By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
The Joint Shared Services Consolidation Commission (JSSCC) is beginning to paint a clearer picture of what a consolidated Princeton might look like when it approved recommendations for municipal staffing on Tuesday night.
(Related storiesTheir recommendations may mean layoffs for at least seven municipal employees, who will be eliminated to reduce duplicate positions. All may not be laid off, they may be retirement eligible or reassigned, said Bernie Miller, chair of the municipal consolidation subcommittee.
But, the first order of business was what would a combined Princeton Borough and Princeton Township be called? Just Princeton was the first recommendation accepted at their Tuesday night meeting.
That was the easiest decision of the night, which was a four-hour affair with lots of heated discussion as commission members reached consensus on what they thought were the best options for the communities, whether a full consolidation occurs or more shared services.
Along with $3.3 million in savings and increased efficiencies, there will be layoffs as departments are shrunk to reduce redundancies.
First changes would be made to the governing body, which would shrink from 12 members and two mayors to six council members and one mayor.
Administration would be reduced from two to one administrator with no additional support staff added.
The clerk’s office would retain one clerk and deputy clerk plus current support staff.
In engineering only one engineer would be retained and the duplicate assistant engineer would be downgraded.
In finance, only one chief financial officer (CFO) and assistant CFO will be retained. In the tax assessor’s office, one part time assistant assessor would be eliminated.
The municipal court would have one full-time administrative title eliminated.
These positions would save an estimated $957,000 in the municipal budget in salaries and benefits. Over the long run the savings could be greater because of efficiencies in operations, said Mr. Miller.
Duplicate staff in the construction department would be retained and downgraded, since they are a self-supporting department that collects fees. This is a savings of $43,609, which could be reflected in a fee reduction.
Affordable housing would keep one full-time coordinator and use contract services for its needs.
Other departments, such as emergency management, historic preservation and information technology would not be affected by staffing changes.
Most municipal business would be conducted at the township building, but both municipal buildings would be retained. The new governing body would be in charge of repurposing or selling the buildings.
Existing codes and ordinances would be retained and reviewed every five years by the governing body.
All of these recommendations passed without objection.
The next business was about advisory planning districts, which ran up against a wall in the subcommittee, which couldn’t define them or form the structure. An advisory planning district is an area where occupants would have an opportunity to weigh in on land use in that immediate area and the planning board would be required to formally respond to concerns voiced by the district.
The formation and implementation would be left up to the governing body of the new municipality.
”We couldn’t define how they would be implemented and the organizational structure in the time available,” said Mr. Miller.
Next Wednesday night the JSSCC will vote on whether to recommend consolidation to the governing bodies. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the township’s municipal building.

