BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP: Committee marks its ‘best’

   BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — Is the municipality at its best?
   Governor Chris Christie and the Department of Community Affairs issued its third annual Best Practices Checklist, and the Bordentown Township Committee reviewed the checklist at its meeting Monday to see how well the town complies.
   The issuance of state aid is based on the scoring a municipality receives on the checklist, Mayor Karl Feltes said.
   And a municipality can be penalized up to five percent for not following enough of the practices, Committeeman Jim Cann said.
   The committee discussed the practices the township already follows and those that wouldn’t take much trouble to start following.
   For example, the codifying of ordinances and acquiring an accounting policy manual from the League of Municipalities would be easy enough to do, Mayor Feltes said.
   ”There is no penalty if you meet 41 to 50 (of the 50 practices),” Mayor Feltes said. “We have the 41, but some of the things we need to look at in the future is the codifying of our ordinances . . . and an accounting policy manual (which are also on the list).”
   Shared services is one of the items on the checklist that the township does practice. For instance, the Bordentown shares fuel with the school district and officer dispatch with the county, Committeeman Cann said.
   ”We do have solid agreements we can give them,” Deputy Mayor Michael Dauber said.
   Mr. Cann said some of the practices on the checklist may not be profitable or beneficial to certain municipalities.
   ”This isn’t best practices,” Mr. Cann said. “This is ‘best practices’ as described by them.”
   Originally the township checked “no” for items one and four on the checklist, but after the discussion the committee members determined that the township does in fact perform those practices.
   Namely, those practices involve negotiating in shared service agreements and the review of service contracts by a legal counsel.
The checklist can be found on the New Jersey state website, via www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dlgs/programs/best_practices.html .