Alex Roman
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Question 2: Verona officials have discussed the concept of shared services for many years, both with the Board of Education and with other townships. Which services should and shouldn’t be shared, and why?
Shared services as implemented currently are a Band-Aid on a poorly-structured state. The principal issue is that services are delivered at the wrong levels of government for the population density and size of the state. If I had the opportunity to restructure the government, I would evaluate what services the public wants to be personalized and delivered locally, and what services simply need to get done competently and efficiently at the greatest scale possible, and divide them based upon that. I feel that the county level of government could do far more for us, particularly in Essex County as it is a reasonably-sized organization to get some economy of scale. Also, local government finance rules prevent municipalities from making a profit on services they provide to others. It is intended to be cost-neutral, but it appears that receiving municipalities tend to benefit more than service providers in the long run through headcount reduction and reduced benefits costs. Those rules should change.
Generally, I feel that the public wants to see services such as police protection, recreation, and public works delivered by smaller towns that can provide responsiveness to resident needs and allow for a more personalized relationship between the citizen and the government. Back-office services should be delivered by the county or the state. I’ll give a few more specific examples.
An obvious service to share would be tax assessment. Right now, every town must hire an assessor or enter into a shared service agreement with another municipality, but once that assessor is re-appointed and tenured, the municipality has effectively no oversight of the assessment process other than paying for it and settling tax appeals. Assessors tend to work in numerous towns keeping minimal office hours in each and only being available by appointment, while collecting salaries and pension credit from each. County tax boards already exist as an entity and assessment should be collapsed into them statewide.
Verona contracts with Montclair to receive Public Health services, principally restaurant inspection. We also contract with Wayne for animal control and shelter services. Those are also examples of the patchwork of services that should be provided at the county level at lower costs than even our existing contracts. As long as restaurants are timely inspected in compliance with law, what difference does it make what agency does it? Likewise with animal control services; if the County of Essex can humanely run a zoo, it can run an animal shelter.
Public safety dispatch should also be regionalized, as 9 of New Jersey’s 21 counties already have done. I would suggest a West Essex group of municipalities from Glen Ridge to the western county line should form a joint dispatch center. Everywhere else in the country, dispatch is handled in large countywide centers with appropriate staff levels. If you drive down Bloomfield Avenue your 911 call may be answered in Montclair, Verona, North Caldwell (which dispatches for Essex Fells), or Caldwell, each with perhaps one or two people on duty, depending on where the GPS in your cell phone determines you are located, yet in a major incident officers from multiple jurisdictions may be needed anyway. Each of those dispatch centers requires 24×7 staffing by certified staff and specialized equipment for 911 call taking and radio dispatch, which is substantial duplication of staff and capital assets. Likewise, our municipal court could operate as a joint court with several other nearby municipalities only requiring a short drive from residents who have to appear in court to minimize the staff of required court administrators and costs of court security.
Administrative services could also see consolidation. Each municipality employs financial officers, tax collectors, purchasing agents, accounts payable staff, and human resources and payroll specialists that could be part of a regionalized service center. Gone are the days when paper forms had to be shuffled from department to department for approval and most of this work can now be done remotely – and is, in the private sector. I approve payables, human resources requests, and payroll for my department at my job through web-based systems and rarely see or sign a piece of paper any more.
We have made efforts to enter into more shared services over the last four years. At the beginning of my term we had to replace our outdated public safety two-way radio system. Before I joined the council, the circulating proposal was for the township to build a costly new independent system from the ground up in hopes that other municipalities might join in. I pressed for us to join the state radio network instead and we were able to join a state-of-the-art system that is well supported at lower cost and which opens up opportunities for shared dispatch in the future. We also had to acquire a new street sweeper to prevent street debris from entering the storm drains and have offset some of that cost by providing sweeping services to Caldwell. We continue to provide Construction Code services to Roseland and provide numerous services to the Board of Education such as grass and turf maintenance. We are exploring providing vehicle maintenance services to other towns as well, as we have a well-qualified full time vehicle mechanic.
The highest hurdle in moving to true regionalized services is a need for a change in mindset. We have to be willing to cede control of some functions of government that don’t directly touch the public, and some that do. Technology and office automation have made it possible to do far more with less staff and less duplication in buildings, systems, and other capital assets. If we are serious about reducing the cost of government and putting New Jersey on a fiscally stable footing, we must be willing to make consolidation and regionalization of services work.
