December 6, 2008
Hon. Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.
Essex County Executive
Hall of Records, Room 405
465 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Newark, NJ, 07102
Re: OPRA Request
Ordinance #1
Dear Mr. DiVincenzo:
CWA Local 1081 respectfully requests your administration respond the following question our Union poses regarding the attached copy of Ordinance #1 of the agenda of the December 4, 2008 Conference Meeting of the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, as well as provide our Union a copy of the bylaws governing the Pension Commission of the Employees’ Retirement System of the County of Essex.
Attached, as well, please find the memorandum of November 12, 2008, written Administrator Joyce Harley Wilson by Chief Financial Officer Anthony Abbaleo, regarding “authorization to execute an agreement Dissolving the Pension Commission of the Employees’ Retirement System of the County of Essex and transferring the remaining control and management of the Directly to the County of Essex”.
1. Inasmuch as “New Jersey law requires that of the five Pension Commission members, two must be active County employees who are members of the Pension Fund. However, only two such individuals presently remain in the employ of the County, with one planning to soon retire and the other declining membership on the Commission. As such, the two employee positions on the Pension Commission can no longer be filled”, how then could it possibly be that the “Pension Commission approved such an Agreement at its meeting held on November 6, 2008 along with its dissolution upon the approval and ratification of the Board of Chosen Freeholders of its Resolution transferring control and management of the Pension Fund to the County”? How could the Pension Commission have been considered in compliance with “New Jersey law” if it was bereft of the two requisite “active County employees who are members of the Pension Fund”?
CWA Local 1081 thanks you, in advance, for your anticipated expeditious rejoinder to this sincere supplication.
Yours truly,
David H. Weiner, President
CWA Local 1081