The Republican governor shared the stage with three Democratic mayors with whom he’s developed friendly relationships: West New York Mayor Felix Roque; Union City Mayor Brian Stack, who is also a state Senator; and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer
During a two-hour town hall in deeply Democratic West New York, in Hudson County, Christie criticized the Legislature for not putting forward a bill that eliminates future sick leave payouts altogether, and for not allowing towns to opt out of civil service.HUDSON COUNTY — Gov. Chris Christie today pressured Democrats who control the Legislature to enact his remaining “tool kit” measures intended to help towns curb property taxes.
During a two-hour town hall in deeply Democratic West New York, in Hudson County, Christie criticized the Legislature for not putting forward a bill that eliminates future sick leave payouts altogether, and for not allowing towns to opt out of civil service.
The Republican governor shared the stage with three Democratic mayors with whom he’s developed friendly relationships: West New York Mayor Felix Roque; Union City Mayor Brian Stack, who is also a state Senator; and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer.
“There’s still some work that needs to be done,” said Christie. “Two of the big things we need to get finished… is to get real civil service reform, so these mayors can share services without requiring all these civil service rules that block their ability to do that to be more efficient, and we need to get real reform of our sick pay system.”
Although Democrats passed a bill that capped sick leave payouts at $15,000, Christie vetoed it, he said, because he did not want any future payouts. He also vetoed the Democrats’ measure to change the civil service system because it did not allow towns to opt out.
Although Hudson County is one of the most Democratic counties in the nation, Christie’s visit here was not unusual. Roque said he’s visited West New York three times.
The Republican governor has worked to make inroads in Hudson County, which every Democrats who runs statewide hopes to produce huge margins from on Election Day.
It’s also the home county of Christie’s arch-rival, Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez.
During the meeting, the three mayors agreed with Christie, saying the civil service was an impediment to sharing services and that sick leave payouts were busting their budgets.
Stack said he would co-sponsor Christie’s version of the sick leave bill because every year public workers retire with large sick leave payouts.
“I’ll say it on the record today: I’ll be a co-sponsor of that legislation on the sick pay and vacation pay. No doubt about it,” he said. “I have to be fearful every year how many people are retiring.”
Democrats in a press release said Christie was attempting “to deceive the public,” saying he hurt taxpayers when he cut municipal aid and nothing that they passed legislation on civil service and sick leave that was vetoed by Christie.
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