Leaders would cut $250,000 — perhaps by laying off four officers — to stay under tax-levy cap
By Andrew Corselli, Staff Writer
Police officers, some uniformed and some in casual attire, from throughout the state packed during Tuesday’s Township Committee meeting to protest the potential layoffs of four township officers.
Hillsborough fire and rescue personnel and other supporters filled the court room of the municipal building, and spilled over into the standing area.
Back on March 22, the governing body authorized layoff notices to cut $250,000 from the township budget. The township said it couldn’t afford to pay salaries, pensions and benefits for all 54 officers and still remain under the state’s two-percent tax levy increase cap.
Township officials said they are hopeful that the move could be avoided through negotiations.
”There were five layoff notices issued with potential of four total officers,” said Committeeman Frank DelCore, who is the public safety liaison. “As we indicated then, and it remains today, that is not final until we have to finalize the budget on May 9. Since that time, and even earlier than that, we have been working to see if there’s a way in lieu of those layoffs that we can negotiate some level of concessions so we can eliminate the possibility of having to lay off those officers.”
Ted Lewis, a Hillsborough resident and president of the Policeman’s Benevolent Association’s Local 205, responded with a 12-minute speech detailing the PBA’s gripes with how the talks are going. He said the group was angry because many of the ideas brought to the committee’s attention were scoffed at and rejected.
”We were advised that there were laws that allowed the township to exceed the two-percent tax cap for payments of pension and benefit increases,” he said. “When we asked why the township hasn’t done that, Mr. DelCore stated that the township wouldn’t exceed the tax cap even though there were exceptions. We asked if they would put the question to the citizens of Hillsborough on the Board of Education ballot, Mr. DelCore stated they had no intention of doing that.”
Mr. DelCore said “at the end of the day, we have a two-percent cap that we need to reach. The township remains in financial difficulty, as are most municipalities throughout the state…as evidenced by all budget issues we’ve seen. This is not a unique situation to Hillsborough. We have worked diligently to try to reduce and minimize the impact of the budget on where we are today.
”We still have several weeks. There ultimately will be a decision that we will be faced with regarding the layoffs.”
Mr. Lewis said after the meeting that the township remained adamant that the $250,000 was the only amount they were looking for. He also said negotiations had ceased.
”On April 20, I advised Mr. DelCore and the mayor that the proposal of the concessions of the $250,000 was voted down by the members,” he said at the meeting. “There were no other options presented to the PBA by the township or any additional proposals. As far as the comment by the township that negotiations still continue, it is not true; the township continues to state only they want $250,000 in concessions or four officers will be laid off.
”That does not feel like negotiations; it feels like extortion. This is a pick-your-poison scenario. The town solely wants $250,000 from our contract and it is only allowing how we give concessions from our contract.”
Mr. Lewis, a police officer for 16 years, said that this is “more than a dollars-and-cents issue” but more “a public safety issue and an officer safety issue.”
”If the police department is reduced by four officers this will bring the staff levels of the officers to the 1997 level,” he said. “Since the year 2000, the police department has experienced a 10 percent reduction of force due to attrition. It is a common belief in the community that the staff is understaffed already.”
Hillsborough has 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents and, in 2008, the county average was two officers per 1,000 rate. At that same time the state rate was 2.5 officers per 1,000 rate. The police department would need 22 additional officers to meet the county average and 41 officers to meet the state average. To meet the FBI-recommended rate, the Hillsborough police department would need to double in size, according to Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Lewis added that in 2000 the Hillsborough Police Department made a total of 311 adult arrests, and by 2010 that number had risen to 642. He said those numbers include 79 DWI arrests in 2000 and 123 such arrests in 2010. He continued that calls for service in that time have more than doubled, with the department recording 27,324 calls in 2001 and 64,308 calls in 2010.
With the layoffs, Mr. Lewis is worried that some community programs would be cut so that officers could be assigned to patrol.
”This Township Committee wants residents to believe that the safety of the town will not be jeopardized because the same amount of police officers will be assigned to the patrol division,” he said. “The fact is that the patrol division will be staffed at the current level but officers will be re-assigned from the community policeman division, which teaches DARE, Stranger Danger talks, senior citizen talks and bike safety talks.”
Following the meeting, the two sides retired to an executive session for another negotiating meeting.

