ENGLISHTOWN — When asked last week if the police department had been notified of any planned staffing reduction for the eight-man force, Sgt. Richard Settele said, “I have no comment on that now. We are waiting until the Nov. 12 [Borough Council] meeting.”
When the News Transcript reported on Nov. 5 that Englishtown officials were going to eliminate one clerical staff position and reduce two full-time Department of Public Works (DPW) employees to parttime status, the paper also reported that the borough administrator said officials were “considering all options” when asked if the reduction of the police force by two officers was also on the table.
Borough Administrator Laurie Finger said all options are being examined in an effort to control costs and taxes.
Finger offered more details in a followup interview on Nov. 6, but she did not comment as to whether any additional reductions are being planned. She said the staff changes already provided for in a resolution passed by the council on Oct. 22 will be effective Jan. 1 and were implemented to offset the 2008 budget, not the 2009 budget.
In September, the council adopted a $1,975,896 municipal budget for 2008. Officials projected the collection of $851,161 in property taxes from Englishtown property owners to support that budget.
Finger said the decision contained in the Oct. 22 resolution was due to present and anticipated reductions in state aid.
“This was an anticipatory measure,” said Finger, who is also Englishtown’s chief financial officer. “The council had to raise taxes by two cents (in 2008) to make up for a state aid reduction. There is also the possibility the balance of the state aid could be taken back. We received what we were going to get in 2008. There was a possibility they could take it away in 2008 and they [state officials] can do so in 2009.”
According to Finger, in 2008 the state held back $66,535 of the $135,650 the borough was supposed to have received from the state for the year.
“The state just took it away,” she said. “We are anticipating losses in 2009.”
Finger said there were other revenues available to the borough in 2008 that are not going to be available in 2009.
As of Jan. 1, Englishtown’s three-man DPW will adjust its staff so that two of the department’s employees will become parttime workers.
According to Finger, only the DPW director will remain as a full-time employee in that department. The other two DPW employees will be reduced from a 40-hour work week to a 20-hour work week. Those two employees will no longer receive health benefits and they will not receive sick, personal and vacation days.
Also, one part-time clerk’s position in the borough clerk’s office is being eliminated.
Contact Kathy Baratta at [email protected]