The average Brick homeowner would save about $245 per year if the township council were to enact Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis' proposed 2012 spending plan.
But the savings would come at a cost in the form of the township's public works department – including its 77 employees and public trash and recycling collection services for residents.
Acropolis presented his budget, which totals $82,141,131, to the township council on Tuesday night.
The spending plan would lower the municipal portion of one's property tax bill from 63.6 cents to 55.5 cents per $100 of assessed real property value, and would shave the entire budget by 7.4 percent.
The total amount of money by which taxes would be cut would total $8.6 million, and the average Brick homeowner would see the municipal portion of their tax bill decline from $1,927 to $1,682.
But residents and council members openly expressed disagreement with Acropolis' plan, saying voters approved extra spending in a referendum last year aimed at maintaining public services.
Some members of the public who came to the council's work session Tuesday – there was standing room only at the meeting – wondered if, eventually, a host of outsourced services would cost more than maintaining the DPW work force under the township.
"You cannot provide tax relief without service cuts," Acropolis said. "It's a choice."
Acropolis said 70 percent of New Jersey municipalities currently have privatized trash and recycling pickup, which would be eliminated in Brick if the DPW were to be eliminated.
"You cannot effectively cut taxes without looking at your employees," Acropolis said, adding that health insurance costs have been skyrocketing even though the township employs fewer people than ever before.
Business Administrator Scott Pezarras blamed the health insurance increases on provisions that require specific, higher-priced policies in public employee contracts.
"It's the highest cost we have in Brick Township, bar none. Our healthcare obligation alone for 2012 is $12 million," Acropolis said.
Acropolis said Brick residents demanded tax cuts in November 2011 by voting for a slate of four Democrats who, among other issues, campaigned on tax and spending concerns.
But some residents said Acropolis, who left the meeting after his presentation was finished, had them all wrong.
"Where does the mayor get the information that this is what the public wants?" asked resident Vic Fanelli.
The Effect on Residents
Former Republican Councilman Al Chrobocinski came out against the plan to cut DPW, saying that after some initial good deals, the price for residents to obtain private trash and recycling collection will skyrocket.
"Once you've gotten rid of all of your equipment, and all of your trucks … the vendors come back and they have you over a barrel," Chrobocinski said. "Once you get rid of the Department of Public Works, you no longer have a bargaining tool."
Pezarras said if the council were to adopt the mayor's spending plan and eliminate the DPW, residents would be responsible for contracting with a private hauler. While ordinances would call for each neighborhood to maintain its current 'garbage day,' different neighbors could conceivably contract with different haulers.
As for the current township-owned automated garbage cans issued to residents, the township would most likely do what Barnegat Township did when it switched to privatized service: collect the cans and resell them to another town.
Council President John Ducey said the cost savings is made less clear by the fact that not just garbage collection, but everything from the maintenance of police cars, to pot hole repair, to snow plowing, to street sign making would have to be outsourced. There also would be no one to operate the township recycling center on Ridge Road if the department was eliminated, he said.
"We want to have an opportunity to take a look, and keep those services for our town," Ducey said, calling the mayor's proposal an event that placed the town "back in a crisis."
Unanimous Reaction
Of those members of the public and elected officials who spoke at the meeting, none said they supported the mayor's plan, and nearly all came out squarely against it.
"It's just plain wrong to play politics on the backs of our loyal and dedicated public workers," said Councilman Dan Toth. "Just plain wrong."
"Our residents voted to keep these services intact, and I support that," he said.
Councilwoman Susan Lydecker said she agreed with those who describe the budget proposal as a "political ploy."
Councilman Jim Fozman called for a close look at the proposed budget, and said department heads should provide reports on budgets to the council at a public meeting.
"I am sure some bloated numbers will be found with each one," Fozman said.
"The workers as well as the people of Brick should not have to suffer due to the lack of oversight of the mayor and the previous council," he added.
What Happens Now?
Though the mayor presents a budget from his administration each year, the final decision on the annual spending plan – and, thus, the taxes to support that spending plan – are in the hands of the council.
Now that the budget has been proposed and copies have been provided to each council member, those elected officials will comb through the spending plan. They can accept it as is, add things to it or cut it further. The council has the ability to put the funding for the DPW back into the budget if it chooses.
"If the council decides to increase the budget by 8 cents, those types of things can be put back in the budget," Acropolis said during his presentation.
"The budget is in the council's hands," he said.
Portia did not say anything about me. What do tend to agree with?
In my opinion "The Get Up and Go" initiative whereby employees were allowed to leave work by 11:00 am or 12:00 pm has outlived its time. It no longer serves the Township well. and should be discontinued. Regarding Department Head Vehicles and in this economic climate I do not see why a Department Head who lives in Brick could not just use his own vehicle during an emergency and submit mileage and the like. Again, I always appreciate your input and contributions to the Citizentry of Brick Township.
If the OT is discretionary then yes, either myself of the Mayor has to approve that. Since we cannot control things like the weather, traffic stops, or other incidents of crime and the reports that are associated with them, if an event takes place and it drives OT to complete dealing with it, we have to adhere to the contract. Scheduled OT I totally agree. Many of recreations events occur after hours or on Saturdays and need to be supervised, although this is discretionary you wouldn't have the events and activities if we didn't have OT. Admin does ask the employee to consider comp time instead, but that choice is the employees by law. The get it and go is somewhat of an anomaly when we did not have it in the past. The task of picking up the garbage drove OT everyday making this task more expensive, and the workforce adhered to the letter of the law regarding ordinances (size of brush, weight of cans, size of recyclable containers and the like) that created many complaints. I guess the main goal is to get the garbage and recyclables off the streets, unfortunately get it and go works. The vehicle thing is other than police personnel and several DPW employees that are involved with emergency mgmt., no dept head or division head takes a vehicle home. The vehicles have equipment in them so using a personal vehicle would not work, I will make sure the Chief goes through the benefits of this during his presentation. Scott
What is the TOTAL cost of overtime spent for year 2010 and 2011? What is the TOTAL cost of overtime appropriated for in the proposed budget 2012? Do you think that there are ways in which the Township could reduce overtime costs?
Hey, If they want to live here they're gonna have to pay somehow.
Yes Director Campbell is p/o the emergency management. There was a time when every dept/div head had a car, but now it is reserved for emergency mgmt personnel and the DPW supervisor on call. The OT is posted on the twp's website for each dept. 2011 appropriated and spent and requested for 2012. Non-discretionary situational OT can not be reduced since it is driven by certain situations and is paid in accordance with contracts. Same with on call pay. Discretionary OT is controlled and could be controlled further, but wouldn't have a lot of recreation and youth programs which are held after regular work hours. We do ask employees to flex their hours or take compensatory time but you cannot stop them from being paid OT it is a labor law. If we did not work on Saturdays when we have a Holiday in the week and skip trash and recycling p/u that week and if we didn't do OT during the week and on Saturdays during leaf p/u, or have council mtgs and caucus mtgs at night, and eliminate the free rabies clinic, we could cut a lot of discretionary OT. This would be a cut in service levels that I think the people would not be happy with.
I know I read up a few posts after I posted that, I appreciate the support.
Many were willing to do without other services but were adamant in keeping the trash pickup, recycling and the hill open. Yet, that is the one service that is slated for elimination . . . Why do we continue to add on nonessential costs, new recreational programs for additional movie nights, line dancing, aerobics, etc. when we are asking the taxpayer to do without having their garbage picked up? Currently, the collective bargaining agreement provides for an employee to work one evening a month- do we utilize that provision at all in an effort to cut down on overtime? Upon entering into the Shared Service Agreement with Toms River a provision to pay out five percent in administrative costs was included. We could have saved a significant amount of money if we would have excluded that clause. Recently a Councilman brought up that $100,000 was expended for services. He probably is not aware that the agreement provides for a 5% administrative fee. We could have saved $5,000 without impacting services. Although I recognize that we cannot unilaterally discard current agreements, going forward we need to rethink the way we distribute Overtime in Brick Township. The costs are staggering.
However, if the Township pursues this avenue and were to contract with an independent hauler on behalf of the residents, we would lose at minimum $600,000 taxpayer dollars that we would have to in turn reimburse the Condominium Associations, Apartment Complexes and the like due to the Municipal Services Act/Community Services Act. Savings would be significantly reduced. Given the numerous Regulations and State Mandates that plague municipalities, we ought to reach out to our State Legislators and Governor for remedy/relief (as well as our local elected officials.) In my opinion, true property tax relief remains an enigma to the POLITICIANS in Trenton. It is a disturbing reality.
Pushing the contracting down to every homeowner is a non-starter in my opinion, and will more than likely cost us more, and since it will cost more, there are many folks who simply cannot afford it. Additionally, it will more than likely result in increased "dumping" throughout the township. How much will it cost to replace the convenience of the recycle centers? Moves such as this show how little the Mayor thinks about the people. It's a political move that doesn't make much sense. The administration simply needs to "Do it's job" and implement cost savings efficiencies to preclude these ill conceived cuts.
What is going to seriously suck when and if they get rid of the DPW are: 1. having to coordinate my current garbage day with the private company, I will expect terrible traffic if 3-5 different disposal companies try to pick up trash on my block on the same day.. being a blunt dead end and all.. 2. subcode officals are going to go ticket crazy writing out sanitation violations for people who try and reduce the amount of pick ups they get by storing two weeks or so of trash. 3. Neighbors are going to complain like crazy about people who decide to get small 1-2 yard dumpsters.
have always arrived when promised without a problem, so I must disagree with you about the service. Also the people on the phone I spoke to about the pickups have always been very polite . I have never had a problem with them.