By Andrew Martins
Staff Writer
PLUMSTED – Contract negotiations involving the union that represents Plumsted Township’s police officers and municipal officials will not begin until September, but the recent departure of an officer has brought some issues between the parties to the public’s attention.
On April 6, the Township Committee accepted the resignation of Plumsted Detective Brant Uricks. Officials said Uricks accepted a position with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
“We are sad to see [Uricks] go,” Mayor Jack Trotta said. “He is moving up to the county and it is a better opportunity for him and his family. We would never want to see somebody not take an opportunity that is an advantage for them.”
Trotta said the move “is a great opportunity” for Uricks and he wished the officer well.
Although municipal and police officials supported Uricks, Plumsted PBA President Ryan Nani said his resignation is indicative of an ongoing trend in the police department.
“Detective Uricks is the eighth officer to resign in the past few years, for an agency that employs 12 officers,” Nani said, adding that the reason behind the officers’ decisions to leave was a lack of regular salary increases in the existing contract.
Of the 12 officers currently employed to serve Plumsted, Nani said eight have less than one year of experience in law enforcement.
With at least one more officer expected to leave in the upcoming months, Nani said the department’s inability to retain experienced officers could end up becoming a “public safety hazard.”
“It’s to the point now where if we keep losing senior guys, we are not going to have a police department,” Nani said. “All you are going to have are a bunch of 20-year-old kids with no one to train them.”
“Currently, officers have been frozen from receiving raises for three years. [The Plumsted Township Police Department] is the lowest paid agency in the county,” Nani said. “I‘m sure you can see how that is an issue.”
The current three-year contract between the township and the union will expire on Dec. 31.
Salaries in the police department range from $35,704 for a starting patrolman to $78,640 for the chief of police.
Although Nani cited the financial aspect of the contract as a primary reason why officers are leaving, Trotta said the contract should be a non-issue since both sides agreed to its terms following mediation in 2013.
The mayor said each member of the police force has received a $1,000 increase every year since the agreement was reached. What the officers have not been awarded is a step increase on the police department’s salary guide.
“Maybe [the PBA] representatives did not explain it properly to them, I don’t know, but we have tried and they still insist they are not getting raises,” Trotta said. “I don’t see how getting $1,000, it may not be what you want and I get that, but it is an increase in your salary so I don’t see how they say they are not getting a raise. I am sorry to see anybody go, but I wish Detective Uricks luck. They look at things one way and that’s it. They don’t look at the big picture sometimes.”
Despite Trotta’s assertion that the officers’ $1,000 increase is sufficient under the terms of the existing contract, Nani said increased pension and benefit costs, along with increased costs of living, stretch that increase thin.
“When you sign a contract to go someplace and they tell you you are going to get raises every year and then all of a sudden they say they are not going to, that is not a great way to do business,” Nani said. “That’s a $1,000 ‘raise’ and that is honestly not even enough to cover the cost of living.”
The committee hired James E. Tillett to make up for Uricks’ departure from the police department.
