NJ STATE PBA TO PROTEST KEAN UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC SAFETY 

(WOODBRIDGE, NJ—July 2, 2019)- New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Colligan today announced that he and other members of the PBA will be protesting the actions of Kean University Director of Public Safety, Mark Farsi, in advance of a sham “hearing” for charges against twenty-year veteran officer and PBA rep Alex Perez.

The organized protest to support their PBA members will begin at approximately 9:30 AM on July 3rd at the corner of Green Lane and Morris Avenue in Union Township and is scheduled to occur before the 10:00 AM “hearing” being spearheaded by Farsi.  Organizers are asking members to try and arrive by 9:00 AM.

Perez and another member of the PBA, along with three other Kean University police officers, have been targeted by Farsi and are being unfairly persecuted for reporting potential crimes by civilian supervisors to the local prosecutor and for fighting to uphold the terms of their labor contract.

Mark Farsi has a history of incompetence in leadership positions marked by unwarranted suspensions and terminations of anyone who would dare question his authority, his poor decision-making or his efforts to ignore the terms of labor agreements.

Farsi was plucked from the Virginia correctional officer system by then-Governor Chris Christie to be the Deputy Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Corrections in 2010.  He then went on to become a Warden in the Sussex County Bureau of Corrections.  Following the well-publicized incident in which Farsi’s then boss, Sheriff Michael Strada, acknowledged publicly that Farsi was responsible for attempting to overcharge PBA members for rubber gloves by adding them to vending machines at a price in violation of the state contract, Farsi then somehow landed at Kean University.

Now, as Kean University’s Director of Public Safety, Farsi is once again abusing his authority and creating false scenarios to punish anyone who would raise legitimate concerns in service of the job protecting the Kean University community. “Morale is abysmal in the force and attrition is out of control,” Colligan stated.

“Mark Farsi has a well-earned reputation in the law enforcement community as someone who will not hesitate to abuse his power and hurt anyone who would question his authority,” said Colligan.  “Farsi has been exposed at every position he finds himself in and now he is doing what comes naturally by using his position to unfairly charge well-respected officers and to create a so-called ‘hearing’ to try and destroy a respected 20-year veteran like Alex Perez.  Farsi needs to know that he has again stepped over the line and our membership will not stand for it, so I’m asking our members to come and make our collective voices heard against someone targeting one of our own.”