Brigantine City Council lead by Mayor Guenther’s Republican party approved an expensive, public union labor agreement with Brigantine police officers on September 2nd.
Local residents were disappointed but not surprised that such a lucrative deal was made with the public safety union.
Most part time residents were not aware of this pay-raise and new contract. This was due to the recent shut-down of City Council webcasts available on-demand and a lack of council updates and push-back from the opposition party: Councilwoman Lisa McClay and the Brigantine Democrats.
Substantial Pay Raises given to Brigantine Police officers by Mayor Guenther & Councilman Simpson.
- Sergeant pay increases from $94,391 to $104,159
- Lieutenant pay of $105,718 increases to $116,546
- Captain pay of $118,404 increases to $123,539
Longevity & Sick Pay:
- Bonus of $2,799 for 11 through 15 years
- Bonus of $5,599 for 16 through 20 years
- Bonus of $8,398 for 21 through 24 years
- Bonus of $9,331 for each year after 24 years
- Sick leave accrues at rate of 120 hours per year
- Sick leave accumulates from year to year
Accrued & unused sick leave at time of retirement / death.
- Employees hired before May 22, 2010: capped at greater of $50,000 or $ value each employees accrued sick time as of Jan. 1, 2015.
- Employees hired after May 22, 2010 have terminal leave payment capped at $15,000.
Retired City of Brigantine police officers and spouses are entitled to dental benefits. $900 annually to be paid at 100 percent.
Police union employees gets paid for 12 holidays whether they work or not. This gets rolled over into base pay.
If officer works one of six holidays (New Year, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas), they receive one and one-half times employee hourly rate of pay for all hours worked on that day, plus regular pay.
According to Mike Feely of the Beachcomber News, Brigantine City Manager Ed Stinson was sent an email with questions regarding the contract. Feely asked how Stinson arrived at the savings in his statement at council and reiterated in his press release. Stinson did not respond.
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Tim Sanders: Brigantine Public Safety employees often divert attention away from their over $150,000 employee cost to taxpayers. They do this by talking about the potential for danger in their job. Some call this harassment.
See potential ‘online harassment’ by Mr. Carberry & Mr Altomare as posted on Facebook page of Borgata Employee / Community Activist; Chris Howe:
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work performance has no bearing on longevity payments, as they are based solely upon time on the job. a nice reward at taxpayer expense simply by showing up … as like they’d leave such a plum job.. this is why our state is billions debt. all move/retire to Florida where the NJ public union pension isn’t taxed
Hi Ho, Hi Ho! It’s off the island we go.
Its unethical and unjust… for all who disagree please lay forth justifications of $100k+ salary for Brigantine police officers.
Have they no shame? Accepting such outrageous local government handouts! Ironically, its practically stealing!
The government employees in this town are basically welfare recipients at the cost of us tax payers. The only difference is that they get six figure salaries for doing absolutely nothing on this island except drive on the beach and stuff down a pile of donuts at Dunkin Donuts.
Not fair to say they do absolutely nothing.
Does anyone else have $900 per year perpetual dental care benefits?
This question does not apply to Christie, Menendez and Booker.
I was at the Wawa [ North End ] in Brigantine, New Jersey and over-heard a conversation from a new employee of Brigantine.
(person 1): you’re working for Brigantine?
(person 2) Yes, my unemployment run out and ###### got me a job.
(person 1) What do you do?
(person 2) Not really sure but going fishing today.
When I went out to parking lot, I saw City truck with chair, cooler and surf fishing equipment in back.
not even funny… a few times I was temped to post what I have seen and heard over the years in Brigantine but I refrained.
Maybe this website should start a thread to post similar stories like yours above.
You don’t need any zoo keepers as the animals are running the zoo.
The town is severely mismanaged. We second homeowners were/are being raped.
Those who can get out will\should do so. Either finding the rare buyer or strategic default will be used to achieve liberation from that virtually criminal enterprise going on in Brigantine.
It’s a shame that a town that held so much promise, has squandered it after such a short period of prosperity. Though I suppose the feeding at the public trough by municipal employees count as prosperity.
Some time ago there was a published list of Brigantine employees, and their salaries. First, there were entirely too many employees for the town size/population.
There were multiple employees in some classifications, and made me wonder what could they possibly be doing except just collecting a check. Second, their salaries dwarfed those of municipal workers in big cities like Philadelphia, where police and fire work their butts off. See, and compare, current police salaries in Philly:
//The highest salary earned in the Philadelphia Police Department was $191,256 by Charles H. Ramsey, the Philadelphia police commissioner.
The next highest salary in the PPD was that of the deputy police commissioner, who earned $143,388.
There were an additional seven other subordinate deputy police commissioners who earned $137,146..57.
There were 11 chief police inspectors in the PPD with a salary of $115,830.90.
There were 20 police inspectors with a salary of $101,391.20.
Other salaries in the PPD included:[3]
There were 5,012 police officers with a salary of $56,869.06.
There were 82 police captains with a salary of $89,103.13.
There were 235 police lieutenants with a salary of $76,767.74.
There were 534 police sergeants with a salary of $66,926.33.//
Who is gonna pay for the excessive municipal contracts, and other wastes, once 2nd homeowners flee?
I live next door to a Brigantine Police Officer and the police vehicle spends an excessive amount of time at their house while they are on duty. I’m assuming their contract includes work-from-home too?
Former Brigantine City Manager Jim Barber gave ’em a 2 hr lunch break. If he was still in charge, he’d give an even BETTER looooonger lunch break!
9/28/2015 Brigantine NJ.
The following is a special letter to Brigantine taxpayers.
At 9:12pm on Sunday September 27, it came to the attention of the village elders that the moon-god Gunther was growing upset. This became more evident as he gradually grew dark red with evil during the course of the next several hours. In an attempt to understand and address this event, the city council consulted with the neighboring tribes of Stone Harbor and Ocean City. Sadly, these other communities tried to misleadingly placate us by saying that this was a natural and cyclical phenomenon. If we simply waited, it would pass. Keeping with our tradition, the council determined that this kind of backward thinking may work for those other communities, but it certainly would not work for Brigantine.
By the time 10:45 arrived it was clear that the moon-god was indeed furious. Acting quickly, the council summoned a small army of emergency personnel from our various support services. Naturally as this was a Sunday evening, the quadruple overtime, 4 hour lunches and free food clauses were contractually triggered. Regardless, we are happy to report that through their diligence and hard work, the moon-god Gunther was eventually satisfied and by 1:00am Monday morning he was back to his bright shining self. Council noted that the harvest farmer’s market would still go on as scheduled.
The Council would like to thank all of those that contributed to this appeasement. First, thank you to the fire fighters and support personnel for using their part-time construction companies to build the sacrificial platform and for igniting the 300-foot pyre at the 40th St. beach. (A special shout-out goes to the Atlantic City fire department that showed our team how to put out the fire at the end of the night). We anticipate that the cleanup effort will be factored into next year’s assessments.
Secondly, thanks to Brigantine’s finest for providing the necessary security, opening the make-shift refreshment bar and collecting the sacrifices. Nice job guys!
Finally, we would be remiss without recognizing the contribution of the part-time, non-voting residents for supplying both the required lumber from their beachfront A-Zone vacation homes, as well of course, for their virgin shoo-bee daughters. We look forward to welcoming the surviving family members back next year to our special town!
– Brigantine Village Elders