By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — About 175 people, some armed with visual aids and props, packed the firehouse Tuesday for dueling presentations on a controversial proposal to outsource the borough’s Police Department to East Windsor, but at the end of night neither side in the debate appeared to have won any converts to their cause.
The police issue has bitterly divided the Hightstown community between those who contend the outsourcing must be done to reduce skyrocketing property taxes and those who argue that disbanding the police force threatens the community’s identity and won’t produce the savings proponents are counting on.
”Outsourcing the Hightstown Police Department will not save huge sums of money for the taxpayers of Hightstown,” said Spruce Court resident Walt Conner, speaking on behalf of the grass-roots citizens group Voices of Hightstown, whose supporters comprised most of the stand-rooming-only crowd.
Mr. Conner, using a PowerPoint presentation, emphasized the group’s position that much of the savings that an independent consultant said would be produced by police outsourcing already has been achieved through attrition.
The consultant’s two-year report, known as the Patriot study, used 2007 data when the borough had 14 police officers and a police-related expenditures of $2.68 million to determine that about $800,000 a year could be saved by outsourcing. Although VOH’s presentation Tuesday did not include police expense figures, it has previously said the cost of the existing leaner force of 11 officers is about $2.1 million.
Borough CFO George Lang, however, told a different story in his presentation that followed. Mr. Lang said net police-related expenses in 2010 are $2.55 million, but admitted that number is skewed because the borough had to make an extra $135,920 in pension payments this year to make up for deferred payments in 2009. The 2010 number also includes the first half of the year when there were 14 officers on the force, not 11 as there are now, Mr. Lang said.
Projected net police expenses in 2011— when the force will be at 11 officers for the entire 12 months — will drop to $2.25 million, Mr. Lang said.
”There’s a reduction in costs because there’s a reduction in officers,” Mr. Lang said.
J.P. Gibbons, a VOH steering committee member, said Mr. Lang’s $2.25 million figure for 2011 was “pretty damn close” to VOH’s $2.1 million estimate, which it derived “in the dark” after combing through the budget and requesting documents pertaining to health benefits through the Open Public Records Act.
However, Mr. Lang made the point that those 11 officers will cost the borough $3 million by 2020. He displayed a spreadsheet of his calculations, which he said assumed 2 percent annual salary increases and 12 percent annual increases in health benefit costs.
Council President Larry Quattrone asked Mr. Lang if he took into account the fact that some Hightstown officers are nearing retirement age and would be replaced within younger officers at lower salaries. Mr. Lang responded that his spreadsheet assumed the same 11 officers would be on the force through 2020 with no retirements and no new hires.
Republican mayoral candidate Rob Thibault criticized the spreadsheet’s assumptions of 2 percent annual salary increases as too conservative.
”When have you known them to only be satisfied with a 2 percent (salary) increase?” asked Mr. Thibault, who came to the meeting with a pamphlet he made that listed every Hightstown police officer by name, along with their salaries for both 2008 and 2009. According to Mr. Thibault’s chart, the average annual salary increase for a Hightstown police officer in 2009 was 5.5 percent.
Outsourcing opponents, many wearing stickers on their shirts that read “Ask Me about Voices of Hightstown,” countered that the police union had already indicated it was willing to agree to long-term contract concessions if the borough agreed to stop the outsourcing negotiations with East Windsor.
Mr. Gibbons also pointed out that Mr. Lang’s spreadsheet was based on the salaries and terms in an expired police contract.
”We don’t know what the terms of the new contract are going to be,” Mr. Gibbons said. “Do we have them by the throat if you want to use that analogy? Probably. Saying ‘either sign or lose your job’ is a hell of an incentive.”
Mr. Gibbons urged the council to give Hightstown police the opportunity to negotiate once the borough’s police subcommittee, comprised of Council President Quattrone, Councilman Walter Sikorski and Councilman Jeff Bond, brings back a tentative outsourcing agreement for the full council’s review.
”Make sure that when you get your contract from East Windsor, you give the Hightstown Police Department the opportunity to negotiate based on those terms,” Mr. Gibbons told the Borough Council.
Councilwoman Isabel McGinty questioned VOH’s premise that the Police Department could operate effectively in the years ahead with only 11 officers. She asked Police Chief James Eufemia if it could be done without excessive overtime.
Chief Eufemia responded that the number of officers has fluctuated from seven to 15 officers during his tenure, and the current manpower of 11 is adequate.
”I think we can operate efficiently and protect this community with the existing staff,” Chief Eufemia said.
Councilman Mike Theokas asked the chief when the last new officers were hired, and then had a follow-up question.
”If we can function with 11, then why did we hire them? And if we needed them then, why don’t we need them now?” Mr. Theokas asked.
VOH steering committee member Scott Caster told the council the police force increased during a time when there was federal funding to pay new officers’ salaries and the borough’s original plan of reducing the department through attrition when the money was no longer available was never carried out.
”During the time most of you have lived in Hightstown we have been down to seven, eight, nine men,” Mr. Caster said. “I assure you that if we gave the Hightstown Police Department 25 men they would find work for all 25 to do.”
Mr. Caster, a former borough mayor, said that nevertheless he thought the current police force of 11 would be sufficient going forward.
”Over the years … maybe we have become a little fat and operated not out of necessity but more out of comfort,” Mr. Caster said.
Torry Watkins, of Meadow Drive, was skeptical the Hightstown Police Department wouldn’t ask the Borough Council for more officers again soon.
”If anyone believes the Police Department is going to stand at 11 going forward, well, I’ve got a missing bridge over Peddie Lake dam I want to sell you,” Mr. Watkins said.
James Robinson, of Mercer Street, said the fact that three council members on a subcommittee are negotiating behind closed doors with East Windsor, and the other three council members are not privy yet to these negotiations, leaves members of the public confused about the entire process.
”The committee is working under the council’s jurisdiction, and the council doesn’t know exactly what is going on yet,” Mr. Robinson said.
Councilwoman McGinty told the audience that a “fully informed discussion” wasn’t possible Tuesday night because the three council members who are meeting with East Windsor cannot disclose the details of the ongoing discussions to anyone, including their fellow council members at this point.
”We’re at something of a pause right now that limits how far council members can go in a discussion, and this is just as far as we can go,” Ms. McGinty said.
Any tentative outsourcing agreement must be reviewed and approved by the full Hightstown Borough Council and East Windsor Township Council before it can be implemented.

