The Jersey Journal
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — In sports, comedy and politics, timing is everything for success. This newspaper would like to think it was bad timing when a politically active bunch of firefighters decided to hand over a $25,000 donation to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy - a few weeks before the administration handed out fire promotions.
On Friday, Columnist Earl Morgan wrote that Jersey City Fire Director Armando Roman confirmed he organized and hosted a pre-holiday affair, hosted by a group called “Firefighters and Friends of Jerramiah Healy,” where tickets were sold at $150 and $500. Healy was presented with a $25,000 campaign donation during the affair.
On the same day Morgan’s column appeared, 26 firefighters were promoted to the rank of captain.
Roman denies that the fund-raiser had anything to do with the promotions. Given the anecdotal political history of Jersey City and Hudson County, local residents are sometimes cynical. Some cannot imagine that hard studying for exams is the only criteria for promotions. There is much at stake in the leap from firefighter to supervisor.
A base salary for a firefighter is $41,000 a year and they receive annual increases for seven years, topping out at $83,666 a year. A new captain begins with an annual salary of $98,474 a year and receives increases to a maximum of $110,000 a year. These base figures do not include longevity increases or overtime pay.
The last time the city promoted firefighters to captain was in March, when 18 were made. In less than a year, there were 44 fire captain promotions. Currently, there are 130 captains in a 600-member Fire Department. There are 171 ranking officers, making up 29 percent of the manpower.
After the March promotions, city officials expressed the need for better supervision by allowing a captain for every fire truck in the city.
Why the need for the latest promotions?
A spokeswoman for Healy said there was the need to curtail overtime, fill vacancies in the rank resulting from retirements, and to staff a newly created high-rise unit.
It is hoped the department’s needs are met and the city is not subjected to a bevy of promotions prior to the 2009 municipal elections - unless they are supported by an independent study of the department’s table of organization.
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