[Opinion] Atlantic City Dir. of Public Safety Job

You well know the definition of insanity. You do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

Atlantic City, New Jersey keeps repeating the same mistake … the hiring of a civilian director of public safety to oversee the police, fire and emergency management functions.

Each time, the experiment begins and it ends. Only to be repeated in a rinse and repeat fashion … again and again. It just doesn’t work well in Atlantic City. It never has.

Bob Pugh, Christine Peterson, Robert Flipping and Wil Glass have all held this position over the past few decades.

There has not been a civilian director of public safety in Atlantic City for more than a decade. For a good reason. It just doesn’t work in Atlantic City.

Now, here we go, again. Former Pleasantville Police Chief Sean Riggin will become the latest iteration. Riggin has been serving in Atlantic City as a consultant for the state of New Jersey.

There is one initial problem. The position of director of public safety no longer exists. The Atlantic City Council eliminated the position upon Don Guardian becoming Mayor of Atlantic City.

In addition to being mayor, Don Guardian also served as the director of public safety and he did both jobs very well.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small announced the hiring, however, City Council will have to vote to create the position for this to be able to properly and legally take effect.

Riggin was the chief of a small police department,(Pleasantville, New Jersey). I’m not aware that he has any experience with fire department operations.

I’m not sure that he would have wanted the position … I suspect that he would not … however, Vincent “Skip” Granese would have been the perfect choice … if this experiment is to be resurrected, yet again.

It seems rather obvious that the state of New Jersey made this move to implement a director of public safety at this time … likely to take the direct supervision of public safety away from the indicted Marty Small.

It’s been untenable for Small to serve as director of public safety under his current tenuous circumstances.

The position of director of public safety can only set policy. Riggin is not allowed to play any role whatsoever in the day-to-day operations of the police and fire departments.

Also, James Sarkos and Scott Evans (the respective Atlantic City police and fire chiefs) have more experience than Riggin.

That is why the director of public safety position in Atlantic City is not necessary in the first place.

It’s only happening now because Marty Small is currently facing multiple criminal indictments.

Directly below, are photos of the fine Atlantic City Police and Fire Department’s in action: