The state Public Employee Relations Commission has granted a Newark Police Department union a hearing on its complaint against the city's new civilian-led police oversight committee.
NEWARK -- Now codified into law by the municipal council, the existence of the Newark Civilian Complaint Review Board is being challenged by the police unions it is intended to oversee.
The state Public Employee Relations Commission has granted the Newark Superior Officer's Association a hearing on an "unfair practices" complaint filed over the creation of the city's first civilian-led police oversight committee.
In the complaint, the police union alleges that city officials including Mayor Ras Baraka skirted state due process law in creating the board.
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Among a host of other grievances, the union alleges that the board's operating guidelines were developed without the union's approval and represent a significant departure from the established police officer disciplinary process.
At the heart of the dispute is the provision which empowers the board to conduct its own investigations and compel officers to appear before its 11 members.
According to SOA President Capt. John Chrystal, those changes represent a violation of the union's collective bargaining agreement. "The city ordinance is in violation of state law, labor law and our negotiated agreement, and we're confident that we're going to prevail," Chrystal said.
The hearings, which are scheduled to begin on April 14 at the employment commission's offices in Newark, would appear to complicate Mayor Ras Baraka's plans for the board, which he has said would begin operating in the spring.
Baraka could not immediately be reached for comment. But in a previous interview, the mayor pushed back against the "disingenuous" allegation that the city did not seek the union's input during the development of the board's operating guidelines.
"We asked them to be involved in it, but they refused," Baraka said. "They refused to be involved because they're trying to push for a contract themselves without regard for what we're doing here, which is wrong."
The city could soon face a second legal challenge to the CCRB from the police department's other major union.
James Stewart, president of the Newark Fraternal Order of Police, said the union's negotiated collective bargaining agreement prevents alterations to the agreed upon disciplinary process.
"Laws stipulate who has subpoena powers, and we don't believe a mayoral executive order supersedes that," Stewart said Wednesday. The union plans on challenging the ordinance creating the CCRB in court, he added.
Conceived in the wake of a damning report released by the U.S. Department of Justice in July 2014, the board is designed to provide additional civilian oversight of an embattled police department that federal investigators found routinely engaged in acts of excessive force and violations of residents' constitutional rights.
It would grant citizens the option of directing their complaints to the board or to the police department's internal affairs unit. Board members would then conduct an independent investigation on cases brought before them, and would be able to summon the officers facing the allegations to a formal hearing.
The board will issue a determination as to whether an act of misconduct occurred, which will be forwarded to the city's police chief, who can issue a final decision on punishment using a so-called "discipline matrix" that creates guidelines for certain offenses and their severity.
Baraka and other advocates for enhanced civilian oversight of the city's police force have called the ability to review internal affairs investigations essential to the board's work.
That power gives the Newark CCRB an unparalleled advantage over similar civilian-led police oversight committees, said New Jersey ACLU Executive Director Udi Ofer.
"Subpoena authority is in place in other civilian review boards, and clearly a key power that must be a part of Newark's regime in order to ensure that the board has meaningful investigatory authority," Ofer said in an emailed statement.
"We're disappointed that the union has decided to litigate this issue before the ink is hardly dry on the civilian review board legislation, and before any rules and regulations have even been issued on how the review board will operate," he said.
With an administrative hearing pending, both opponents and advocates of the CCRB acknowledge that what powers it has may ultimately be decided in court.
Baraka said city officials are consulting with the state attorney general's office and U.S. Department of Justice as to the question of the board's ability to conduct its own investigations.
Regardless of the outcome of pending legal proceedings, its imperative that Newark police buy into the changing culture of the department, Baraka said.
"I think most police officers are with us," he said. "Newark has to be a part of it, we have to be a part of transparency, community policing."
For those officers that can't, "It's time for them to find another place of employment," Baraka said.
Vernal Coleman can be reached at vcoleman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @vernalcoleman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.