Morris sheriff proposes 25 % pay, perks hike over 3 years

The Morris County freeholders say that Sheriff Edward V. Rochford has negotiated a three-year contract with 58 officers in the bureau of law enforcement that would increase the cost of salaries and perks by 25.3 percent over the next three years.

Rochford, sheriff since 1993, has sued the freeholders three times since last summer over staffing levels and proposed bonuses and also announced in the fall that he had negotiated a new contract spanning 2015 through 2017 for rank and file officers in the bureau of law enforcement, which primarily provides security at the Morris County courthouse.

County officials were recently apprised of details of the proposed contract for officers in PBA 151 and county Administrator John Bonanni at Wednesday’s freeholder meeting discussed the numbers, which some freeholders publicly denounced.

Bonanni said that an analysis of the proposed pact shows that costs of paying and providing such benefits as a clothing allowance, performance incentive bonuses and an increased number of personal days would mean an 8.43 percent increase each year for the next three years. By the end of 2017, the cost of the deal the sheriff struck with PBA 151 without involving the county’s labor counsel would be 25.31 percent higher than costs of wages and perks for the PBA in 2014.

The freeholders authorized Bonanni and/or a labor counsel to tell the sheriff in writing that the figures are not acceptable because of a state mandated 2 percent cap on increases in government spending. Bonanni said the proposal also is unfair to other county employees covered by 20 contracts, including eight other PBAs.

“You don’t have to know calculus to know that 8 is greater than 2,” Freeholder John Krickus said Wednesday.

Susan Hunter, who serves as Rochford’s chief of staff, said the opposition to the proposed contract was “no surprise” but that Rochford would wait for a formal notification from Bonanni before commenting further.

According to Rochford’s proposal, base wages for 2014 of $3,863,705 would increase by $768,985 to a 2017 base wage line of $4,632,690. The sheriff also would increase officers’ personal day allotment from three to five days for an additional cost of $52,253.

A uniform allowance of $1,200 annually would increase to $1,300 for 2015, $1,400 for 2016 and $1,500 for 2017, for an increase of $34,800.

The sheriff also has proposed a $700 per employee performance incentive bonus that would cost $121,800.

Rochford last year had been pushing to use surplus funds to give officers bonuses but in January, in response to a lawsuit the sheriff filed, a state Superior Court judge made a preliminary ruling that Rochford lacked authority to use surplus funds to hand out $612,000 in bonuses he proposed for about 275 officers and civilian employees.

The 275 staff members included people in the sheriff’s office bureau of law enforcement and bureau of corrections, which runs the county jail.

Judge Yolanda Ciccone, sitting in Somerville, heard arguments for and against the bonus plan and issued a preliminary ruling that concluded state law is on the side of the seven-member board of Morris County freeholders, which opposed the noncontractual payouts. The sheriff was free to pursue his lawsuit to award bonuses to officers but has not yet done so.

The January ruling was preceded by a lawsuit that Rochford filed in October against the county after it resisted his efforts to give bonuses of $2,500 to workers who were employed in either of his bureaus as of Dec. 31, 2013. Rochford had estimated he would end 2014 with a surplus of about $1.4 million and wanted to give out about $700,000 in bonuses. He withdrew the lawsuit when he learned he didn’t have enough money to fund the bonuses. He then revised the bonus plan to give workers $2,250 each, but that proposal was preliminarily rejected by Ciccone in January.

In July, the sheriff had filed a lawsuit over perceived resistance by the freeholders to let him hire nine additional officers but he withdrew that complaint within a few days.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com.