Victoria Hurley-Schubert

By: centraljersey.com
An action plan for the coming months, including more frequent meetings, was laid out at the Princetons’ Joint Shared Services/Consolidation Commission at its monthly meeting on Wednesday night. The group also prepared an agenda for a town hall-style meeting on Wednesday to explain the work of the group so far and to get public feedback.
The evening, which begins at 7 p.m. at John Witherspoon Middle School, will provide an update of where the commission is; a timeline of the group’s future work; highlights of the baseline report and most importantly, a dialogue with community.
"This is an opportunity for the commission to take the community’s temperature," said Joseph Stefko, director of public finance at Rochester, New York-based Center for Governmental Research, the consultant hired by the commission. "This is an essential part of the process."
He will explain how the group is now shifting from the information gathering process to beginning to propose options for more shared services or consolidation based on the picture painted by an objective look at budget, debt and services of both municipalities in the baseline report.
"We are done with phase one, building the general knowledge base," said Mr. Stefko. "Give attendees information – here’s where we are and what (the baseline report) was intended to accomplish. We built a knowledge base and if we want to look at what if, we need to look at what is. Now we take a pivot in the process and start asking the hypothetical questions."
"Our goal is to end up with a menu of options and pros and cons hashed out to a level of detail so the community can have an informed dialogue and what is the most feasible plan," he added.
Phase two options that will be examined include form of government, debt and municipal services. Options will be explored through a series of lenses from least change to most change.
The timeframe the group set is a busy one, and the group will add more meeting dates at their February meeting. All commission meetings are open to the public.
In February and March the commission will begin to define options and formulate a preliminary impact analysis. April will bring discussion about what’s most feasible, appropriate and implementable. And a report will be generated that contains the full menu of options. Also in April, the group expects an accompanying state Division of Community Affairs report and a third public meeting.
The commission begins to select from among options and develops a formal plan and recommendations in May. This work will lead to June and July’s project of formulating what will be on the ballot for voters in November.
A focus group to gauge public thought about shared services or consolidation may take place if the commission can line up a pro bono route to gather the information.