By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
The Transition Task Force moved through a packed agenda on Feb. 22, hearing subcommittee reports and having discussions on multiple issues.
The group also approved up to $100,000 in expenditures for an attorney and a consultant and talked about a moratorium on hiring.
”We feel at this point the governing bodies should put a moratorium on hiring,” said Dorothea Berkhout, chair of the personnel subcommittee. “Especially since we are going to be looking at each of the staffing areas.”
Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said the borough has held back on filling positions and done it on an as-needed basis.
”I don’t want to say we are in a hiring freeze, but we’ve held back on filling positions, pending consolidation,” he said. “We had filled some positions, such as the director of emergency services because we felt that was a necessity.”
Borough Mayor Yina Moore said the borough has held off on hiring a clerk since the retirement of the former clerk at the end of last year.
”We are doing things consciously in terms of our administrative staff,” she said, adding that Mr. Bruschi is serving as acting clerk in the interim.
In the township, Administrator Jim Pacale said he would not support a moratorium and the township has cut staff by 18 percent over the past few years. He said the Police Department is trying to fill some entry-level patrol positions.
”They are the boots on the streets,” he said. “We recently did add some police officers and right now we are in the middle of a recruitment effort to hire two new police officers.”
Township Mayor and TTF member Chad Goerner said the task force is trying to ask for the status quo to remain the same as they assess the staffing situation.
”It’s important for us to take a look at how things are today without changes taking place and hiring additional personnel,” he said. “I understand where the police are coming from, they started last year with 26 personnel, and the consolidation study was done based on two departments with 30 personnel, so those members we were short were patrol officers and we are still short two patrol officers.”
Mayor Goerner said he is open to holding off on filling the two other patrol spots because of the discussions that will be taking place in the next couple of months.
”What might be helpful is if the two administrators could discuss the issue and bring this up as an agenda item for our joint meeting Monday night and we could come up with a consensus of the two governing bodies of how to proceed in a way that we can all feel comfortable with,” he said. “I think that’s reasonable and that’s what I would ask.”
Jo Butler, a borough councilwoman and TTF member, seconded Mayor Goerner’s sentiment.
”I think the intent was we are either going to have to lay off personnel or find some other mechanism to reduce the staff,” said Ms. Berkhout.
TTF member Hendricks Davis said a moratorium might be too much for the municipalities, especially for critical positions.
Ms. Berkhout also identified three additional citizens Jill Jachera, Shirley Meeker and Bruce Topolosky who would like to be on the personnel subcommittee. She also talked about the scope of work of the committee.
The public safety subcommittee, chaired by Mark Freda, TTF chair, developed its scope of work and is in the process of looking for its citizen members. Their work will include: recommending the structure, phasing and staffing changes of the new police department; recommending the staffing, structure and defining the role of emergency management; get quotes for having the departments operating procedures, rules and regulations reviewed and condensed for the new department; and solicit legal opinions on who has the legal authority to name the new police chief; and decide what things need to be in place for Jan. 1, 2013. They will also look at the structure and staffing for police dispatch and technology.
For communications and outreach, chaired by TTF member Linda Mather, their main outreach will be the TTF meetings.
The public works subcommittee, headed by Brad Middlekauff, has set its scope of work, despite not having had a first formal meeting. Its first meeting will take place on Feb. 24.
Hendricks Davis, chair of the boards, commissions, committees subcommittee, said his group will inventory all boards and commissions, the founding resolutions and recommend what is needed for the new Princeton and establish which ones will be needed to be up and running in the first week of January 2013.

