Flemington: How Not to Introduce Shared Services

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Jan 14, 2009 at 05:54:49 PM EST

The story of how they got there is one of remarkable bobbling on the part of Flemington Mayor Bob Hauck, a well-organized Fraternal Order of Police union local, and a widely-recognized lack of transparency about the Mayor's actions that created the sense in both police ranks and citizenry that there were things they deserved to know that were being kept from them.  Not so smart.

Full disclosure: I live in Flemington, and at the microphone thanked police for showing up at my house many times to help my mother, who died this week, get to the ER. I also live with the man who ran against Hauck for mayor, who also attended, and has not been shy in nailing the mayor for shortcomings. So be it.

For most of the people in the room, the story began at the last Council meeting, on Dec. 15, 2008. For the police, their union and Police Chief George Becker, it's been ramping up for a little longer.

Just a few days heads-up that shared services were on the December agenda was enough time to fill most of the seats in the tiny borough meeting room in the Hunterdon County seat.

But that 12/15 meeting turned ugly when Mayor Bob Hauck tried to eliminate the meeting's Public Comment section. It took a member of the Flemington Planning Board, sitting in one of about three dozen seats the room holds, to read to the Mayor the standard line printed on every Council agenda:

This meeting is held in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act.

And Mayor and Council got an earful.

Retail owners came with math showing costs of "well under $500/year per household" for the cost of police salaries, urging no cutback in the quality of life they protect. Others talked about their sense of security working late and seeing a cop out their window, walking a beat.

A tearful resident talked about swift thinking by an officer who recognized she was having a medication reaction, saving her life. A mother thanked police for a half-minute response time when her babies were in danger.

Some arguments were compelling. Sharon Ransavage, former Hunterdon County Prosecutor and Public Defender, said unlike most of suburban NJ "whose town center is a Wal-Mart," Flemington's town center is walkable and depends on police to keep street life safe. Jeff Doshna, the Planning Board member who instructed the Mayor about the Sunshine Law last month, said the 22% of the municipal budget spent on police salary is consistent with Council's requirement to focus on the borough's job - the health, safety and welfare of citizens. Explore shared purchasing, he counseled, not this. With empty storefronts piling up, Flemington - one of the few towns to drop out (read: flunk out) of the well-regarded Main Street Program - would have trouble attracting new businesses which won't relocate to a town without a police force, he said. Economic development professionals in places like Camden advise municipalities to put cops on foot patrol, get them visible. That's something Flemington already does but might not be able to do if the borough was merely the most densely-populated section surrounded by Raritan Township.

But the undercurrent to the meeting - and probably driving force to push attendance into the hundreds in a town of about 4,000, was summed up by a coffeehouse owner named Dana:

It feels like there's been shady behavior.

It wasn't just the Mayor's attempt to shut down public comment. There was a roiling sense among many in the room that clandestine talks were underway to disband the police department, and no sensible alternative was planned-for. One resident came with the minutes of an August meeting where Hauck was quoted seeming to shut down the plan. Hauck shrank from that confrontation,  refusing to look at the minutes shoved onto the table in front of him, finally acknowledging if the minutes say he said that, he probably did.

Police Chief Becker said he was so far out of the loop that the only thing he - or anyone - had to go on was the rumor mill. There were rumors the whole department would be disbanded in a cost-saving move, with Raritan Twp.'s larger department disbanded alongside it, and officers hired back at much lower salaries. There were rumors decisions had already been made. These were rumors many of those who stepped to the microphone had also heard.

Hauck said no decision had been made, that talks were only preliminary, and that every member of the council knew about meetings with representatives from its suburban neighbor. But the audience started shouting out when at least one of his Council members shook her head, no, nobody kept her in the loop either.

Considerable displays of distrust, particularly directed at the Mayor, set the restive tone of the meeting. For his part Mayor Hauck tried to quell any sense that the borough residents were being hoodwinked, but it was an uphill battle. No one spoke on his behalf, except a fellow elected. Perhaps set on the defensive, several attempts to deflect criticism of the borough's position fell flat, as when he appeared to try to impugn the integrity of a retired Raritan Twp. police chief who stepped up to speak by pointing out he was the brother-in-law of the current Flemington chief.

In the end, the mood of the room forced the Council to vote, shutting down cost evaluation of police services with its neighbor. It was probably the right decision and the crowd would have accepted nothing else. But a Town Meeting to talk budget on Feb. 11 is likely to be a difficult conversation now, between Mayor, Council and town. The economic news is worsening and the Mayor has not made his job easier, he's made it harder.