NJ cops/reservists back on the payroll
A few weeks ago we talked about Michael McCracken and Hector Cartagena the New Jersey cops who were suspended for abusing time they were allowed to participate in Air Force reserve duties. Our buddy, Katie O’Malley sends us a link to their Facebook support group which reports that they’re both back on the payroll;
I know there have been many rumors so I wanted to share with you that Friday night, Michael and Hector were put back on the Bloomfield Police Department payroll and Michael reported to work today. Your support and collective voices are being heard by Bloomfield’s new administration. Please know that this is far from over, which is why we chose to wait until tonight’s meeting to publicly post about this. There are still questions that demand to be answered and accountability that must take place. We look forward to working with you to make sure this situation never happens to anyone else.
They were being punished because the department didn’t have a policy at the time for reservists and then retroactively punished when the department finally had a policy in place.
Category: Support the troops
ESGR and USERRA hard at work.
Out of all of the programs we have…ESGR and USERRA are two of the best
Yep and now they can take a little time, build some other reasons to fire them that have nothing to do with their being military.
Its always good to hear the victories like this, but hopefully my previous statement doesn’t happen. though that’ll always be a fear of these kinds of things.
Good.
Wonder the odds that their employment options will expand very soon.
OWB: Odds even if they get canned or not. I live in Philly, and so we get all the Jersey news, and these guys were abusing the time off big time. They also got their jobs in no small part to having the union come out swinging for em. Jersey being what it is, city/PD may or may win that fight to get them canned. It sure sounds like they deserve it.
I hear ya, ANCCPT. I have no idea if they were abusing what would have been common sense policy in any other department. The point is that it is impossible to abuse a policy which does not exist, and when a policy is instituted, it can’t be applied retroactively.
Those who take advantage of their reserve status are no friend to me. I spent a lot of years balancing a military reserve career with a civilian career. There was a lot of give and take on both sides, but where the participants are willing, a good outcome results. And yes, I took it as my responsibility to educate several civilian supervisors who had no military experience about their and my requirements.
Making things up is never a good way to fire employees. Apply the rules, change the rules when needed, whatever. If these two are the type to push the limits, it is a matter of time until they are fired for something legitimate.
This is a local(ish) story for me and I’ve been following it since the issue could effect me. It seems like there jobs will be safe. A new mayor was sworn in. After his swearing in he promised changes in the atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the township government. He also pointedly promised support for veterans working for the town. Just a couple of days later these two were reinstated without continuing the court battle. They have the support of the new mayor. Good news for them.
Oh and I’m sure that it’s just a coincidence but the police chief announced today that he is retiring.
ANCCPT: could you elaborate regarding the questionable use of time off? Not doubting you, just don’t have access to the info and would like to know the details.
Service members know how to skate. The creation of rules due to their actions basically says it all.
Doesn’t mean the department can punish them retroactively though, that’s just being a poor sport.
Hondo: The Bloomfield Police Department alleges that the officers in question used their status as reservists to obtain time off from their duties as police officers to take vacations, going all the way back to 2008. The gentlemen in question dispute this, saying that their firing is politically motivated by a new mayor or some such. It’s gotten to a point now where the NJ State Attorney is investigating. The police chief who reinstated them, resigned shortly thereafter, before any external investigation took place.
Long story short: These guys took a bunch of time off starting in 08. Legitimate or not, no one really knows at this point. The Bloomfield PD had no written policy on military leave at the time. Now there IS a written policy and these two gentlemen are claiming that they are being retroactively punished for something that there wasn’t an existing policy for. Either way, both sides have lawyered up and dug in. The facts will come out eventually, but watching the news it sounds (to me anyway) that these two were using their service as a reason to get time off of work and to to other things and their administration got tired of it and popped em for it. Sadly, the didn’t have a policy in place to get them with and tried to do it retroactively.
Now that said, in their defense since the chief who fired them too over (the one now resigned) he fired 8 cops…five of them reservists.
However, this being a story outta Jersey, I’m inclined to believe that all parties are guilty until proven otherwise.
And OWB: Me too. It’s tough balancing a civilian career with the increasing demands of being a reservist. I’m kind of to the point where I don’t really want to let them know so I don’t hurt my chances of obtaining a position, but on the other hand, f$ck em. I’m proud of wearing that uniform. I earned it, and I’m gonna claim it.
**ADDENDUM**
One of the reasons the PD thinks they were on vacation and goofing off instead of on military leave is because other officers were complaining that they couldn’t get their vacation time and saw these guys on their social media sites doing things that were decidedly Not military related. That was a big part of pushing this forward to the point where they are at.
ANCCPT: thanks. In such a case, however, specifics matter.
Were the guys taking 3 days to travel each way going to AT/other training? Might or might not be arguably legit, depending on the specifics. If, however, they were taking 3 weeks, that’s a different story.
I’m not defending the guys, or the department; I don’t know enough facts here to defend either. But if there were no clear guidelines as to proper use of military leave and/or set procedures for doing same, then firing someone over violating a non-existent policy seems unsupportable.
I guess we’ll see if/when the NJ state attorney releases the results of their investigation. I’m guessing at most they’ll have to pay back the $$$ associated with any excess leave they took that’s beyond reasonable. After all: it is kinda hard to hammer someone for doing something if it’s not clearly against law/established rules/policy.
The allegations go back to time taken in 2007 and 2008 ferchistsakes. One officer had 15 days in question. The other had 29. The one with 29 supposedly took them while being treated for a deployment related injury. For the other it was supposedly for travel. The officers seem convinced they have all the proof they needed to prevail. If they had orders covering them on those days I would have to agree. But I don’t know the particulars. What I do know is that a new mayor was sworn in last week and they are now back to work and the Chief is out the door. The same Chief has fired other reservists.
BTW these same allegations were looked at by the county prosecutors office and found to be unwarranted. But the Chief went ahead anyway.
I can only go by what I’ve seen in articles but there is nothing that makes me believe the officers were wrong.