by Michelle Brunetti Post, Staff Writer for the Press of Atlantic City
New contracts for the unionized sergeants, lieutenants and captains of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office bring the pay for superior officers close to or above that of the county executive and administrator.
County Executive Dennis Levinson makes $141,930, and County Administrator Jerry Del Rosso makes $130,924. The two have responsibility for oversight of all county government.
Captains in the Prosecutor’s Office make $138,550 this year, and their salary will rise to $152,962 in 2020, the final year of the superior officers contract.
Levinson said the county has been trying to slown down the growth of unionized public safety salaries for a long time, but it has been difficult.
One problem is that officers must make more than the rank and file detectives, who are also unionized. But union success in negotiating both step and grade increases over the years has driven detective pay so high, officer pay has had to also increase dramatically, he said.
The county has little oversight over how the prosecutor, who is appointed by the governor and reports to the state Attorney General, spends the money the county provides.
“He is his own appointing authority,” Levinson said of Atlantic County Prosecutor Jim McClain. “He picks his own staff top to bottom. All we do is pay them.”
The county negotiates union contracts, but it’s up to McClain to determine who is promoted and how many people are promoted to higher ranks and receive higher compensation.
McClain makes $165,000, according to a staff and salary list supplied by his office.
More than half of the assistant prosecutors, who are lawyers who argue cases for the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office, make salaries of $50,000 to $55,522. That’s roughly 50 percent of the $111,000 the prosecutor’s sergeants now make.
The Atlantic County freeholders approved the two PBA contracts at their meeting Tuesday.
They give annual raises of about 2 percent, and run through 2020. For the first time they allow for a two-tiered system that gives slightly lower salary schedules to later-promoted officers.
Any officer reaching at least the sergeant rank prior to Oct. 1, 2015, will stay with a higher salary structure under both contracts. Those promoted on or after that date will follow a lower structure, but still receive annual increases.
There are currently 18 sergeants, nine lieutenants and five captains in the Prosecutor’s Office, said county counsel James Ferguson. The 32 officers and Chief of County Detectives Daren J. Dooley, who makes $150,426, oversee 45 detectives.
McClain declined to be interviewed about how he has determined the number of officers his office needs. Instead, he sent a copy of his office’s 2012 annual report, which shows that several officers are assigned to almost all of the 21 units of his office, ranging from Grand Jury and Trial Units in the Litigation section; to Major Crimes and Official Corruption units in the Criminal Investigations-Legal section.
The Prosecutor’s Office salary and wages total about $12.5 million of this year’s $201 million county budget.
“It’s incredibly frustrating from the governing body’s perspective in working with prosecutor’s offices,” said John G. Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties. “Very little fiscal, operational control can be exercised over the Prosecutor’s Office. And they can file a Bigley application if they don’t agree with the county position on the budget.”
A Bigley application is a lawsuit to force a county to spend more if it is reasonably necessary to detect, arrest, indict and convict offenders, according to the NJAC.
In 2010 there was a prosecutor’s task force to look at expenses, Donnadio said.
“From 2009-10 when we looked at this the average county budget was up 2.1 percent, but the average prosecutor’s budget went up 10 percent,” he said, adding prosecutor’s expenses are outside of the state mandated 2 percent cap on budget increases.
The difference between the higher and lower salary schedules in the new contracts is about 2 percent each year for sergeants. It ranges from 2.5 percent in the first year to 4.52 percent in 2020 for lieutenants and from 5.09 percent in the first year to 7.19 percent in 2020 for captains, Ferguson said.
“With regard to lieutenants and captains, you probably won’t see any savings until about the last three years, if that,” Ferguson said. That’s because the pool of 18 sergeants who will be promoted into those positions will qualify for the higher steps.
“But the important thing is we got the union to commit to the second tier,” he said. “It’s important to us in order to look to limit salary growth in years going forward.”
There should be a savings in the sergeants group sooner, he said, as people are newly promoted to that rank.
Earlier this year, contracts were settled for rank and file officers. They also created two-tier salary structures based on date of hire. Those contracts covered 45 Prosecutor’s Office detectives, 88 sheriff’s officers and 171 corrections officers at the county jail in Mays Landing.
In the Prosecutor’s Office rank and file contract, a detective hired at $49,677 in 2011 got a 5.5 percent raise in the second year to $52,535 and successive raises each year, and will make $95,900 in the ninth year.
Those hired after Nov. 10, 2014, start at $49,677 under the new contract, will be making $81,733 in the ninth year and won’t hit the top of the scale at $101,770 until the 14th year.
Michelle Brunetti Post can be reached at (609) 272-7219; MPost@pressofac.com, or twitter@MichelleBPost
NEW SALARIES ATLANTIC COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICERS
PROMOTED PRIOR TO OCT. 15, 2015
Sergeants Lieutenants Captains
2014 n/a* $122,709 $135,833
2015 $111,071 $125,163 $138,550
2016 $113,292 $127,667 $141,321
2017 $115,558 $130,220 $144,140
2018 $117,869 $132,824 $147,023
2019 $120,226 $135,480 $149,963
2020 $122,631 $138,190 $152,962
% increase** +10.4% +12.6% +12.6%
* Sergeants’ contract runs from 2015 to 2020. Lieutenants’ and captains’ run from 2014 to 2020.
** Over five years for sergeants and six years for superior officers
PROMOTED ON OR AFTER OCT. 15, 2015
Sergeants Lieutenants Captains
2014* n/a n/a n/a
2015 $108,957 $119,752 $129,253
2016 $111,136 $122,147 $131,838
2017 $113,359 $124,590 $134,475
2018 $115,626 $127,082 $137,165
2019 $117,939 $129,624 $139,908
2020 $120,298 $132,216 $142,706
% increase** +10.4 % +10.4% +10.4%
* Second tier salary structure doesn’t begin until Oct. 15, 2015.
** From 2015 to 2020.
Source: Atlantic County