An eternal truism is that something repeated often enough attains credibility, even when the actual facts are otherwise.
And so it is with municipal consolidation, which our County Executive, Dennis McNerney, seems to have adopted hook, line, and sinker.
No one has demonstrated proof positive that broad-based consolidation of New Jersey municipalities would result in cost savings. That was acknowledged by the New Jersey legislature and its many committees, which studied this issue.
Most interestingly, it was substantiated by Professor Ernest Reock of Rutgers University, the leading authority and strong advocate of school consolidation, who stated clearly that potential efficiencies in school district consolidation may not apply to municipalities.
The proponents of municipal consolidation claim that larger political entities would be administered more professionally, and with better citizen oversight. Actually, the reverse seems to be true.
Virtually every large city in the state, and many of the medium cities, was polluted by ethical and financial corruption – let’s be conservative and say 60 percent.
But on the list of 35 small Bergen towns in the Feb. 8 Record, I could find only two that had come under suspicion, much less proven corrupt – and that comes to less than 6 percent.
And why do you suppose that is?
Small towns, with their local involvement, gadflys and volunteers, are much more transparent than larger governmental units and the proximity of the neighbors looking in on Borough Hall keeps everyone honest.
But volunteers do more than keep us honest. They fulfill many tasks performed by paid employees in larger communities, saving tax payers huge amounts of money.
In Closter, simply replacing the Fire Department with a minimum crew of paid employees would cost our taxpayers more than $2,000,000 annually And I would not want to put a price tag on the Ambulance Corps volunteers, the citizens who clean the debris in our parks, package kits for our newcomers, inspect our trees, plant some of our borders, coach our youngsters’ athletic and dance teams, write grant proposals, give flu shots and eye exams at our health fairs, donate hundreds of hours to build our borough monuments and our playing fields, and fill our Boards and Commissions.
They do this because they feel connected to their hometown in a very personal way, something that can only rarely be found in larger political entities. To bear this out, only the smaller communities in New Jersey can operate with volunteer service corps – all of the larger ones have paid fire departments, paid coaches, etc.
I did not yet mention the role of the small town mayor, most of whom earn no pay or perhaps $3,000 or $5,000. Yet the oversight, the commitment, and the problem solving they provide are rarely matched by the executives earning well in the six figures, and their bloated staffs, who govern the large cities.
Every organization needs supervision – so many workers to each supervisor. More workers, more supervisors – larger townships, more workers, more supervisors. More tax dollars spent, not fewer. In our smaller towns, highly qualified volunteers supervise, motivate, inspire, and originate – at not cost to our taxpayers
A major cause of the high municipal property tax is not the size of the municipalities, but the legislative and regulatory decisions made at the state level and mandated for the municipalities.
Binding arbitration in contract negotiations, mandated by the legislature, is adjudicated without consideration of the burden placed on the taxpayers, and consistently makes awards far above the cost of living.
Health and Pension benefit costs for municipal employees nearly equal some employees’ actual pay.
Departments of the state government such as the Department of Health or the Department of Environmental Protection mandate expensive, irrelevant, often contradictory, and un-funded actions for municipalities.
As one example Closter was not allowed to clean a small stream bed of debris without expensive engineering and permits. But then, when FEMA was asked for help in restoring the bank after the April Floods, Closter was denied because we had not kept the debris out of the stream.
Repeatedly, the Legislature places burdens on the municipalities from which it exempts itself.
Case in point: Detailed and costly storm water regulations apply to municipal roads, but not to state highways. Are state highways immune to stormwater run-offs?
Have you been on Route 17 near Teterboro during a storm?
Much state legislation creates disincentives, rather than encouragement for consolidation. State rules require that the highest salary level being paid by any community, which becomes part of a consolidation must be adopted by all the participating communities. The distribution of fiscal obligations is similarly encumbered.
Consolidation will not eliminate the 14 percent increase the BCUA is imposing on us this year, the possible 17 percent increase by Rockland Electric, or the additional $14 that United Water wants for each fire hydrant? Consolidation does not change the sewer or the fire hydrant structures, or the number of street lights along our roads.
If one were to calculate the cost per person of all the services provided in our small towns, and the costs for the same services in the cities one might find oneself advocating for decentralization instead of consolidation. Real estate taxes in the city of Englewood are higher than in most of the small boroughs in the county; and that is in spite of the fact that the County of Bergen and the State of New Jersey cover many of Englewood’s budget items while not providing the same subsidies for the smaller towns.
A better solution is to regionalize services rather than communities. For instance, the county could take over all health services. At the present time, the county provides the option of providing such services to the towns, but charges steeply, in order to create a county profit. Tax assessors are under the jurisdiction of the county anyway. If they were on the county payroll, there would be better control of their schedules and their decisions would be more uniform. Or additional police services could be shared – such as expensive equipment and specialized officers that need not be a part of every single police force. Building inspectors and sub-code officials, who frequently work part-time in several communities could be shared officially. If they could be placed on a single payroll, instead of several, we would save enormous amounts of pension benefits.
Let’s combine the dedication and involvement of our small-town residents with the efficiencies inherent in sharing some (not all) services, and help our taxpayers while retaining our home-town pride.
Once again, the City of Englewood demonstrates how poorly it’s public services are.
On Feb. 12, my wife drove to pick up our child from Elisabeth Morrow School. You may recall that at approximately 2 p.m. snow began to fall and soon after, a dusting of the roads followed.
As has been widely reported in the New York and local media, Speer Street that day became a disaster zone. No plowing, salting or sanding was provided by the town. As a result, the road was untenable and cars became the equivalent of motorized sleds.
My wife’s car, along with well over a dozen other vehicles, slid into other cars, curbs or lawns. I understand that people were injured but am unclear to what extent, if it occurred on Speer or elsewhere in town and how many. It was only a matter of luck that more people were not injured! Worse yet, what if children were injured as they waited outside, as they always do, on Speer just east of Lydecker?
Hours after the initial incidents, it was too little and too late for the town to make much of a difference whereby most of the damage had already been done. The towns late arriving salt truck could no longer go up the hill and was essentially useless.
My wife, and many other vehicles, were left abandoned, in or on the street, overnight. I picked up our car the next day and was lucky to find it with only a blown-out tire. Other car owners were not so fortunate.
Englewood gave excuses of being understaffed in the aftermath to the local media. To me, clearly excuses for failure and no hint of any intent to constructively post mortem the matter to insure better measures are considered for future events. Is this leadership?
It is reprehensible for a street such as Speer to not be treated with urgency given the weather on the 12th.considering especially that it is well known that dozens of cars drive west, down the steep Speer Street, to the car line at 2:30 p.m. or so to pick up waiting kids from school.
We clearly deserve better of our local officials to do their part to insure the safety of our kids and us.
