Corradino has questions about response time
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Manville could expect to save $2.4 million over 10 years if it joined a proposed regional police department for all of Somerset County, says the report of a county prosecutor’s task force.
Mayor Angelo Corradino said Tuesday that Manville “would be doing a disservice to our constituents if we did not look into the feasibility of being part of the county proposal.”
While he liked the projected savings of $243,000 a year, his first reading left him with questions, particularly with response time to calls, he said.
Manville was projected to be included in a precinct with Montgomery, Hillsborough, Millstone and Rocky Hill. It ostensibly would operate out of a regional southern county headquarters in Hillsborough’s municipal building on South Branch Road.
If Hillsborough would give up the space currently dedicated to its municipal meeting room and allow it to be retrofitted for police use, all functions of the precinct might be centered there.
Another option might be for Hillsborough’s current police space to serve as the primary site for the precinct and use the Manville headquarters for detective functions. The option wouldn’t be ideal, the report said, but would allow the Manville facility on North Main Street to serve the “significant amount of walk-up traffic.”
After reading the study, Mr. Corradino said, “There are a number of concerns I would have such as are we in the right precinct? Are we compromising the safety of our residents by not having a police presence in town? What is the response time from Hillsborough to Manville if there is a problem?”
He said when Manville considered merging with Raritan, “We were going to have police stationed in both towns, thereby maintaining a police presence in both communities. I did not see that in this study. I also did not see a study of response times.”
In an e-mail, he said, “There are a lot of positives in the study, but there are also a number of concerns that need to be addressed before this can be implemented.”
At a meeting presenting the proposal Thursday night, Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano deliberately waited until the end of the meeting to hand out the 200-page report, asking representatives to review it before they asked detailed questions.
He asked each of the 21 county municipalities to respond to his office by Aug. 1.
The report assumed all municipalities would join, but Mr. Soriano said it was possible for smaller regional configurations with less than all 21 cooperating to form.
The report suggests that, over the 10 years from 2014 to 2023, Hillsborough would see a savings of $3.7 million and Montgomery $1.7 million.
Rocky Hill and Millstone don’t have their own police departments with Rocky Hill contracting with South Bound Brook for traffic enforcement service.
In total, the report projected county municipalities could save nearly $44 million over 10 years, said Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli to a crowd of about 200 at the Somerset County Vocational & Technical High School last Thursday.
He said that would be a low estimate with $70 million as a middle ground and $100 million as optimistic.
The figure stands in contrast to the $17.8 million a year savings a consultant estimated in December 2010.
The assemblyman added he thought it would be wrong for municipalities to look at quantitative figures only and ignore the qualitative side of improved service. Mr. Ciattarelli, who was a freeholder when the study was initiated, was tapped to head an overall financial subcommittee in November.
He said later that municipalities have to judge whether they can afford improvements over the years, especially when constricted by caps on local tax hikes.
The final report differs in other ways from a preliminary one by consultant Thomas Banker, who suggested the county could be broken down into three precincts; the final report recommends five. The consultant also thought the number of sworn officers could be reduced to 541 from the 627 he counted in 2010; the final report says 606 is a better estimate.
The report says no layoffs would occur, and reductions in force would occur through attrition, estimated at 3 to 4 percent a year. Existing PBA contracts would be honored.
But the final report holds on to Mr. Banker’s suggestion to have civilians do jobs that don’t require sworn officers, whenever possible.
A legal form of governance called a joint meeting would be formed between participating members, who would have to join for at least 10 years, said Montgomery Township Administrator Donato Nieman, who was chairman of the Governance Structure Committee.
A portion of the report suggests the southern county precinct would have 97 sworn officers and six civilians with 10 officers and two sergeants per shift.