Camden is a city in trouble and many politicians from Governor Christie to Mayor Redd to Senator Norcross and Assemblymen Wilson and Fuentes are getting a lot of press coverage. No doubt, there are a lot of bad people who are taking advantage of the city's inbred poverty and the Governor's cutbacks in public safety and education to the detriment of the law-abiding and struggling residents of that city. But the silver lining is that there are also residents who are quietly working below the radar to incrementally improve the situation there.
One such citizen is José Delgado, a retired investigator for the public defender and former long-time member of the Camden Board of Education. I spoke with Delgado this afternoon about crime, education, and the hopes for Camden's future.
Here's a heads-up, this event is tomorrow. - promoted by Rosi
I recently got an email from a woman in my community, whom I admire greatly. She said:
"I've lived here forty-one years, and I am just recently waking up to the fact that what ails New Jersey is this system of home rule by the 560+ municipalities. Perhaps my eyes were blinded by the fact that at that time New Jersey was far ahead of other states in education for the handicapped, which was my primary reason for relocating. Over the years New Jersey didn't keep up, and when I finally began to wonder why I came to realize the great disadvantage the state has because of its overabundance of municipalities."
On Wednesday June 8 in Rutherford Boro Hall--7 pm--Courage to Connect NJ Bergen County and the Rutherford Community/Quality of Life Committee are hosting Gina Genovese--Founder and Executive Director of Courage to Connect NJ to talk about how municipal consolidation will save our state. www.couragetoconnectnj.org
Come find out how consolidation can make NJ more efficient, more affordable, and increase quality of life.
There's a lot of talk about consolidation and shared services as a way to address New Jersey's budget crisis. Some baby steps have been taken in areas such as public safety, county-wide purchasing, and library services.
While consolidation and sharing of services is a noble goal in the abstract, sometimes it just doesn't work out. Case in point: the Woodlynne Police Department.
Woodlynne is a tiny one-quarter square mile borough tucked between Camden and Collingswood. Four years ago, in an effort to save money, the borough disbanded its police force, sold off its squad cars and other assets, and outsourced police protection to Collingswood. Like almost all public service agencies, the Collingswood Police Department had severe fiscal challenges, and in 2009 started to cut back on police patrols in the Woodlynne borough. This soured the relationship between the two municipalities, and eventually they agreed on an amicable divorce - Woodlynne would resurrect its independent police department.
The borough of 3,000 residents hired about a dozen officers who were laid off from their police jobs in surrounding municipalities, and hired a former Camden police chief as their Director of Public Safety at a $60,000 annual salary. The new Woodlynne Police Department started operation this past Sunday. Much of the equipment such as bulletproof vests, guns, and forensic devices was recycled or donated from other departments or the state, although the borough did invest in two brand new squad cars.
I'm not qualified to comment on whether this insourcing initiative is good or bad for the citizens of Woodlynne. It's possible that the lure of home rule, clash of personalities, or insufficient service from Collingswood all contributed to this reversal. What's important here, though, for the rest of the state is to capitalize on Woodlynne's and Collingswood's experiences and apply those lessons learned to future cost-cutting efforts. The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety should interview the principal parties and document what worked, and what didn't. The Department should establish a repository of lessons learned from this and similar efforts - those that succeed as well as those that fail. And those lessons need to be part of the planning process for future consolidation efforts and sharing of services. By systematically exploiting mistakes of the past, we have an improved chance of ensuring a better future.
In a state where the average municipality has 14,867 people, the cries of consolidation are everpresent. Corzine wanted to ham-handedly force towns to merge, and Christie wants to implement bad policy that would put us further into debt. But we should look west, and I mean west of Pennsylvania for yet another solution, DISINCORPORATION
New Jersey has 566 municipalities and 489 of those municipalities maintain their own police force. This includes many municipalities that have only a few thousand people and are extremely small and condensed, this includes many municipalities which are surrounded almost entirely or entirely by another municipality.
In Indiana, it would be extremely uncommon for a town of less than 5000 people to retain their own police force, instead contracting policing services to the sheriff's office. Outside of the northeast, sheriff's offices provide policing services to rural areas, whereas in New Jersey, sheriff's main duties include operation of jails, security for the courts, and delivering process.
The other municipalities receive their policing from the NJSP, at a cost of $80 million per year.
Proposal:
-All municipal police forces should be dissolved and all police personnel should be rolled into the county sheriff's office
-The county sheriff's office, in turn, shall provide police services for all residents within their county
-Cut the $80 million it takes for the state to police these rural areas, as all areas of New Jersey shall receive policing from their respect county sheriffs
-Require a statewide hiring freeze for police/sheriffs officers for 5 years, and close down all police academies run by the state for 3 years.
-The new consolidated county police/sheriff offices should utilize old municipal police stations as precincts, and shut down unnecessary stations
-All public safety should be funded through a countywide ad valorum property tax
Will it work?
Well, in many counties in Maryland, there is only one countywide police force and one sheriffs office; this takes it to the logical conclusion.
"If it wasn't going to happen here, I wonder if it's going to happen anywhere," said Sal Lagattuta, one of the proponents.
It seemed like a natural candidate for a merger, but the people said they wanted to keep their identity, their name and that they didn't mind paying more to do it. Brian Donohue had this video over at the Ledger Live:We wrote last week about how the Medford Lakes council didn't even put it to their voters before squashing a proposed merger to share police services, not even merge the whole town. This will be a thorny issue for the new Governor to navigate, but one that if he's being real about changing the way we do business needs to receive some serious consideration. Brian Donohue asked this:
Will Christie have to push even harder to overcome New Jerseyans' love for home rule?
The answer is yes he will have to push even harder, but the follow up question is will he actually do the pushing necessary?
It still amazes me that we need a bill to tell us we shouldn't have school districts without actual schools, but the Governor made things official yesterday:
Gov. Jon Corzine Tuesday signed into law a bill that will clear the way to merge with larger districts 26 small school districts that do not operate schools.
The districts include tiny towns like Teterboro, Tavistock, Hi-Nella and Rocky Hill. Their school boards usually meet just once a year to approve sending a tuition check to a neighboring district.
The Governor called it a positive first step toward school district consolidation. The new law is meant to clarify a 2007 law that got tangled up in taxes. Small districts say they're not the problem and while there may be larger issues, that doesn't mean they should continue to exist. Jay put up a diary with some video on the press conference:No schools will be closed as they merge the districts. I'll put the video the campaign put out below the fold.
Farmingdale is one of 29 municipalities statewide that would be affected by the bill that calls for either the merger of "doughnut-hole" municipalities and the townships that surround them or the sharing of the towns' major municipal services and functions, within 10 years after the bill goes into effect. The goal, according to the bill's sponsor, is to lower property taxes.
They've tried to suggest, recommend and incentivize, but that hasn't worked. The debate has to happen because like many other problems facing our state, the status quo is unsustainable. Hank Kalet put it bluntly at Channel Surfing:
The reality is that we cannot continue to function in a state as small as New Jersey, with 8 million people and a badly busted fiscal situation unless we reduce the number of towns. There are 566 in New Jersey, 611 school districts, 21 counties and numerous other tax districts. Many do not need to exist.
Despite the fact that Morristown wants to locate its public works garage in Morris Township, Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello says he's not interested in combining forces with the township to pick-up garbage.
There's no logic in Cresitello's position, other than him being stubborn.
Why would he do anything logical? Cresitello was probably one of those kids who didn't share their toys either.
36 years ago today, President Nixon announced another round of troop withdrawals from South Vietnam. Despite already losing the war, Bush bravely insists on keeping others' sons and daughters in Iraq without a plan until they're all killed, or until he leaves office - whichever comes first.
And now back to your regularly scheduled news:
The latest Quinnipiac University poll has Menendez ahead 49%-45%, a 7 point swing since September when Kean Jr led 48%-45%. A Rasmussen poll will show Menendez ahead 44%-40%.
Not surprisingly, members of the Black Ministers Council endorsed Bob Menendez yesterday saying Kean Jr has offered nothing but unsubstantiated negative attacks. They also "voiced concern over Kean's 2002 vote in Trenton opposing racial profiling legislation." Kean Jr's spokeswoman says he actually did vote for it in the Senate after he voted against it in the Assembly.
Hamilton mayor Glen Gilmore has donated more than $12,000 he received from John Lynch, who recently pleaded guilty to corruption. "Gilmore had originally declined to give up the money, but changed his mind this week." Mercer County Republicans are calling the Mercer Democratics to return over $32,000 they've received from Lynch. Democrats say Republicans are hypocrites and should return $36,000 from Harry Parkin and others - all of whom pleaded or were found guilty as well.
There's not much love for Sen Karcher's bill to ban trans fats from restaurant food. Assemblyman Lou Manzo said "I just don't like the taste of this bill."
Third district legislators, Sen Stephen Sweeney and Assemblymen John Burzichelli and Doug Fisher, visited with students at Woodstown. One eighth grader said: "I never realized what they could actually do...It's nice to finally be able to see how they can affect us on a daily basis." Another added: "They made me really want to learn more about politics...They inspired me to maybe one day become a politician."
Assemblyman Joe Roberts has proposed creating 21 "super" county school superintendents as a way to cut property taxes, but Assemblyman Senator Bob Smith wants to go a step further and create 21 "administrative" county school districts, where purchasing, HR, transportation and other work is consolidated, eliminating an estimated 600 local administrators and staffers.
While the political hired guns for the Kean and Menendez camps have thrown reasoned discussion to the dogs and are busy painting their candidates' opponent as someone who has the ethics of Al Capone but is not as bad as, say, Pol Pot (wait until Nov. 4, though, when the really wacky accusations will start flying), our Governor has been proposing some solid ideas on combating New Jersey's multiple municipal madness.
By combining many small districts into fewer larger ones, "you end up having greater diversity in your school system," Corzine said. "If you went to a county system, you'd have a much broader, diverse community."
Corzine said he is not supporting local government or school district consolidation as a way to confront segregation in New Jersey schools, but he sees it as a side benefit of consolidation in the interest of property tax relief.
New Jersey is insanely segregated by race and class. Most often, municipal boundaries are the dividing line between a future of hope and expanding horizons for young people or one of little opportunities. In my home county, just stroll from poor, crime-ridden Plainfield into tony Scotch Plains next door, a distance of only a few hundred yards. Compare housing values and school performance data.
While I don't think that the Governor's plan (if enacted) will destroy neighborhood schools, it may make school administrators more serious about designing relevant curricula and other policies if their students hailed from a broader spectrum of households. It would also benefit students from all social, ethnic and economic groups who will be exposed to peers who aren't just like them. Third, making rich people sweat from time to time is probably a good thing.
You can expect that every newspaper in NJ will write the local version of the "whither home rule?" story in the coming days and weeks. I'm not going to post everyone one of the, but the ones that I find entertaining, I will.
This one, from the Times o' Trentn (as we all know, Treton properly pronounced has only ONE syllable - the second 't' and the 'o' are mostly silent), is especially funny -- the writer has NO CLUE as to why Princeton Borough and Township have steadfastly refused to commingle. He actually believes the township and borough have "the same zeitgeist." HA!
(The tale of two P'tons is an eternal battle of the six-toed townies versus the unwashed arrivistes in the township ... why, their money isn't even two generations old, and they've actually got some! Heathens!)
Why, if you can't remember when Cox's General Store had roasted peanuts in its window, you simply don't belong in the borough, dear ...
(And I remember when it cost $0.27 to travel one way from Kendall Park to Princeton on Suburban Transit .... and EVERYONE thought Kendall Park was just too declasse to even admit it existed ... never mind Deer Path and Cuyler Rd., both developed by the same parnership as KP, in P'ton township).
The Trentoonian picked up an article by my old friend and co-worker Angela Della Santi that is probably in today's Passaic Herald and/or Bergen Record. I neither agree nor disagree with the conclusions of Bogota's Mayor, though I do think he's a total bonehead on the topic of billboards.
I see that back in May BlueJersey ran the Ballad of Tom Kean by Charlie Stile (Angela's husband), another former Princeton Packet reporter and co-worker/friend of mine -- a lot of talented people came out of that newsroom, and a few of them are still there, having come to grips with economics of being a small-town newspaper person. (Me, I got tired of being poor so I went corporate. Little did I know what lie ahead ... )
Sorry about the long quote but I've got eight seconds to finish this and block quotes are faster than links
Northfield battles over ballot question on shared services
By MARTIN DeANGELIS Staff Writer, (609) 272-7237
Published: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Updated: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
NORTHFIELD — Local voters may have a say in November on whether they want their town to join nearby Linwood and Somers Point in looking at ways to combine government services, including the school boards, to try to save property tax money.
If the discussion is anything like the one Northfield's City Council had Tuesday night, it won't be cordial.
Council voted 4-3 to put a question on the ballot asking residents whether they want city officials to “examine and undertake efforts to combine government services (with Linwood and Somers Point), and the local and regional school boards, to achieve significant property tax reductions.â€
That vote went along party lines, with Northfield Council's four Democrats supporting it and the three Republicans voting no. Now Northfield's governing body would have to approve the ordinance again after a public hearing at its meeting next month before the question can go on the ballot in November.
But Republican Tim Carew objected that the vote was being “shoved down our throats†because the matter was just put on Northfield's agenda in the last few days, at the request of Somers Point Councilman Gregg Clayton. Carew said some Northfield officials hadn't seen or heard about the question until this week, and said Council President Vincent Mazzeo told Carew before the meeting that Mazzeo was calling for a vote because of “pressure from Somers Point.â€
In New Brunswick, a judge extended the Halper family deadline until noon Monday to leave their 75-acre Piscataway farm as a result of an Eminent Domain decision that will pave the way for a new park.
The flap over the Attorney General's involvement in her boyfriend's traffic stop is not going away and today the Bergen Record asks, "Why is Zulima so quiet?"
I do not think that any municipality has ever gone through with this process. I assume the new ordinances Joe Roberts has referenced are intended to streamline this process.
Look, I understand the original poster was only suggesting consolidating the administration of a particular service -- tax collection -- from the municipality to the state, but it's really the KEY function of the municipality! Everything else flows from tax revenues, all the other services, all the potential benefits.
The Governor would like the state's municipalities to consolidate services in order to reduce the cost of providing local government to people. Often times people take that to mean small things like co-purchasing gas, combining leaf pickup, but there are really good ways to save money without impacting services at all.
"You don't have to be a genius or a rocket scientist" to see that having 566 municipalities and 616 school districts is not the most efficient way to run a state, Corzine said.
"I hope we use this opportunity to really go at trying to get a more efficient way, a more productive way, to deliver the fundamental services that people want," Corzine said.
One of the most efficient ways that could save municipalities six figures every year would be to consolidate property tax collection at the county level.
Two South Jersey Assemblymen are asking the governor to postpone implementing the sales tax increase for another two weeks. The article doesn't mention where they plan to make up the difference in lost revenue.
Tom Moran writes about what Corzine considers "pay to play" in the budget process. Democratic legislators agreed to the sales tax increase, but only in exchange for $300 million in pork barrell spending.
Corzine's plans for the special summer session on property tax reform includes improving efficiency through consolidation of services. A coalition group called the Citizens Convention Coalition, which includes the AARP, the League of Municipalities and other, "plans a press conference today to urge the Legislature to put a convention proposal on the ballot this year, not next."
Yesterday Corzine signed legislation which would create the Department of Children and Families. The governor says the purpose is to "make sure that there is dedication and focus primarily on the job of looking after our children in the welfare system."
Despite a threat of a primary challenge from 33rd district Assemblyman Brian Stack, Sen Bernard Kenny says he won't step aside.
The owners of the Tropicana casino are being sued by a nonsmoking worker who was diagnosed with lung cancer.
The latest merger to stop before it gets started is the one between the towns of Sussex and Wantag. 
