Murphy stewing at the August 24 council session.
Red Bank’s council is expected to introduce a proposed labor contract with the Police Benevolent Association at tonight’s meeting.
It had better, lest it risk the ire of Councilman Art Murphy III. The council’s liaison to the police department was furious that the tentative pact wasn’t ready for a vote last time the governing body met, on August 24.
At that session, Mayor Pasquale Menna said the expected introduction of the pact had been delayed because the borough’s labor attorney hadn’t reviewed it.
“It’s easy enough for me to get my hands on a copy. The chief has a copy,” Murphy said from the dais, visibly angered. “I’m just asking that at the next meeting the PBA contract be put on” the agenda.
Menna said it would be.
“We’ve been talking for six months. We met in executive session,” Murphy told redbankgreen afterward. “There’s no reason it shouldn’t have been voted on.”
Terms of the proposed pact have not been disclosed, but are expected to be tonight.
Murphy told redbankgreen, “It’s a fair contract. It’s in line with everything else.”
In June, the council approved a six-month contract for clerical and other employees covered by Communications Workers of America Local 1034 with an annualized pay increase of three percent. That pact included provisions for a furlough program and a four-day workweek.
Tonight’s meeting replaces one previously scheduled for September 14, and begins at 6:30p.
An ordinance to set the start time for council meetings at that hour is also expected to come up. At present, the bimontly meetings are at 5:30 and 7:30.
