News

With Speziale gone, acting sheriff looks to settle down Passaic department

Published August 12, 2010

While Jerry Speziale reported to his new job with the Port Authority Police on Wednesday, acting Sheriff Charles Meyers spent his first day trying to restore calm to the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department.

Meyers attended roll calls and consulted his top brass, toured the jail, met with politicians, and spent most of his time “trying to put people’s mind at ease” following Speziale’s abrupt resignation after nine years as sheriff on Tuesday.

“The Sheriff’s Department has to move forward,” he said after a meeting with department brass. “The citizens deserve efficient services. The citizens deserve to have the employees they are paying to do a job do that job,” he said. “The employees deserve to go to work knowing what is expected of them.”

Meyers said a decision would be made “in a day or two” about the fate of eight sheriff’s investigators Speziale hired last year with his patronage power. The state Civil Service Commission says the hirings exceed the 15 percent limit of such patronage appointments and wants them terminated. Speziale has appealed that order, but the county freeholders have so far refused to fund the appeal.

Speziale, meanwhile, reported to work as the new deputy superintendent and assistant director of public safety at the Port Authority Police Department in Jersey City. PAPD spokesman Ron Marsico would not give details about what the new job entails and would only confirm that Speziale showed up that morning. The post pays Speziale $198,510 — a big raise from the $151,000 he made as sheriff.

Speziale did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. But he cited family reasons when he resigned, and he had been angling for the Port Authority job for months. His departure was accomplished with the help of two Republican legislators, Assemblyman Scott Rumana, Wayne, and state Sen. Kevin O’Toole, Cedar Grove.

According to Rumana, all three met with then-Governor-elect Chris Christie shortly before he took office in January to discuss how Speziale might find another police job in the state. Rumana, also chairman of the Passaic County Republican Party, was eager to get the highly popular Speziale, a Democrat, to drop out of the sheriff’s race. Speziale, according to Rumana, was looking for a job where he no longer would “have to be running for election.”

Meyers will serve as acting sheriff until Christie appoints someone to fill out the remainder of Speziale’s term. According to the statute, the governor doesn’t have to appoint anyone to the post, and could leave Meyers in the job through the November election. But if he does appoint someone, it has to be a Democrat.

The governor was on vacation on Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said the governor will consider the issue when he returns next week.

Meyers, who is an undersheriff in charge of the Passaic County Jail, said he has no interest in running for a full sheriff term in November.

“I could be here for eight minutes or eight months,” he said. “But I have no interest at all in running. I don’t aspire to be a politician. Public office is not my thing.”

Meyers and the freeholders will be busy enough dealing with other fallout of Speziale’s nine-year run. He leaves behind a long trail of unresolved lawsuits resulting from tangles with his staff including alleged wrongful firings, claimed discrimination, and horrid conditions at the jail.

Democratic Party Chairman John Currie said the party has to move quickly to find someone to run against Republican Felix Garcia. Some candidates have begun to emerge. Former Paterson police Chief Larry Spagnola said he wants the job, and one of Speziale’s closest allies in the Sheriff’s Department, Chief Leonard Lovely, says he’s interested.

“It would be an honor if they would consider me,” Spagnola said. “Let’s just say I’m getting a lot of calls from people and that shoe would fit. I would love to put those shoes on.”

Lovely was a little more cautious. He said he hadn’t gotten the call from Currie, and won’t make a decision until he does. “At this time, I’m not 100 percent sure that I would run,” Lovely said. “But I’m not ruling it out.”

Another official being talked about is Glenn Brown, the Paterson public safety director, and Joey Torres, the former Paterson mayor.

BY RICHARD COWEN
The Record
STAFF WRITER