January the time for new contracts

Negotiations to continue through mid-January.

By: Leon Tovey
   JAMESBURG — The head of the borough’s Personnel and Negotiations Committee said Tuesday that he doesn’t expect to finish contract negotiations with the unions that represent the borough’s police officers and emergency dispatchers until mid-January.
   Councilman John Longo Jr. said negotiations between borough representatives and the New Jersey State Firemen’s Mutual Benevolent Association, which represents the borough’s seven emergency dispatchers, were proceeding "amicably but slowly."
   Mr. Longo said the Personnel and Negotiations Committee would consider a counterproposal the union made to the borough’s most recent offer at its next meeting, Dec. 28.
   He said negotiations with the union were proceeding at a slow pace in large part because this will be the first contract for the dispatchers, who were recognized as an independent unit for the first time last spring. Currently, the borough’s five dispatchers receive a base salary of $30,956 per year, while its two part-time dispatchers are paid $12.25 per hour.
   Mr. Longo said the borough hopes to negotiate a multi-year contract similar to that of the police with the dispatchers.
   Mr. Longo said negotiations with Police Benevolent Association Local 166, which represents 12 of the borough’s 13 police officers, should proceed quickly once borough officials have a chance to review the PBA’s proposal, which was submitted Dec. 15.
   Mr. Longo said that because of the holidays, officials haven’t had much chance to consider the proposal, but that it would be considered at the Dec. 28 committee meeting.
   The current three-year police contract is set to expire Dec. 31. Mr. Longo said the new contract would not be in place by then, but that he hopes to get one before too far into the new year.
   "Hopefully, we’ll have things ironed out by the second (borough council) meeting in January," he said. "We do have a budget to get done."