NEW JERSEY STATE
POLICEMEN’S BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PATRICK COLLIGAN
State President
MARC KOVAR
Executive Vice President
Peter Andreyev 1st Vice President
Michael Pellegrino 2nd Vice President
Mark Aurigemma 3rd Vice President
Eugene Dello 4th Vice President
Richard Kott 5th Vice President
Frederick Ludd 6th Vice President
Luke Sciallo 7th Vice President
Frank P. Cipully 8th Vice President
Ed Carattini, Jr. 9th Vice President
Michael Freeman 10th Vice President
Bryan Flammia 11th Vice President
Robert Ormezzano 12th Vice President
Michael Kaniuk Financial Secretary
Margaret Hammond Recording Secretary
John Monsees Treasurer
Terrance Benson, Sr. Trustee
Rodney Furby Trustee
Patrick Moran Trustee
Joseph Macones Trustee
Michael Tardio Trustee
Michael Heller Trustee
Keith Curry Trustee
Christopher Ricciotti Sergeant-at-Arms
John Granahan Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Nigro Sergeant-at-Arms
Mark Piercy Sergeant-at-Arms
Christopher Ebert Sergeant-at-Arms
Brian Brownlie Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Palmentieri Sergeant-at-Arms
Stephen Warren Sergeant-at-Arms
Joseph Sles Sergeant-at-Arms
4
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ FEBRUARY 2019
The PFRS we have
been waiting for
So I guess we have to thank the previous governor for something!
A private meeting with Thomas Healey – author of the Healey Com-
mission Pension Report – several months after his group began its work
to “save” the state’s pension system revealed that despite all of the group’s
“extensive” work, none of the commission members knew a single thing
about the Police & Fire Retirement System (PFRS). They admittedly knew
Patrick
Colligan nothing about our funding level, our contribution rate (among the high-
est in the nation) or even our need for disability pensions.
In fact, there was a blunt admission that members of the commission didn’t even
look at our system. They never cracked open our books. They were sent to fix one sys-
tem, and it wasn’t ours. I still have to thank Tom Byrne for taking notes that day, be-
cause without them our narrative was not going to be part of the study.
That was the very meeting that sparked the idea to separate our pension manage-
ment from the state. It was time to control our own destiny and not to depend on some
new commission every few years. A few short weeks later, we hosted the three other
New Jersey public safety unions at the PBA office to start the homework and explore
the concept of making PFRS independent. You all know the rest of that story by now.
Fast-forward to Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. The research was done. The lobbying was done.
The bill was voted on and passed the Senate and Assembly. Governor Murphy signed
it. And the really hard work began. It culminated at 10 a.m. in the first-floor conference
room at 50 West State Street in Trenton.
There were more than a few times that I thought the plan to make PFRS independent
was derailed. But here I was at 9:55 a.m., waiting for a new era of the New Jersey Police
& Fire Retirement System to begin. An era in which we will be responsible for our own
decisions and not beholden to some future commission that doesn’t have the time or
inclination to do all the homework that needs to be done.
We have all assembled an extraordinarily talented PFRS Board of Trustees on the la-
bor side, with seven members representing public safety. I’m also pleased to report that
the governor’s office has chosen some very qualified members for the five representa-
tives on the management side. They need to know – and I’m sure they will see very soon
– that we want nothing more than a well-funded, well-managed system.
Job well done by too many people during the past few years to note in this short col-
umn. It’s been a long ride, but the destination was definitely worth it.