Hester to win as freeholders change mind

Will vote to extend benefits Wednesday

BY DON BENNETT, Ocean County Observer, January 21, 2006

TOMS RIVER — Reversing themselves after months of battering at public meetings and in the press, Ocean County's freeholders are scheduled to vote Wednesday to extend pension benefits to the domestic partner of Lt. Laurel Hester and other members of the Police and Fire Retirement System.

The decision came after a political teleconference among the Republican leaders of the county yesterday afternoon.

The agreement that emerged calls for the freeholders to vote Wednesday, after a closed-door meeting that is a routine part of their caucuses, to extend the pension benefits to Hester and her partner, Stacie Andree.

In addition, state Sen. Andrew Ciesla, R-Ocean, has asked the state Office of Legislative Services to prepare a bill he will sponsor that will eliminate the difference in the pension inheritance rights of members of the police and fire retirement system and other state public employee retirement systems.

If it is enacted, members of the police and fire retirement system will be able to leave their pension benefits to whomever they select, as is now the case with the other public employee pension systems.

Freeholder James F. Lacey of Brick confirmed the agreement reached at yesterday's teleconference that included the political hierarchy of the county.

"I think we're doing the right thing now.  I feel comfortable," he said.

He said he still feels the Legislature should have fixed the differences in the pension systems, saying "I don't want to pay to clean up for the state."

But he said Hester, whose physical condition has deteriorated before the eyes of the freeholders as the debate raged, needs action now, he said.

That is the reason the freeholders will discuss what to do Wednesday and vote to let the 49-year-old detective's partner, Andree, inherit her pension.

Hester said without the pension Andree would be unable to keep the home they share in Point Pleasant when she is gone.

"This poor woman may not have time," to wait for the Legislature to act, Lacey said.

There is no assurance that will come quickly, said Ciesla, who took part in yesterday's political discussion.

"I think it will pass," he said, but said it will need support from Democrats.

"We're not in charge," the Republican lawmaker said, referring to the party's minority status in both the Senate and Assembly.

Hester gave "a greater urgency to the matter," and that is why the freeholders agreed to act, Ciesla said.

Freeholder John P. Kelly declined to discuss what happened during the teleconference, saying the leaders involved agreed to keep it confidential.

"The freeholders and the administrative staff have been looking at all the issues in the Domestic Partnership Act," Kelly said.

He has been the target of the most vocal criticism from those urging the freeholders to extend the benefits to Hester and other county law enforcement employees because he claimed early on that the Domestic Partnership Act "circumvented the marriage law."

That spurred demonstrations where the freeholders were accused of homophobia and discrimination, the most recent of them Wednesday evening.

There were threats of a boycott of the tourism industry in the county, lawsuits, and political retribution.

Kelly said he believes changes in the pension law are needed to make it unnecessary for the freeholders to be concerned with the personal lifestyles of employees.

"The law has to be inclusive, not exclusive," he said.

"The freeholders want to give this lady's companion the benefits that others get," said Sen. Leonard T. Connors, R-Ocean, the senior senator in the county, and a former freeholder.

"They wanted to discuss this," he said of the party leaders.  "I was asked to join and made the phone call," he said.  His son, Assemblyman Christopher Connors, also R-Ocean, did, too, he said.

"I'm hoping when the legislation is put in it will move ahead," Lacey said.

Freeholders Joseph H. Vicari, John C. Bartlett Jr., and Director Gerry P. Little did not return calls seeking comment on yesterday's political summit.