By Ellis Liang, Special to the Packet
Despite recent tension between the Princeton Borough Council and Princeton Township Committee, representatives of the eight Transition Task Force (TTF) subcommittees stated on Saturday morning that preliminary actions to prepare for a consolidated Princeton were going according to schedule, including the downsizing of police and public works personnel.
In a Princeton Future meeting at the library, Bernie Miller from the task force Public Safety Subcommittee showed a three-year plan to decrease the force to 51 officers. Currently the borough and township have a combined force of 56 officers, below this year’s goal of 60 officers.
But overstaffing at supervisory levels remains a problem, he said.
In the long run, an incentive plan might be created to induce officers to retire, said Mr. Miller. However, the task force recognized that not only might an incentive plan be more costly, but there is little control over which officers would take the plan and retire.
Outside of the police force, the biggest cuts in personnel will come from infrastructure and operations, which includes public works, recreation maintenance, construction and more.
The Infrastructure and Operations Subcommittee is working on integrating these services to be headed by one department of public works. By July 31, the subcommittee hopes to come up with recommended service plans for brush and leaf collection as well as garbage and composting.
As for how staff positions will be determined, “the first selection criteria will be performance and skills and ability, then seniority,” said Personnel Subcommittee member Jim Levine. “If one person who has tenure is against someone without tenure, then the person with tenure wins.”
There should also be a balance between township and borough employees, he said.
According to Mr. Levine, the $3.1 million dollars in savings from consolidation will come mostly from reductions in personnel.
The number of total personnel has yet to be determined, but despite the downsizing, “people want the level of service maintained,” said Infrastructure and Operations Subcommittee member Jo Butler.
Mr. Levine agreed that fulfilling the needs of the community would still be the top priority. “Minimizing costs should be the outcome, not our goal,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Finance Subcommittee is negotiating labor contracts and salary discrepancies, while the Information Technology Subcommittee is standardizing the hardware and software that will be used in the consolidated Princeton.
Other subcommittees, such as the Boards, Commissions and Committees Subcommittee as well as the Facilities and Other Assets Subcommittee, are encouraging citizen involvement within the consolidation process and enhancing interaction between people and municipal departments.
On Jan. 1, 2013, the task force hopes the transition to a consolidated Princeton will be seamless.
”The only difference Princeton should see is that you have to go to a different office to pay your traffic ticket,” said Scott Sillars, vice chair of the Transition Task Force.

