Three Point Pleasant Beach Police Officers Fear Possible Loss of Jobs, Health Insurance

Point Pleasant Beach Police Officer Scott Nase used to think the biggest threat to his job was his leukemia.

He was wrong.

Less than five months after returning to work full-time, after an extensive sick leave, Nase is facing a possible layoff. So are Officers Paschal Drew and Kyle Boturla.

"It's shocking," Nase said in a recent interview.

"I was speechless," said Drew, referring to how he felt when he found out he might lose his job.

"I don't know what we ever did to them," said Boturla, referring to the council members who . On Feb. 15, Councilmen Michael Corbally made a motion to authorize Borough Administrator Christine Riehl to alert the state that they may lay off three police officers.

Councilmen Sean Hennessy, Frank Rizzo and Jeffrey Dyer voted for the motion.

Such advance notice is required before public employees are laid off, although the council does not have to act on it.

Corbally noted at the meeting that the borough is asking all other employees to take 17 furlough days to help close a budget shortfall of about $800,000.

The town cannot ask the police to take furlough days because when employees take the unpaid days, their entire department must close. That cannot be done with an emergency department like police.

Corbally said at the time, "Hopefully, by the next meeting, we can work this out."

The next meeting is March 8. Nase, 30, Drew, 31, and Boturla, 27, are the ones "on the block," as Nase puts it, because they have the least seniority.

Nase said any than it already is. He said usually there are only two or three officers working a shift.

Now the officers say they are left to wait and worry to see if the council members actually cut their jobs.

"It's disappointing," said Drew. "When you took the oath to do this job, you never thought it would come to this." Drew said he'll always remember the day he was sworn in as a full-time police officer in August 2008, after completing a grueling training regimen at the Ocean County Police Academy.

His parents, Vivian and Paschal, longtime Point Pleasant Beach residents, stood by his side, holding the Bible for him.

"It was the proudest day of my life," said Drew, also a lifelong Point Pleasant Beach resident.

Now, in that same meeting room, the council will eventually decide the fate of the three officers.

Corbally, chairman of the council's finance committee, said on Saturday, "We're not planning any layoffs. We asked our administrator to submit a plan to the state. That's good planning. All towns should do that."

He declined to answer further questions on the telephone, but said additional questions could be submitted through e-mail. When asked in an e-mail if the three officers' jobs are safe, he did not respond.

The three officers, who are all single, say the waiting is stressful for them.

For Nase, the worry is especially intense since he needs health insurance for ongoing treatments for leukemia, which is cancer of the blood.

"Now is really not a good time for me to lose my job and health benefits," said Nase."When you become a police officer, you don't think you're going to have to go through this," he said. "I love my job, and I just want to keep doing it. When I was sick, my main goal was to get back to work."

Nase learned about a year ago that he had a rare form of leukemia caused by genetic abnormalities.

"I had been feeling run down, but I thought it was just the shift work," Nase said.

Then in January 2010, Nase said, a car driving east on New Jersey Avenue "blew through a stop sign" and smashed into his police car while he was on duty.

He was rushed to Ocean Medical Center's Brick hospital and diagnosed with whiplash, which got worse as the weeks passed.

Then his gums started bleeding. He went back to Brick Hospital where tests showed he had leukemia.

He was there for four days and transferred to Hackensack University Medical Center, where he stayed for 32 days.

Last May, he was well enough to go back to work on part-time desk duty. In September, he returned to full-time patrol work. He still has to take chemotherapy pills every three months until the end of 2012.

Side effects include severe migraines that caused him to recently miss two nights of work.

Nase became a Point Pleasant Beach parking enforcement officer when he was 19 in 2000 and a full-time police officer in 2006.

Nase, who earns about $77,000 annually, was born and raised in Point Pleasant Borough and graduated from high school there in 1999.

He moved to Point Pleasant Beach when he was hired, lived there six years and moved to Brick about a year ago when he bought a house.

Now he's worried about being able to make payments on it.

Similarly, Boturla is wondering if he'll be able to keep the house he bought in Toms River about two years ago.

Boturla visited Point Pleasant Beach as a child for years until he and his family moved there when he was 11. He lived there with his mother until he moved to Toms River two years ago.

He and Drew became volunteer firefighters when they were 16. Drew is still an active member.

His brother, Mark Drew, also is a longtime member and current chief of the fire department.

Boturla was active for seven years until he moved, since he now lives too far away to be able to quickly respond to emergencies.

All three police officers first worked as special police officers, writing parking tickets and patrolling the boardwalk.

Drew has been with the department since 2001, having started as a part-time, special police officer working parking enforcement. He earns about $62,000 annually.

Boturla earns about $77,000 per year and has worked for the department for seven years. He worked first as a Class II Special Police Officer for two years, then as a full-time officer starting in 2006.

He said he can barely stop thinking about how his job may be cut, especially with everyone talking about it at work.

"You walk in and everyone's asking, 'What did you hear?' " Boturla said. "We're a tight-knit family. When I was hired, I knew a lot of guys in the department from growing up with them and from the fire department.

"It's like going to work with your best friends," Boturla said. "No one wants to see anybody go. Everyone is stressed out."

Councilman Sean Hennessy had said immediately after the Feb. 15 meeting adjourned that Corbally had called him the night before, asked him to vote for the state notification and told him the negotiations had stalled because the PBA wouldn't give up overtime pay.

"They wouldn't give up the biggest part of what we were asking them to give up," Hennessy said. "What they gave up amounted to $94,000. But the overtime is $120,000. That's why I voted for this."

The PBA had made concessions, including giving up salary increases for the year. Mayor Vincent Barrella spoke strongly against the state notification, saying the proposed budget, which has not been introduced yet, has only a small tax increase without any layoffs.

However, Barrella did not have a vote because he can only vote when there is a tie. Council members Kristine Tooker and Tim Lurie voted no, saying the decision was "premature," especially since negotiations with the PBA were still ongoing.

It's not just Barrella and two council members who are against layoffs.

Stephen Reid, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran against Barrella last November, said in a recent interview that he also opposes them.

"The police are easy targets," Reid said. "The council did this without doing audits of every department and without any hearings. I'm against it."