Here's a statement from Dan Keashen on behalf of the Camden County Board of Freeholders, the county's elected governing body:
“The Freeholders are appalled by the findings in today’s SCI (NJ State Commission of Investigation) report and the taxpayer funds spent on full-time union officials in Camden City. The Camden City Police and Fire Departments have gone through severe cuts in the last year only to have six of their officers paid a full time salary, benefits and fringe benefits, including a clothing allowance, on the taxpayer dime.
"If you look at other police and fire departments in Camden County, none of them have this taxpayer benefit, in fact, in Cherry Hill the Superior Officers Association representative works as a full time supervisor of investigation and is the Township public information officer. The Lieutenant represents his union on non-taxpayer time. In Camden, the same position is fully funded by the taxpayer and does not work for the police department, he is a full time union official, and has a total compensation package of $188,805.51. In Camden this position is not serving and protecting the community like the union representative in Cherry Hill.
"These union employees have been paid millions of dollars by the taxpayers, yet have not policed the streets in Camden City in years. These practices are archaic and a vestige of the past when compensation for public safety officials were less than half of what it is today. These actions are disgraceful, and further remind taxpayers that there is a new normal in government and taxpayer funded union representation is not part of it. Furthermore, under a County Police Department, no collective bargaining representative will be paid for by taxpayer funds.”
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