore the ordinance just seeks to clarify that as opposed to making changes.
“The big problem seems to be Saturday, Sunday, and city holidays … That sets the [hourly] price at $112.50 for Saturday and city holiday rates and $150 for Sunday city holidays rates,” he said, indicating there is a $160 per hour rate for Sundays or city holidays after 4 p.m., though such an instance of an event at that time is rare.
“I don’t set these numbers … I would much prefer that we budgeted for these: parades, marathons, all district bike tours … I believe the last year we had it in the budget before we switched to having people pay for it themselves, it was about two-and-a-half million dollars, now probably a little more.”
He continued that it’s the council prerogative to set the price at whatever they see fit, but if the rates are set lower than what is proposed, a weekday rate of $40 per hour for crossing guards and $75 for police, the event in question will have to be supplemented with overtime.
Ward F Councilman Frank “Educational” Gilmore said if a rate had previously been set for nonprofits, which was $50 per hour, that should remain. However, the proposed ordinance removes that, based on a copy provided on the city website.
“We just voted to do this,” Gilmore asserted.
“If I could councilman, that seems to be the source of the misinterpretation, it was poorly written. That nonprofit rate was always intended to be, and it was actually the council president’s impetus about eight, 10 years ago, to be for daycare centers, little churches, people having small, one-day events … like an event on a block,” Shea replied.
He continued that rate was never intended to be for the weekend, but when it was altered last year, the way it was written left it open to interpretation.
“Basically, those little nonprofits that we carved out with that $50 rate, we don’t even charged them any more. If they’re doing those little one day events, the nursing homes, the senior centers, the churches having a one-day event, the community groups, we just provide them on-duty police officers, they have their event, and we move on.”
Shea also said updating the regulations would prevent groups from “masquerading” as nonprofits to host large-scale events.
“For example, we had one event, I won’t embarrass anybody and identify them, it’s been a for profit event for nine years. I’ve been here, it’s been a for profit event and they make a lot of money and it’s very, very large, multi-day event. This year when they applied, it was suddenly applied as a nonprofit,” the director explained.
Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh asked how the off-duty Jersey City police rates compared to state troopers, Hudson County Sheriff’s officers, and neighboring municipalities, to which Shea said they are lower.
Councilman-at-Large Daniel Rivera said that city businesses and groups should be encourages to work with the local police, however, he felt the ordinance should be placed on hold since entities paid “an astronomical fee” last year and still haven’t been paid back.
City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said in response to the Milad parade situation in October that “any discrepancies found from previous events will be rectified by JCPD.”
Shea said that he was unaware of anyone being owed money from the city, to which Rivera respectfully disagreed and said Business Administrator John Metro could provide him with a list of organizations that still need to be reimbursed.
“I’m not in favor of no legislation that’s gonna say you’re gonna charge all these people who are making upwards of tens of thousands of dollars the same rate you’re charging people to put on the event period,” Gilmore exclaimed.
Shea said every race, festival, and parade has a nonprofit arm and the city is not legally allowed to distinguish from one or another.
Ward E Councilman James Solomon said he appreciated the points that public safety is paramount and the program is needed, but the way the ordinance is written would likely not work as intended.
“I think we all understand that we cannot charge the cultural groups that put on incredible events for our city the rates that are contemplated in this,” he stated.
“That will severely diminish the vibrancy of the city, so what I would recommend we do is we pull the ordinance, we would meet with the Law Department, maybe there’s an ad hoc committee formed, and we compare the rates across Hudson County, and we have some comparison rates to know what the market is.”
He set a timetable of two months since parade season starts in March, though Shea recommended doing it sooner, pointing out that there is a marathon today.
Council President Joyce Watterman asked Assistant Corporation Counsel John McKinney if there was any way to distinguish between nonprofit groups, to which he said they could. Shea interjected that he was unaware of any way to do so.
Watterman asked if there was a way to establish tiers based on how much money they earn annually, to which McKinney said it probably wouldn’t be necessary, but would prefer to have a discussion outside of public session.
Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano read a letter into the record indicating that certain groups had recently been approached to pay off-duty fees from five to 10 years ago, to which Shea said debts don’t ever disappear.
The Jersey City Council convenes tomorrow at City Hall, 280 Grove St., at 6 p.m. and will stream live on Microsoft Teams.
