By Evan Grossman, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — They have the right to continue to protect and serve.
The Hightstown police force was saved from extinction Wednesday night when the Borough Council voted 5-1 to pursue a contract extension with the local Police Benevolent Association, rather than move on a controversial consolidation of police services with neighboring East Windsor. The vote marked the conclusion of a fight that’s dragged on for three years between those for and against police outsourcing.
”It has divided our community almost the same as the Millstone River has,” Council President Larry Quattrone said.
While saving the police department and the jobs of its 11 officers was celebrated with rousing applause from many of the 33 residents in attendance when the resolution was announced after 90 minutes of a closed executive session, questions were raised in regards to the process that led to the highly anticipated decision.
The council approved a document that locks the borough into an agreement with the Local PBA 283 that they will negotiate a new four-year contract with the existing police, a service that costs the borough $2 million each year. As part of the agreement, the council accepted a framework that includes several parameters. Among the seven points listed on the document are scheduling changes that eliminate police overtime hours, a transfer of medical coverage to the State Health Benefits Plan, and minimal salary increases, starting at 1.25 percent in 2011, and going up to 2 percent in 2014, the final year of the contract.
Questions of why the council deemed the PBA contract more beneficial to residents instead of an agreement with East Windsor, which could have saved the borough upwards of $800,000, went unanswered.
Councilman Walter Sikorski, who chaired the Hightstown subcommittee charged with negotiating with East Windsor, refused to comment on why talks were terminated. He apparently didn’t even give his counterparts in East Windsor a reason either.
”I’m a little taken aback by your call,” East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov told the Herald on Thursday. “We last met with the subcommittee on Sept. 2 and we thought we were in the process of finalizing an arrangement. I don’t know what happened. East Windsor Township, nor the subcommittee received any further communication.”
When pressed for details, Mr. Sikorski referred the Herald to a handwritten, photocopied press release he penned that said, “The Hightstown sub-committee on police outsourcing has not been able to complete a successful contract with East Windsor Township. We appreciate the efforts of the East Windsor Council sub-committee and wish to thank them for all their efforts. We look forward to exploring any new efforts of mutual benefit for both communities.”
East Windsor Deputy Mayor Marc Lippman said negotiations with Hightstown were virtually complete.
”The only questions left were the transition and the takeover date,” Mr. Lippman said. “I wish they would have told me that a year and a half ago. After all this time, to find out this way, and for them to make that statement is inaccurate.”
”It’s their town, it’s their perrogative, they certainly have the right to do whatever they want,” Mr. Lippman added. “But it’s frustrating we were left in the dark. For everything to end like this, it’s not a right way to do business.”
East Windsor officials were notified of Hightstown’s decision by the Herald on Thursday morning.
”This is a total shock,” East Windsor Councilman Perry Shapiro said. “When that subcommittee met on the second, we thought we were very close to an agreement. I left thinking we were pretty close, that all we had to do was dot the i’s and cross the t’s.”
Adding to the undercurrent of controversy is the fact that the council agreed to an understanding that the borough will not outsource its police department for the duration of the contract. Because there is no clear definition in the agreement of what outsourcing really means included in the document, Hightstown councilwoman Isabel McGinty, who is a lawyer, was the lone vote against passing the resolution.
Ms. McGinty outlined her reasons for casting a vote against the resolution in a 10-point public explanation, which ranged from reservations about agreeing to enter into a contract that hasn’t been drafted yet, to a lack of information shared by the subcommittee formed to investigate the issue. Ms. McGinty also cited her colleagues’ lack of attention to detail in reviewing past documents as a recent example of the body’s willingness to “approve contracts with language that appears to have fallen out of the sky.”
”I can’t vote on blind trust,” Ms. McGinty said.
The Hightstown subcommittee consisted of Councilman Jeff Bond, Mr. Quattrone, and Mr. Sikorski. East Windsor’s committee included Mayor Mironov, Mr. Lippman and Mr. Shapiro.
While the resolution to keep Hightstown’s police department intact was celebrated by some borough residents, questions were raised about the process by which the council came to its decision.
”We need more transparency,” mayoral candidate Rob Thibault, who was in favor of outsourcing, said to the council. “What the hell is going on? You owe it to us. We don’t work for you, you work for us…we deserve, in fact, it is our right, to know how you are spending our money and what you are committing us to. I think it’s unconscionable.”
Even an outspoken supporter of keeping the police in Hightstown, J.P. Gibbons, called for more public town halls and more government transparency in the borough. He also wondered why Ms. McGinty was not a part of the negotiating team.
”She brings a detailed view,” Mr. Gibbons said, “that is always in the best interests of the borough.”
Mayor Bob Patten, whose term expires this year, defended his council and said there were no back room deals, scoffing at the notion there is a lack of transparency.
”We don’t hide anything,” Mr. Patten said. “You don’t have proof. We are very, very, very transparent. . .we are the best in the state for doing that.”
egrossman
@centraljersey.com.

