Police, borough work on deal.
By: Leon Tovey
JAMESBURG The Borough Council unanimously approved a four-year contract Wednesday with the union representing the borough’s emergency dispatchers.
The contract is the first for the dispatchers, who were recognized as an independent unit for the first time in the spring of 2003. It is retroactive to Jan. 1 and provides for a 16 percent pay increase over four years for the unit’s five full-time dispatchers.
Full-time dispatchers currently receive a base salary of $30,956 per year. The contract also provides a formal grievance process for the dispatchers similar to that available to the police.
Councilman Joseph Jennings, chairman of the borough’s Personnel and Negotiations Committee, said the contract was the result of "very lengthy" negotiations between the borough and New Jersey State Firemen’s Mutual Benevolent Association Local 417, which represents the dispatchers.
"This contract recognizes the dedication that the dispatchers have given to their job and the importance of the job they do," Mr. Jennings told the council before the vote on Wednesday.
Negotiations with the FMBA began in October. Councilman John Longo Jr., former head of the Personnel and Negotiations Committee, said the length of the negotiations was a natural outgrowth of the fact that this was the first contract for the dispatchers.
Mr. Jennings said negotiations with Police Benevolent Association 166, which represents 12 of the borough’s 13 police officers, are continuing. The next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 2, he said.
Borough police have been operating without a contract since Dec. 31, when their three-year contract expired. Mr. Jennings said he hopes to have a new contract with the PBA soon, so that the committee can begin negotiating a new contract with the chief, who is contracted separately.
The most recent contract between the police and the borough was adopted March 1, 2002 two months after the previous contract had expired.

