Combined trash collection costs of two towns high, report says
By Vic Monaco, Managing Editor
The equivalent of 20 full-time municipal employees, including five police officers, would lose their jobs under the consolidation of Hightstown and East Windsor envisioned in a recently released consultant’s study.
And those cuts eventually would render a potential savings of $1.16 million, which is the bulk of a maximum merger savings of $1.8 million, according to the report commissioned by the Greater Hightstown East Windsor Improvement Project.
That total potential savings would mean an average cut of $1,000 in taxes for borough residents, but township residents would not see any decrease, according to the report.
Unveiled last week, to the surprise of many, the report is on the agenda of the next meeting of the Borough Council on Tuesday. It also will be the topic of discussion at a future meeting of the East Windsor Township Council, the date of which has not yet been determined.
All of the eliminated police positions under a “preliminary projection” are at the “supervisory and command ranks, which means they are held by senior officers,” according to the study by Government Management Advisors of East Brunswick. And, the report states, total savings related to these cuts might not occur for several years because a “timed transition” would be needed to avoid “difficulties likely to accompany a more radical approach.”
The report does not recommend cutting any nonsupervisory police officers. But it suggests a merged governing body should undertake a “far more intensive study” to make a decision on those positions.
According to the report, the two departments comprise 44 officers, two chiefs, 16 other supervisors, 11 dispatchers and seven office support positions. Of that amount, the 1-square-mile borough employs one chief, one lieutenant, three sergeants, nine patrolmen, four full-time dispatchers and one full-time office worker, according to Hightstown PBA President David Chenoweth.
Borough Councilman Dave Schneider, who served as police liaison in 2006 and 2007 and opposes any consolidation, said it’s misleading to talk about cutting only top-level cops.
”The supervisors in Hightstown are not office workers sitting around and pointing and yelling at police officers. They are, in fact, the people doing the work on the streets,” he said in a reference to the borough’s lieutenant and three sergeants.
Councilman Schneider also said he doesn’t think the consultant took into account that the borough is host to the regional school district’s high school and many more places of worship than that in East Windsor. And he repeated that he questions the consultant’s motive.
”The people who wrote the report are trying to get a specific result,” he said. “Either they know the reality and chose to ignore it or are completely unaware of what’s going on with the police force in Hightstown.”
New Borough Councilwoman and police liaison Isabel McGinty, who was surprised and upset to find the report placed on the Borough Council agenda at the last minute, said this week that it was premature to discuss its contents.
In addition to the elimination of five officers, the study envisions cutting the number of dispatchers from 11 to eight, and office support staff from 7.2 to 6.2 positions.
Including the police positions, the reduction of 20 full-time positions would save about $825,000 in salaries. The rest of the savings would come in FICA (federal payroll tax) and pension costs and health insurance.
Also eliminated in what is called on its inside pages a “preliminary consolidation study report” are:
• one clerk/administrator position;
• three construction code positions (from 8.2 to five);
• one municipal court position (from 7.2 to 6.2);
• one building maintenance position (from 4.2 to three); and
• the equivalent of almost three “treasury/general” positions in the financial area (from 5.7 to three).
Borough Administrator/Clerk Candace Gallagher declined to comment this week on the proposed elimination of a clerk/administrator position.
The consultant also states that an analysis of potential savings in the area of refuse collection would require a more complete study. But the report says the combined annual operating costs per unit of $275 is “significantly higher” than in “benchmark” communities where the average was $141.
If the operating cost per unit could be brought down to $140 per unit, the study says, the consolidated town would save $675,000.
Ms. Gallagher and East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov indicated they’d need more time before possibly reacting to the trash collection analysis. But Borough Public Works Director Larry Blake came to the borough’s defense, pointing out that it provides it’s own collection service with an automated truck.
”They can’t be talking about Hightstown,” he said in a reference to high-than-average costs. “We’re using one person and one vehicle.”
The consolidation study was undertaken in the summer unbeknownst to the public and many local government leaders, not including Township Mayor Mironov and Hightstown Mayor Bob Patten, who were asked by the GEWHIP to keep it quiet. It was presented publicly last week before both governing bodies, despite opposition from three Borough Council members upset over the last-minute notice.
While stopping short of recommending consolidation, it suggests the two towns form a joint commission with participation from the state Department of Community Affairs to fully investigate the issue.

