As Camden fires, crime rise, officials hold hiring grants

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Column By JEREMY ROSEN

Camden Mayor Dana Redd's administration is stalling on spending a $5.1 million federal
SAFER grant to rehire dozens of laid-off firefighters, as contract talks between the
administration and union leaders remain at a standstill.

Shortly after the Courier-Post broke the story Feb. 8 that Camden was awarded its
SAFER grant, city officials told fire union leaders and media outlets the grant can't be
used until the city budget is adopted.

But that's not a SAFER program requirement or state mandate. To comply with state
law, city council can simply approve a resolution to insert the grant, which has no
municipal cost, into Camden's budget.

In response to my pointing out this discrepancy, Redd's administration told me the grant
must be amended by SAFER grant administrator FEMA to authorize rehiring of laid-off
firefighters.

But guess what? FEMA officials say Camden is already authorized to rehire laid-off
firefighters.

"What are we waiting for?" asked Camden fire officers' union President Al Ashley via
cell phone from Friday's union rally in Trenton. "Are we playing political games here?
We're playing a ticking time bomb game with fire."

Ashley then described incidents of how manpower deficiencies could've been

disastrous. Four fires Friday night and Saturday strained firefighter resources and
injured two city firefighters (see Joe Cooney's Sunday story).

And, on Feb. 12, when city firefighters were fighting a blaze on Thompson Street and
couldn't make it to an alarm call at the BPUM Child Development Center on West
Street. It took 30 minutes for firefighters from outside the city to arrive at the center.
Fortunately, no one was hurt during either call.

The city's delay in implementing a $4.3 million U.S. Department of Justice COPS grant
awarded in October is slightly more complicated.

COPS authorities say the city's contention that the grant also can't be used until its
budget is adopted isn't exactly true. And contrary to what Redd's administration has
said, the grant can indeed be used to rehire laid-off police officers.
Although the administration's story on this grant also doesn't add up, COPS spokesman
Gilbert Moore insists city officials aren't dragging their feet. Camden is taking a wise
approach, Moore says, that could result in federal approval to use the grant more
creatively.

Camden may be able to use the total award to rehire laid-off police officers over the
next one-and-a-half to two years instead of over the three-year life of the grant. This
would allow city officials to rehire a greater number of its 167 laid-off officers.
Hold up, what?

In a somewhat related matter, a new law to entice banks to open in financially strapped
cities such as Camden and Newark was signed into law last week by Gov. Chris
Christie.

The law -- sponsored in the Legislature by Sen. Donald Norcross, D-Camden -- offers
incentives for state-approved financial institutions to open branches in "bankless" urban
districts. It allows such banks to pay lower-than-market interest rates to governments
that pass resolutions to open accounts in those banks.

Dare I say hold-up?

Let's grasp this concept: Government officials want to help banks (I'm trying to recall the
last time that happened); more banks will open in Camden, leading to more security
risks and adding pressure to a police department that last month lost nearly half its force
to layoffs; and the nation's second-most dangerous city will funnel its weak revenue
stream into these vulnerable institutions.

Great plan.

Through mid February, the year-to-date number of city shootings has doubled to 26
year over year. Also, almost every other category of violent (except for murders) and
nonviolent crime has also increased compared with that time period last year.

Yet legislators seem to have no reservations about this law's implementation at a time
public safety is at a crisis point in the state's poorest cities.

"I wouldn't tie the two together," Norcross says. "The goal is to bring financial services
to areas (for example, North Camden) with little or no banking. With the absence of
traditional banks, mobile bankers driving around end up doing it or those who aren't
regulated."

Budget obscurities, continued

In response to Thursday's column that highlighted obscurities in Christie's budget
introduction and address, the governor's office wanted to clarify that its performance-
based budgeting strictly applies to state departments and, by cutting transitional state
aid 10 percent, it still intends to eliminate the flow of extra state tax dollars to
underachieving cities such as Camden.

Also, after saying it sees "plenty of improvement" in the efficiency of most municipalities
and no improvement in the performance of school districts with overblown per-pupil
costs and low academic standing, the administration didn't address why it kept the same
level of municipal state aid this year and increased school aid to all districts by a total
$250 million.

The extremely busy governor's office hasn't yet responded to other issues reported in
Thursday's column.

Since Christie's budget speech Tuesday, state Democrat leaders have assured that
Assembly budget chairman Louis Greenwald, D-Voorhees, will dissect the proposed
spending plan to identify issues.

But it doesn't appear as if Greenwald has yet delved too deeply into the roughly 135
pages of budget material. He didn't respond last week to questions about his review or
ideas for compromise. In a post-budget address interview with my colleague, Jane Roh,
Greenwald bashed Christie for contradicting his own mantra that New Jersey's leaders
must do "big things now."

Greenwald and several Democrats say Christie failed New Jerseyans by "stealing" for
his budget some $200 million in Democrat-sponsored business tax break proposals he
vetoed a week prior. That move will delay job creation by several months.
However, Greenwald also seemed somewhat disingenuous during Roh's interview
when he said another big thing the state needs, pension reform, shouldn't be done too
hastily.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-West Deptford, promised and Christie

demanded in his address such reform be made by mid-March. Greenwald attributed the
fractured pension system to the past 30 years of administrations making insufficient
payments.

"Let's not try to do this in three weeks," he said. "Let's get all the people at the table. It's
going to get done."

Come on, Lou. Sound pension reform ideas have been on the table for the past year.
That can hardly be called hasty.
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