Morris freeholders reaffirm jail takeover from sheriff

The Morris County freeholders have reaffirmed their committment to taking oversight of the 528-bed county jail away from Sheriff Edward V. Rochford but said the sheriff has been offered a “potential management role” at the facility in Morris Township.

The freeholders were prepared at their Wednesday night meeting to address a crowd they anticipated would appear with questions about the board’s vote June 24 to take jail oversight as of Sept. 1 away from the sheriff and put the facility under the county Department of Law and Public Safety.

Though invited, Rochford, sheriff since 1993, did not appear, nor did any officers or representatives of the Sheriff’s Office. However, a petition sponsored by P.B.A. 298, the union representing rank-and-file officers at the jail, has been on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page since the end of June.

The petition denounces the takeover and asks for signatures on the petition that is supposed to be presented to Freeholder Director Kathy DeFillippo.

“Them choosing to take over the jail is completely unethical,” the petition states. “They are the reason why the overtime is through the roof as it is because they won’t pay the staff what is deserved. They feel they can do a better job managing the finances but in reality they have no clue how to manage a law enforcement entity.”

William Schievella, who was appointed an undersheriff for the Bureau of Law Enforcement by Rochford four months ago, said Thursday that the sheriff is cooperating with the transition.

“The sheriff and members of the Sheriff’s Office are participating in the transition process,” Schievella said, adding that any role Rochford may have in jail management after the Sept. 1 switch still has to be decided.

The Sheriff’s Office currently has two bureaus -- corrections, which oversees the jail, and law enforcement, whose officers provide security at the Morris County courthouse and work in special services that include K-9, crime scene, bomb squad, and warrants.

Both DeFillippo and Freeholder Douglas Cabana, liaison between the Sheriff’s Office and freeholder board, had prepared speeches to deliver Wednesday night.

Cabana was blunt, saying the freeholders have been trying unsuccessfully for the past year to work with Rochford on major fiscal issues. The county is a co-employer of corrections officers at the jail along with the sheriff but Rochford has taken the position in the past months that he is the sole employer of jail officers with the power to negotiate his own labor contracts, Cabana said.

Under the takeover, there will no longer be an undersheriff position because the jail won’t be run by the Sheriff’s Office. A warden will be selected to run the facility and report directly to the Department of Law and Public Safety, whose director, Scott DiGiralomo, reports in turn to the freeholder board.

“This is not an action based on politics,” Cabana said at the freeholder meeting. “This is a very serious and responsible step taken by your freeholder board to protect the county, its employees and the taxpayers. The step was necessary to deal with a lack of fiscal and management accountability by the sheriff.”

Cabana noted that the sheriff has sued the freeholders three times, all unsuccessfully, in the past year. He abruptly wanted to give officers in both the bureau of law enforcement and the bureau of corrections bonuses of $2,500 each but learned he didn’t have adequate surplus funds. He tried a second time to give reduced bonuses of $2,250 but was ruled against by a judge.

In the past year, Rochford has negotiated four labor agreements with officers, civilian staff and superior officers, without involving the county’s chief labor negotiator. The proposed pacts, all rejected on June 24 by the freeholders, offered raises of between 22 percent and 29 percent over three to four-year periods.

“The sheriff declined to provide detailed information on overtime costs that doubled in recent years as the inmate population dropped 30 percent,” Cabana said.

DeFillippo took a softer approach in her comments, saying the transition is simply to enact a managerial change to put the county directly in charge of the jail through a warden.

“We have a very professional staff working at the jail. They will continue their quality work, to ensure continued safety and security at the jail and maintain its accreditation. We anticipate no impact to the public,” DeFillippo said.

A transition team has been assembled to assess all technical details of the change. Members met Monday with Rochford, who has been offered a potential management role but he has not yet responded, DeFillippo said.

In New Jersey, 10 of 20 county jails are run by county administration. The sheriff has several duties mandated by the state Constitution but running the jail is not one of them. The sheriff and freeholders are co-employers of correctional facility workers, and the freeholders have the legal authority to take over the facility if they want.

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