Camden workers block bridge in protest

Calling the gubernatorial appointee who runs Camden a dictator who is endangering lives and civil rights, city employees marched through rainy streets yesterday, briefly blocking the Ben Franklin Bridge toll gates before massing at a raucous City Council meeting.

About 75 firefighters carried signs denouncing recent department cutbacks as they stopped afternoon rush-hour traffic on the bridge, where a toll worker screamed at them in vain to get out of the way.

They then gathered outside City Hall with about 100 more protesters - police officers who marched from their union headquarters and civilian employees getting off work - and called out the appointed chief operating officer of the city, former Superior Court Judge Theodore Z. Davis, chanting: "Fire Judge Davis! Fire Judge Davis!"

The chants were repeated inside, where union leaders unsuccessfully asked City Council to pass a vote of no confidence in Davis. They vowed to hold Gov. Corzine, who appoints the chief operating officer, accountable in November's election.

Employees are angry about deep financial cuts in the city and over control over city operations that rests in Trenton, not Camden.

"Someone is going to die as a result of the way the Camden Fire Department is run right now," said Fire Capt. Al Ashley, president of the fire superior officers' union, saying a battalion chief nearly died in a fire last month because of a lack of personnel.

At the beginning of this year, Davis consolidated the department's 11 fire companies into five and created three roving "task forces." Firefighters say this has delayed response times, decreased safety, and furthered reliance on neighboring towns' fire crews.

"The blood will be on the hands of Judge Davis, [Fire] Chief [Joseph] Marini and also Gov. Corzine. City Council, I'm urging you to step up, because at some point blood is going to be on your hands too," Ashley said.

Union organizers said it was the first joint protest by police, fire and civilian employees in more than a decade, and it was the most vocal and public rejection of state control since the flurry of lawsuits that greeted the 2002 law that put Camden under it.

The protesters were fighting one of the primary provisions of the state law - establishing a chief operating officer who has more power than any mayor in New Jersey.

Under the law, in exchange for the loss of political power, $175 million in state loans and grants was steered to city projects. The takeover was supposed to last only until 2007, but it was renewed at Corzine's behest and will now continue to 2012 or possibly 2017. The renewal did not come with additional money.

The unions representing the three groups of public employees have different gripes with the way the takeover has played out, but they share a belief that Davis, a Camden resident appointed as the city's second chief operating officer in 2007, is imperious, deaf to their concerns, and a detriment to morale.

Paid by the state, Davis earns more than any other state employee. His $220,000 salary is supplemented by a monthly $9,776 pension from his time in the judiciary.

In a statement, Davis refused to comment, citing lawsuits filed recently by the unions: "Because litigation precipitated by the unions is now in process, I will not engage in any public commentary."

A spokesman for Gov. Corzine, Robert Corrales,  also released a statement that showed empathy for Davis: "Judge Davis assumed a difficult task in an environment of great need."

The statement then listed his accomplishments, including a new police strategy with an "increased focus on addressing and preventing violent crime," a 300 percent increase in the number of police officers on the street, a requirement that department heads monitor their budgets, reduced overtime, and monthly meetings to hold department heads fiscally accountable.

Corrales also said Davis launched a program to put anti-crime cameras on the street, but the program, launched in 2005, has yet to go into operation.

Though Corrales lauded Davis' crime-fighting initiatives, the new police strategy, which requires more interaction between officers and the community, is the focus of a lawsuit by the police union. The union said that officers now have to unlawfully stop people to meet illegal quotas and that their tactics violate residents' civil rights.

John Williamson, president of the police officers' union, said the police leadership uses "harassment and scare tactics" to control the force. There are 75 grievances against leadership, he said.

"We didn't take the job to be treated like we're working in some Third World sweatshop run by some maniac dictator," Williamson said.

He said the "dictator" is actually a group of people.

In addition to Davis, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office and New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram have powers over the department. Milgram has denied the use of quotas and said that the policing strategy has successfully reduced homicides and shootings in 2009.

Davis has his broadest reach over the nonuniformed city employees, and the long-simmering tension between his office on the 13th floor of City Hall and those who work below him came to a head in November, when he laid off 23 employees and eliminated three other positions.

Even the mayor, Gwendolyn Faison, who lost day-to-day powers with the takeover law, could only watch as one of her top aides was dismissed.

Camden County Council 10, which represents most of those employees, has filed a lawsuit and a complaint with the state because Davis did not negotiate with the union before making the terminations, and ignored contractually mandated civil service protections such as tenure. For his part, Davis has said the 2002 recovery law gives him extraordinary powers to fire employees regardless of civil service regulation.

"The unions have had it with his lack of respect, and we are asking you to ask Gov. Corzine to replace him," Karl Walko, president of Camden County Council 10, told City Council. "I'm asking you, 'Does he show you respect?' "

Councilman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson said he had been unable to get a copy of the new policing plan for the city. "I've been road-blocked as a councilman. It must be like the Manhattan Project," he said.

The fire chief, Police Chief Scott Thomson and Davis did not attend yesterday's City Council meeting, despite previous requests by Wilson that all department heads come to meetings.

Council President Angel Fuentes said he would write a letter asking for a meeting with Davis the first thing this morning before taking a no-confidence vote.

Councilwoman Dana Redd, who is running for mayor, did not comment.