In a decision that did not sit well with anyone but Derrick James. on Thursday, August 10, 2017, Lt. Ronald Edwards was sworn in as the "Director" of the jail. EdPDLaw will continue to refer to him as Lieutenant because that is his true law enforcement title. In a Department with over 400 law enforcement officers, one should have to attain a rank higher than Lieutenant to run the place. Not in Hudson County, Lt. Edwards, who boasts a GED was given the helm of the chaotic jail along with all its problems.
Apparently, someone named Troy Mack had taken to the microphone and requested a 30 day delay in the appointment to allow them time to investigate the 2 recent deaths at the jail. The Freeholders shot him down as for some unforeseen reason, they needed to make the appointment immediately. Now, if I were Edwards, that would concern me as there is no reason why the appointment could not wait. Unless they need a fall guy immediately. Not a good sign.
The last time they needed to make promotions immediately, they ended up having to demote all their promotions, and that happened like, yesterday. It should still be fresh in everyone's mind.
My take on this? They are setting Edward's up as their "patsy". Oscar is back calling the shots and he needed his buddy, Eric Taylor, to clean up some paperwork so he brought him in and placed him in a position to change that paperwork from "Oscar Aviles" to "Ronald Edwards". Remember, there are Federal Audits being conducted. The Feds are looking into all the finances of their grants, you know, the grants they use to pay Castillo and his buddies overtime.....
Let us not forget that Eady picked Edwards as his fall guy when he started using Edward's computer to tap the Union's phones. He saw the same potential in Edwards.
Lastly, Derrick James? Really? My goldfish is going to be the next Director, do you want to suck his balls too?
INTERIM DIRECTOR ERIC TAYLOR HIRED TO RECOMMEND NEW DIRECTOR
Kudos to the Hudson County Board of Freeholders for naming an Interim Director to determine which of the senior-level employees, if any, qualify to hold the position of Director of Corrections. After several tumultuous years of scandals involving supervisors, the Freeholders have ignited hope with the over 500 employees of the Department, civilian and law enforcement, that their working environment will get better under the proper leadership.
Eric Taylor was hired and signed a Contract with the County to be the interim Director. His duties include:
As Director, Eric M. Taylor will have full authority to manage the HCCC, including but not limited to authority over staff, facilities, inmates, security, and administration and program matters. During the Initial Contract Term, Eric M. Taylor will review and analyze the current senior-level employees and make a recommendation as to whether any of them qualify for the position of permanent Director. If the County opts to renew this Agreement, during the Renewal Contract Term Eric M. Taylor will train and mentor a senior-level employee to assume the Director role; or, if Eric M. Taylor has determined that none of the existing staff is appropriate for the Director role, Eric M. Taylor will conduct a nationwide search to identify and vet appropriate talent, Eric M. Taylor will not be precluded from applying for the position of permanent Director.
I don't understand why Director Taylor has not taken time to address the troops but I do understand why the supervisors are doing everything possible to prevent supervisors and the rank & file from having any communications with him. How can he fix a problem if he is not aware of what the problems are?
At least the Freeholders care - or, they are tired of hearing about the problems in the Department of Corrections, either way it is a glimmer of hope. The only downside I see is if the Director is not accessible to the officers, they are still going to end up going to the Freeholders.
EdPDLaw Editorial
November 28, 2016
INTERIM DIRECTOR ERIC TAYLOR BOASTS AN IMPRESSIVE BACKGROUND IN THE NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Director Taylor began his career in 1973 in the New York Department of Corrections and held various titles including: Executive Officer of the Application Investigation Unit; Executive Assistant to the Commissioner; Command Officer of the Health Management Division; and Division Chief managing 6 correctional facilities and Rikers Island Infirmary command.
He is credited with reducing violent incidents in the jail and reducing both overtime and sick time expenditures with a staff shortage and over population of inmates.
He reorganized the chain-of-command and stressed performance and accountability.
In 2000, in honor of Taylor, the Rikers Island Correctional Facility for Men was renamed the Eric M. Taylor Center.
He is quoted as saying "Sometimes the worst of circumstances produce the best outcomes."
You are definitely in the right "worst" place. Work your magic. Best of luck with the 3 supervisors who believe they are in charge and will do everything in their power to undermine your efforts while kissing your ass.
HUDSON COUNTY FREEHOLDERS APPOINT AN OUTSIDER AS INTERIM DIRECTOR - A WARM WELCOME TO ERIC M. TAYLOR
At today's Freeholder's Meeting they approved the 6 month appointment of Eric M. Taylor as Interim Director of the Department of Corrections. Mr. Taylor is the owner of Taylor Management Strategies in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He is tasked with the challenge of his career, to fix the very broken Department of Corrections. It appears from his background that he is up to the challenge as he is the former Chief of the New York Department of Correction and former Director of the Camden County Department of Corrections.
Among other things, his job will be to detect and weed out the cronies, nepotism and cliques and to re-organize the Department in an efficient and fair manner.
His contract is for $85,800 and runs from December 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017.
Congratulations and the best of luck to Mr. Taylor.
EdPDLaw Editorial November 8, 2014
DIRECTOR OSCAR AVILES REPEATEDLY PLACES SUPERVISORS WHO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF COUNTY FUNDS IN POSITIONS WHERE THEY HAVE ACCESS TO DO SO
Having reviewed the overtime supplied by the County and being familiar with the past practices of the County, one thing is very clear. Despite knowing that it’s Supervisors take advantage of the County and help themselves to what they are not entitled to, Director Aviles' keeps placing Supervisors in positions to take advantage of the system.
We have covered the Aviles/Aviles nepotism fiasco where the Director placed his cousin in Internal Affairs to do his dirty work and rewarded him with unlimited sick time, unlimited overtime and then "punished him" by "demoting" him to the most sought after position in the Department, Work Release.
We are watching the same scenario unfold with the Nalls-Castillo-Nalls nepotism wherein they promoted a woman to the position of Deputy Director without calling for a test and opening it up to qualified membership. She, her husband and daughter are rewarded with jobs, multiple positions and assignments, unlimited sick time, unlimited overtime, OJI and other percs not yet revealed on this blog.
Let us not forget how that position for Deputy Director opened up in the first place, where they previously promoted former Kirk Eady to the position of Deputy Director, after he failed the test for Deputy Warden, giving him unlimited sick time, the authority to discipline those who he did not like and look the other way for favors from those he did like. They placed him in the position to intercept private, protected telephone conversations between the Union and their attorneys.
It is very clear that promotions in Hudson County are not merit based but are given to the personnel who are willing to bend the rules and abuse their authority to harass the membership. This abuse of authority and official misconduct is rewarded with the percs described above. Who pays for these percs? The tax payers, the State and Federal Government who supply the monies to finance the facility, and the members who are constantly harassed, fined, suspended, and terminated.
Then the vicious circle begins again. The members:
file grievances;
obtain attorneys;
file appeals;
unfair labor practices;
end up in PERC or in the OAL to fight the charges;
the County hires attorneys to defend the appeals;
pays the attorney a ridiculous amount of money;
the member wins;
the County has to pay back pay and reimburse the member for attorney fees and cost.
Again, who pays for all this? The tax payers and the membership.
Now that we know how it works, we need to discover why it works this way? Simply, who is overseeing this bad movie and making these horrendously stupid decisions? And why is no-one taking any actions to correct it?
Three things have to happen to allow this corruption to continue:
1.Someone in the Legal Department has to approve it;
2. Director Oscar Aviles has to approve it; and
3. The Lt. in charge of time keeping has to look the other way.
EdPDLaw has been collecting time since 2010 and has recently received the overtime reports from 2013 and 2014 from Lt. Ronald Edwards. Since collecting the overtime reports, Lt. Ronald Edwards had been receiving an hour or two of overtime almost on a daily basis. That is until 2014 where the report he supplied to EdPDLaw in response to my OPRA request indicated that he only received 3 hours of overtime in 2014? (Did Dembowski put a stop to it?)
I then obtained Edwards pay stubs to verify that he only received 3 hours of overtime in 2014 and found thats not really true. In February of 2014 he received $1219.85 in overtime, far more than 3 hours. He also had an additional 3.5 hours of overtime income, and has received 2 raises. I'm sure the County is aware that for Pension purposes it is illegal to absorb the overtime into his base salary and they would never do such a thing. But, just in case they would do something like that, EdPDLaw is going to send its findings to the pension board.
He also received an education stipend? The Contract states that Educational Stipends are for completion of college courses, and you must get a grade of "C" or above. According to his DD214, I'm not sure he has any college, but commend him for making the rank of Corporal, Food Service Specialist. Moreover, his "education stipend" only appears on 5 of his paychecks, then stops.
On Thursday 6/6/2013 Lt. Edwards puts in for 8 hours of overtime from 13:15 hours to 21:15 hours, yet his regular hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 15:00 hours. There is an overlap of time, but he may have just given himself that extra hour and a half, because nobody really cares anyway.
Lt. Edwards COSS entries do not match the overtime report he gave to EdPDLaw for 2013, it looks like he under reported by 10 days. Now who would do that and why? (Remember Lt. Edwards was the one in charge of COSS).
Since sending me the Overtime Report on October 1, 2014 he has accumulated an additional 3.5 hours of overtime during the pay period beginning October 3, 2014. Click to view paystubs.
And who assigns Edwards the overtime? Supervisors, just like the rank and file have an Overtime List which they go through by seniority. Yet Edwards, it appears, assigned himself an hour or two of overtime whenever he felt like it which up until 2014, was almost everyday.
They called for a Captain's test, Edwards took it and allegedly came out #6, they tried to skip everyone else to get to him, including Dembowski. (Just curious, was someone really bringing an assault rifle that they are unqualified to use back and forth to work?) Once again, they attempted to skip the list. (Does anyone see a pattern here?)
Edwards has an administrative position as opposed to an operational position, therefore there is no reason for him to get overtime, let alone Holiday pay as his office is closed on the Holidays and he does not work.
Edwards oversees the Office of Professional Standards (RFLMFAO). From the looks of the overtime for this Department they should change the name to the "Office of Professional Snow Removal and Battery Repair" as the officers are racking up overtime for removing snow when there are 1700 inmates and a Streets and Roads Department who could handle that. Click to view overtime for the Office of Professional Snow Removal.
And how do you get to be a member of the Office of Professional Snow Removal? Is it posted? If so, what is the criteria used to gain membership? Prior snow removal experience?
EdPDLaw receives your emails, letters and phone calls, thanks you for your assistance and is doing its best to make your working environment better so that everyone is treated with respect and dignity; so everyone is treated equally; and so everyone is afforded the same opportunities to compete and advance their careers.
P.S. I am aware that the fix is already in for the 287g class and that one of the members who applied for the school has keys to the facility (literally).
P.S.S. Oscar, Tish, Eriberto, Edwards, you can call me directly (609) 377-5948, you don't need to threaten Board Members. (Retaliation, Unfair Labor Practice) We can do lunch.
