Investigation of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor

2008. Overall, while each location follows the same process for securing anddocumenting evidence received, the Manhattan and Brooklyn offices lacked a separateevidence room. This commingling generated unnecessary traffic which compromised theevidence’s security because employees would access these rooms to obtain other items.In Brooklyn, the evidence room also maintained uniforms, ammunition,summonses, and other equipment, while the evidence room in Manhattan doubled as anoffice for a detective. The Manhattan evidence room also contained personnel files, casefiles, forms, and other administrative documents.In addition, the Waterfront Commission lacked an evidence destruction policy.While some situations require the maintenance of evidence for extended periods of time,the Police Division had no guidelines as to when and how evidence should be destroyedor returned.Madonna’s Position as President of the New Jersey State Policemen’s BenevolentAssociation Represented a Conflict with his Role as CommissionerMadonna served as a commissioner of the Waterfront Commission since 2001.Until September 1, 2008, Madonna was simultaneously employed as a detective in theBorough of Oakland. Between 2001 and 2008, Madonna served both as commissioner ofthe Waterfront Commission and president of the New Jersey State Policemen’sBenevolent Association (PBA), a union representing approximately 33,000 lawenforcement workers in New Jersey, including the detectives of the WaterfrontCommission. The Waterfront Commission detectives are members of Local 195, achapter of the New Jersey State PBA.As president of the PBA, Madonna headed the organization responsible forproviding protection and support to union members facing disciplinary action. Whilesome disciplinary matters were handled by the local chapters, others involved assistancefrom the state organization. In his role as commissioner, Madonna was required to voteon any disciplinary action against a detective of the Waterfront Commission.Accordingly, Madonna was responsible for disciplining Commission detectives, as wellas protecting them from that same discipline, a clear conflict of interest.Another function of the PBA is to negotiate labor contracts on behalf of itsmembers, including those employed by the Waterfront Commission. The Waterfrontcommissioners, in turn, negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the detectives.Therefore, by virtue of his two titles, Madonna was negotiating with himself. TheCommission detectives’ local chapter negotiated three agreements with the WaterfrontCommission during Madonna’s dual service, although Madonna did not participatedirectly in the negotiations.Madonna testified that he only once recused himself from a disciplinaryproceeding while he was both Commissioner and President of the New Jersey State PBA.That incident involved the discipline of Ariel Gonzalez, the president of the local PBA35