BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Edison Mayor Jun Choi stoops to pet Lucky, one of the two new police dogs the Edison Police department put into service Jan. 17. Eileen Switzer said the public safety of Metuchen residents should be the last thing the borough should consider cutting back on when cost cutting.
“I understand the cap and that the borough has to make up $750,000, but losing two police officers through attrition is not the answer,” Switzer said at the Borough Council meeting Jan. 16. “I have four children, and if I had to scale back on my household budget, I would scale back on other things than give up on safety. It’s like telling my children that mommy has to leave them home alone because I have to cut back on the baby sitter.”
Switzer received applause from over 50 residents, unions, teachers, and members of the public works, fire, first aid, and police departments who attended the Borough Council meeting to voice their concerns about the administration’s decision to not replace the two officers at this time.
“I understand that this issue is disturbing a lot of people and with good reason,” said Mayor Edmund O’Brien to the standing-room-only crowd. “But we can’t do anything until or unless the Legislature does something.”
O’Brien said the issue was that the Legislature allowed a three-year law to expire in November that kept health insurance and homeland security costs outside the state-mandated 2.5 percent increase cap for municipal budgets. Homeland security costs do not apply to Metuchen.
“If the Legislature does not reinstate the law, the borough must budget between $1.3 [million] and $1.5 million in health insurance costs,” said Borough Administrator William Boerth. “This is a serious problem that we have to find a solution for.”
Since the borough’s municipal budget runs on a calendar year [starting Jan. 1], the administration is feeling the burden of dealing with a $750,000 deficit while putting its proposed $13 million budget together.
“The bottom line is we have to submit a [temporary] balanced budget by mid-February,” said O’Brien. “We usually receive our state aid by the end of June and finalize our budget in August.”
The administration has put a freeze on all open full-time positions right now, which means by the beginning of February, the 28-member Metuchen Police Department will be down to 26.
“We don’t want to hire two new patrolmen in January and then have to lay them off in July,” said O’Brien, who also said he could not promise how long the job freeze would last and if layoffs would be made. “However, I have still advised the Police Chief [James Keane] to interview applicants to replace the two patrolmen.”
Metuchen Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Joseph Ernest, a nine-year veteran of the force, said the administration’s decision is wrong to not replace the officers.
“The decision puts a limit on what taxpayers pay for and that is services whether from us or the public works, fire, and first aid departments,” said Ernest. “Our entire 28-member force costs the average taxpayer less than $2 a day. The decision to reduce the street patrol officer by 10 percent is a bad idea. Police officers are the first responders before anybody else whether a person’s water heater broke, someone is having a heart attack, choking or someone’s breaking into a home. When someone calls 911 in the borough, a Metuchen dispatcher answers the call. We are responsible for the safety of nearly 13,000 residents. This will certainly hurt the quality of life for them and anyone else in our community.”
Ernest said that contrary to what many people think, Metuchen has approximately 5,000 people per square mile, which does not account for the 250,000 cars that drive through the borough every day.
“I suggest the mayor and council come out and do a ride-along before they dismiss the police department as just another line item,” said Ernest. “I understand that Metuchen is not Newark or Camden, but there is still a risk. We all have families and one incident is enough to [jeopardize] our safety. The mayor and council have an obligation to protect us. By not replacing the two officers, they are putting us in danger as well as the residents.”
Metuchen police officers are the sixth lowest-paid department in the county. After five years, a patrolman can receive top pay, which is $75,496.
Chief Keane said reducing his force by two, is a concern because even at the maximum level at 28 police officers, the department was at its bare minimum.
“We might not be able to provide the same level of service that we like to have and the residents are used to, but we will do our best,” said Keane. “We will have 26 officers, but there are other accounts that we have to look at; for instance, vacation time, sick days. I have an officer on light duty because he injured his hand and I have an officer who has to go on medical leave for six to eight weeks in the near future. So, we won’t have the full 26 officers on year-round.”
The Department of Community Affair’s Division of Local Government Services conducted an assessment of the police department from January 2005 to November 2005, at the request of the mayor, which caused a stir last March when two reports surfaced; however, both reports cite that the department would be more efficient with 29 or even the optimum number of 31 officers.
“We’ll do the best that we can to provide the services,” said Keane. “I will have to move the officers around by taking my two traffic officers and putting them back on patrol and taking one detective out of the bureau and putting him back on patrol. I will have to set up mandatory overtime hours. It’s just not a good situation and I hope Trenton realizes the seriousness of the problem.”
Keane said the biggest complaint that the police department receives from the 13,335 residents is traffic related such as speeding and congestion.
Over the past few years, the department has averaged 6,000 moving violations a year.
“We like to think that we are aggressive with traffic enforcement,” he said. “With traffic enforcement, we can deter criminal activity as well.”
Keane said he has been interviewing potential prospects, but said he understands that they are not going to wait around until the Legislature decides to renew the law or not.
“It also puts a strain on my police officers because there is no job security,” he said.
David Sachs, who is an attorney in the borough, questioned the administration’s decision to save money, since the police department brought in approximately half a million dollars in revenue into the borough last year through the courts.
“If two police officers are not replaced, won’t that mean less money will come into the borough?” he asked. “It just does not seem logical to me to cut the officers.”
O’Brien agreed with Sachs comment, but told the crowd that they were preaching to the wrong choir.
“I’m concerned about this as anyone else,” he said. “I urge everyone to contact their senators, assemblymen and the governor. One reason why no one wants to bring up the cap exclusions is the fear of being labeled as the person who raised taxes in a 30-second ad come election time next year.”
O’Brien along with Councilman Richard Dyas and Councilman Alan Grossman joined approximately 150 municipal officials in Trenton to voice their concerns Jan. 17, which was part of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities’ annual Mayors’ Legislative Day.
Mayors statewide worried the caps would cause them to make Draconian budget cuts.
Councilman Timothy Dacey said as Bergen County administrator, he had to eliminate 83 vacancies that ranged from public safety positions to nonpublic safety positions.
“We had to zero line all line items to the same amount to reach the cap,” said Dacey. “This is not only affecting Metuchen but affecting all towns and boroughs with calendar year budgets. We’re not hearing a lot because the towns and boroughs with fiscal year budgets are not affected until July, when they put their budgets together.”
Joe Miciak said Dacey’s Bergen County comparison to Metuchen was like comparing apples and oranges, since Bergen County is comparable to New York City.
O’Brien said the issue is not the comparison, but that the towns and boroughs can’t raise their budgets. O’Brien outlined two plans that are a lose-lose situation. One plan would be to hold a cap referendum in March and let voters decide if they would agree to a tax hike to cover only health insurance costs. The second plan is to look at Draconian cuts in personnel.
“I don’t want to go there,” said O’Brien referring to the second plan.
“That’s why it’s important to contact the Legislature. State Sen. [Barbara] Buono [D-18] said our rally on consolidation has made an effect on her colleagues. So it is working. It’s important to alert them on our concerns.”