WEST AMWELL: Community leaders focus on ways to save

School and municipal officials busy trying to find budget cuts

By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
   WEST AMWELL — School and municipal officials are biting the bullet to cut costs now in preparation for what is expected to be a tough budget year for them, and a difficult recession for the families who live and send their children to school there.
   In West Amwell Township, Mayor William Corboy said some of the changes made by the Township Committee were implemented to save jobs.
   ”We had to reduce the operating budget by approximately $110,000 in order to meet the state (4 percent) cap,” Mayor Corboy said. “We really had no choice.”
   Still, it’s painful for everyone involved, including township employees. “Certainly no one’s jumping for joy,” the mayor said.
   Township employees, who are nonunion, will get a 10 percent reduction in their yearly pay.
   Mayor Corboy said it is actually an 8 percent reduction because it will begin April 1, after a quarter of the year has already passed. The cuts will be accomplished through an unpaid day off every two weeks, beginning April 1.
   The unpaid time off will mean the township’s municipal building will be closed for business one Friday every two weeks.
   ”I explained it’s this or the laying off of two or three people,” Mayor Corboy said. “I’m rather surprised they have handled it as well as they have.”
   Last week, the mayor asked the township’s police officers to accept a zero increase in their pay, but the police have a contract that calls for a 4 percent raise.
   The township is awaiting the officers’ decision. “The ball is in their court,” Mayor Corboy said.
   The Beacon was unsuccessful in reaching the local PBA for comment.
   As with township employees, the salary cut for police is proposed to begin April 1. Because of this, the cut would equal 3 percent, rather than 4 percent, according to Mayor Corboy.
   In addition to striving to function in the shriveling economy, the township is struggling to meet legal fees, which include litigation. In all, the township’s legal expenses are expected to reach “$200,000 plus” this year, with at least half going to litigation in a lawsuit filed against the township by a former mayor and his family.
   AT SOUTH HUNTERDON REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL, administrators have requested a zero increase rather than their contractual raises this year, according to an announcement from the Board of Education.
   The freeze is expected to save the district about $17,000.
   Superintendent Nancy Gartenberg, Principal James Bevere, Assistant Principal Michael Godown and Business Administrator Kerry Sevilis requested the freeze for 2009-2010. Ms. Gartenberg also asked to reduce a future raise in a new contract that is scheduled for approval later this month, according to the board.
   ”The board did not freeze these salaries—some of these salaries are governed by contracts,” said board President Robert Campbell. “We all had our noses buried in the budget, trying to find ways to reduce costs without sacrificing education, particularly Superintendent Gartenberg and Ms. Sevilis, when these individuals stepped forward to do their part. The board is very impressed by their leadership.”
   ”All you have to do is look around you to see how difficult things are for people right now,” Ms. Gartenberg said. “There is a time to fight for what you need as an individual, and a time to fight for the team. This one’s for the team.”
   The district said it also cut about $80,000 by offering employees a financial incentive to give up their family insurance benefits when they are also covered by another policy, such as through a spouse.
   For the first time this year, school employees were asked to decide, for one year only, whether they need family insurance or whether they could instead sell this benefit back to the school district in exchange for two annual payments of $2,000.
   The school saves approximately $11,000 to $12,000 in premium costs for each employee who waives family coverage, according to the board.
   ”It’s win-win,” said Ms. Gartenberg, who traded in her policy. “I think a lot of us in families with two working spouses are over-insured, but even still, it can be a little scary to give up your insurance. Insurance is hard to understand. The financial incentive encourages our employees to talk to our insurance representative about their individual circumstances to see what’s right for them.”
   Along with these changes, administrators chose to give up their school-provided cell phones and to decline mileage reimbursement when traveling on school business, saving the district approximately $7,600.
   Ms. Gartenberg asked the school board to renegotiate her contract this year, extending an agreement that was scheduled to expire after the 2010-11 school year to 2012-13 and reducing an additional annual increase guaranteed by the contract.
   According to board member Laurie Weinstein, who chairs the board’s Negotiations Committee, the current four-year contract includes annual raises of “a minimum of 4 percent,” but the new five-year contract, which is scheduled for a public hearing March 19, proposes the 0 percent increase for 2009-10 and a reduced raise one additional year.
   ”The school district will benefit from what Mrs. Gartenberg and the others are doing in years beyond next year,” Ms. Weinstein said. “Because our superintendent and other administrators are taking no raises next year, their later raises will be lower than they would have been if they had taken increases in 2009-10.”