program approved
this year
Volunteers want
program approved
this year
BY SHERRYCONOHAN
Staff Writer
Despite the prodding of volunteer firemen and first aid squad members, the Monmouth Beach Borough Commission remained firm in its decision to put off enactment of a Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) until next year.
With volunteers packing the commission’s small room for its meeting Aug. 10, Commissioner William C. Barham said he and his two colleagues on the commission still have a lot of questions about the point system that would be devised to determine who qualifies for a pension under LOSAP.
"I have a lot of problems with the point systems proposed," he said. "You don’t differentiate between emergency responses and the social side."
Richard M. Braslow, a Toms River lawyer representing the fire company, replied that a member can be of value to the fire department and the first aid squad without fighting a fire or going out on a first aid call.
"There are other ways one can serve," he said.
Dave Stickle, of Riverdale Avenue, the first assistant fire chief, said there is value to those members who do not get on the truck, but raise money.
"Is a person who fills out the paperwork for a grant any less worthy than a guy who gets on a truck?" he asked.
Steven Rose, of Long Branch, said he has been a member of the Monmouth Beach fire company for 35 years and now is a life member. As such, he said, he is very active in fund raising.
"These are very important things," he told the commission.
Barham also pointed out his concern about the volunteers’ request that the contribution to the pension be tied to the consumer price index, so that it would automatically rise every year.
"That is something that can’t be worked out in 10 or 15 days," he said.
The state law establishing the LOSAP program allows for a maximum contribution of $1,150 a year for each volunteer at the outset.
Braslow said other towns have tied the pension contribution to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and cited Highlands as a recent example.
Barham said just because other towns have adopted certain criteria doesn’t mean Monmouth Beach has to do the same. He held up a stack of papers that had been sitting in front of him and said they were other LOSAP ordinances.
"The point systems are all over the place," he said. "That’s why we’ve struggled with this."
Barham said the commission needed time to draft an ordinance with an appropriate point system and, if one is adopted next year, it can be made retroactive to Jan. 1 of 2005. He observed the number of volunteers in the audience but said, "there’s 3,500 more people sitting at home," and the commission has to consider the tax impact on property owners.
"I don’t have a problem making it retroactive to Jan. 1," he added.
Braslow maintained, however, that it can’t be made retroactive — he said he had never heard of one that was — and the volunteers desire a program this year.
In order to get the LOSAP program on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election, the commission had to pass an ordinance and file it with the Monmouth County clerk of elections in Freehold by this Friday, Aug. 20.
Dennis Collins, the borough attorney, told Braslow that he had studied the regulations and it seemed to him that as long as the ordinance is adopted in the same fiscal year it’s supposed to cover, it can be made retroactive.
Braslow insisted it couldn’t be made retroactive, but said he would check.
That prompted Barham to note that, "here at the 11th hour," the commission not only had questions about the point system, but now it was being told it can’t make the program retroactive.
"This is why we need time to do due diligence," he said.
Barham reminded the volunteers that the commission held a special meeting Aug. 2 in an effort to try to get a LOSAP proposal on the ballot.
"But there’s so much we need to do," h e said.
"We are not opposed to LOSAP," he stressed. "I ‘m not opposed to it. I want to make that clear — that I’m not opposed to LOSAP."
Barham, who has 35 years experience with the fire company, cautioned, "When you start playing around with special meetings, I don’t know how the citizenry takes that. They’re going to think we’re playing games."
Stickle urged the commission to put LOSAP on the ballot without a point system in place and develop the point system later.
"Any town that does that," Collins replied, "is begging for something to be denied."
Barham said that pushing an ordinance through always leads to mistakes.
"It’s not good to do something fast," he said. "It’s not well thought out."
Barham also said he didn’t want to do something now and go back to "tweak" it later.
"I want to do it once and do it right," he said.
Braslow, in persisting, said the fire company and first aid squad only came to the commission when they were in agreement on a point system. He said what they were proposing is "fairly bland" and as far as due diligence by the commission is concerned, "I don’t think more homework is needed."
Barham said he took exception to Braslow’s attitude — "asking us to just rubber stamp it and move on." He said the volunteers shouldn’t worry.
"I don’t think there’s any problem with this side of the fence getting LOSAP in place," he said. "But I hope you understand we have to do this in the right way."
Stickle said the firemen had done their due diligence by coming up with a change in points, after providing Barham with a sample point system earlier this year, in an attempt to meet his objections to it.
He said that if LOSAP isn’t approved this year, and isn’t made retroactive next year, the first points will be accrued in 2006 and no contribution will be made to the pensions until 2007. To further the process along, he said the fire company was offering Braslow’s services to the borough.
Stickle said he’d rather see LOSAP go on the ballot this year, with three commissioners who support the volunteers in office, rather than wait until after the election in May next year when all three will be up for re-election.
Commissioner James F. Cunniff, who heads finance for the commission, said he wasn’t prepared to vote at that time.
"I don’t know how much to budget and how to whack it up," he said.
Cunniff said he, too, supports LOSAP and wouldn’t be sitting at the meeting if not for the first aid squad coming to his assistance 10 years ago.
In any case, he said, he didn’t have the time with the demands of his job, now in the busy season, to put a proposal together in two weeks.
Cunniff said his plan has been, if the measure is made retroactive, to include $40,000 in the budget for next year for volunteers qualifying for the pension.
"If it doesn’t get passage, we will have $40,000 for another project," he said.
Stickle said there are 80 living members of the fire company and that 30, maximum, could qualify for a LOSAP pension.
"And, in reality," he said, "probably only half that will. We figure 20 will qualify in the first year.
"Under the revised system, it will be harder to meet that goal," he said.
Cunniff asked who administers the LOSAP program. Braslow said a vendor approved by the state Division of Pensions. He said the division offers a choice of four vendors and the borough must pick one from that list.
Cunniff also suggested to the volunteers that they may not want to put LOSAP on the ballot this year, in a presidential election year.
He further pointed to the revaluation going on this year in the borough and cautioned that there were going to be unhappy people as a result.
Cunniff also said that with a contribution of around $1,000 a year, over the course of a lifetime, he didn’t think that missing one year, if it came to that if LOSAP can’t be made retroactive, "is going to amount to a hill of beans."
Mayor James P. McConville III also professed his support for LOSAP, noting that the firefighters and first aid members were the neighbors and friends of the commission members. They just have questions, he said.
"We support the concept. We think the concept is good," he said. "We just need more time to make a decision that’s going to impact the borough for years to come."
"We plan to pursue this," he emphasized. "I hope as we ask questions, we can continue the dialogue."
Cunniff left those at the meeting with the parting thought that volunteers are hard to get for lots of things.
"Are Little League coaches going to be next?" he asked, to request a pension plan like LOSAP. "What about crossing guards? They work three hours a day for $10 an hour. Could that be construed as a volunteer?"