Shared services with twp. makes fiscal sense, mayor says

BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP — Township officials recently cemented their shared services project with Toms River when they approved a four-year agreement for construction department work.

The agreement runs retroactively from May 9, 2009, through May 14, 2013. The Township Council approved the agreement at the July 7 council meeting.

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said he wanted to clear up some “confusion” about the agreement and detailed how it works.

“It’s either confusion or not wanting to know how the shared services agreement works,” Acropolis said at the meeting. “I know Mr. Scott [resident George Scott] got it, but there is one person that doesn’t get it.”

Acropolis was referring to Democratic council candidate Joseph Lamb, who has frequently questioned and criticized the shared services agreement. Lamb did not attend the meeting.

Each town pays 1.9 times the hourly rate for an employee’s work. The hourly rate for each employee includes pension, Social Security, and medical benefit payments, Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras has said.

Acropolis tried to simplify his explanation of the arrangement by using an example of two theoretical employees, one Brick, one Toms River, who each make $52,000 a year. If both employees work five days a week, they would make $1,000 a week.

But the shared services agreement only calls for each township to pay for the time the employee works, not a full work week, the mayor said.

If an employee only works two days a week, they would be paid $400, not the $1,000 they would make if they worked a full week, he said.

The township laid off eight building department employees, including all the building inspectors, on Dec. 31, along with 34 other employees, to plug a nearly $4 million anticipated shortfall in the 2009 municipal budget.

“Brick Township didn’t have work for eight or nine inspectors five days a week,” the mayor said. “Now we are only paying when they actually work for the town.”

“I’m trying to make it as simple as possible,” Acropolis added. “I know it’s an election year and it’s the political silly season. This is something we have done that makes financial sense. I hope we don’t have to talk about this again. Two plus two is always going to equal four.”

The township building department was losing between $20,000 and $30,000 a month last year to keep the full complement of inspectors on the payroll, officials have said.

Building department expenses, including salaries, were traditionally paid for through revenue from inspection fees and permits. But the sour real estate and tight credit markets led to fewer sales and building permits, Pezarras has said.

“There isn’t any work right now,” Acropolis said at the meeting. “There’s no work, and Brick is 97 percent built out.”

Scott questioned why the township was also paying $19 an hour for the upkeep on Toms River vehicles used in the service agreement.

“I just think that’s an exceptional amount of money,” Scott said. “How are we in good conscience paying $19 an hour?”

“They only charge you when they are driving the car,” Acropolis said. “I don’t want to buy a truck for an inspector. We are only going to pay for cars when they are used.”