SP Council: Police Department Merger Top Priority

The Scotch Plains Mayor and Township Council reached an informal but unanimous consensus Wednesday night to vigorously pursue the merger of the Scotch Plains and Fanwood police departments, literally putting the police at the top of a list of municipal agencies that they said they hope to ultimately consolidate with the borough. 

"I believe that we need to tackle the biggest issue first, which would be the police department," Mayor Nancy Malool said, her comments soon echoed by the four members of the council. "The public has waited so long for this. They want to see that we have the resolve." 

The mayor and council convened the special meeting Wednesday in follow-up to the public forum on shared services that was held with Fanwood on March 10. There, Mayors Malool and Colleen Mahr, who moderated the forum, heard and answered more than a dozen questions from residents, which ranged in topic from police response times to whether the councils should first pursue the "low-hanging fruit" – such as a merger of the building departments – or more challenging consolidations – such as the creation of a joint police department. 

On Wednesday, the mayor and council endorsed a combined approach. Although no formal vote was taken, they each voiced support for proposing that Scotch Plains and Fanwood merge the police and building departments simultaneously, then, in descending order, the construction offices, the courts and the public works departments. 

Malool emphasized that the list remains subject to change and heavily depends on the priorities put forth by the Fanwood mayor and council, but added, "We've been looking for a road map. We need to give one to ourselves…. We need to come up with a plan, and this is a plan." 

Merging the township and borough's building departments, Malool argued, would "create efficiencies" that would help blaze a trail for the proposed consolidation of the police departments. "This would accomplish the more challenging things and the low-hanging fruit," she said. "I think that can happen concurrently." 

Councilmen Bo Vastine and Kevin Glover said they supported the proposed plan, characterizing it as "not a diet," but a "lifestyle change." 

"I don't think we have the time, I don't think we have the resources and I don't think the two-percent cap will allow us the luxury to tiptoe in," Vastine said.  

Deputy Mayor Mary DePaola agreed. "I definitely think we should start with the larger departments," she said. "If we solve the larger problems in the beginning, then I think the smaller issues will fall into place." 

The shared services feasibility study that was published in Dec. 2009 by the Cranford-based consultant Jersey Professional Management – and paid for in-full by a state grant – estimates that Scotch Plains and Fanwood could ultimately save about $1 million annually by creating joint police and building departments. Glover argued that the actual savings would likely exceed the report's estimates, predicting that "the numbers that the report presented were conservative."

The mayor and council then turned to Police Chief Brian Mahoney, who had met with Fanwood Police Chief Richard Trigo in the days that followed the March 10 forum to discuss the proposed merger. Although Scotch Plains participates in Civil Service while Fanwood does not – a difference that some council members and observers had previously theorized could pose an obstacle to any merger – Mahoney said that Title 40A of New Jersey's Uniform Shared Services and Consolidation Act would guide the township and borough through the process of merging departments.  

"It's obviously not an obstacle to any kind of shared service," Mahoney said of the Civil Service difference. "It's already addressed in the statute." 

Addressing a question from the council, he went on to caution against using police officers' response times as a gauge for evaluating the service the departments provide.

"There are many ways to measure response times," he said, explaining that the times vary depending on the nature of each call, and that different departments use different methods to calculate their response times. "Response times would be somewhere very, very low on the list because it's a variable that's not easily tracked." He added, however, that between Scotch Plains and Fanwood, "the average for all calls-for-service are about the same."

Perhaps most notably, however, Mahoney was unequivocal in stating that a police merger would substantively benefit residents of both Scotch Plains and Fanwood. "I think you'd have more resources in anything you combined or shared, simply from the increase in personnel," he said. "There wouldn't be a decline in service. There would be an increase in service." 

Mahr and Trigo, contacted separately by telephone Thursday morning, said that Wednesday night's outcome was not unexpected. 

"I am not surprised that it was unanimous," Mahr said. "The idea of taking shared services to another level – that there would be something more substantial on the table, that there would be another level of shared services – is not a new thought. For the Township of Scotch Plains' Municipal Council to be on the same page about moving forward and having identified where they want to go – as the Mayor of Fanwood, I'm very pleased with that, because it shows they're going to take it seriously, as we are going to take it seriously about taking it to the next level. So that's a good thing."

Trigo added, "In these financial times, its incumbent on the government to try to save money any way possible. Everything has to be looked at, and that's been made clear from the state level on the way down. So it's not a surprise."

The Fanwood Mayor and Council, he continued, “think it's something very, very worthwhile to explore. It's easily said, but it's harder to get done. By no means does that shared services report address the many concerns and issues that arise." With regard to response times, for example, he stated that it would be speculative to detail how they might be affected because a consolidation plan has yet to be finalized.

The borough's mayor and council will meet to take-up the issue next week, Mahr said. The exact date is still being formalized, she added, but should be released by Friday.

The township and borough councils had originally planned to hold their joint meeting on Wednesday, April 13, but Township Manager Christopher Marion pointed out that the date conflicts with an annual Fanwood-Scotch Plains Rotary Club  event, to which the mayors and council members of both municipalities are invited. The Scotch Plains Mayor and Council tentatively suggested Thursday, April 14, subject to the agreement of the Fanwood Mayor and Council.

"This might not seem like a lot, but it's a lot of progress," Malool said near the end of the meeting. "It's really not that easy. It's not easy among five people, let alone two completely separate towns."

Additional Notes: DePaola took a moment during the meeting to state that Scotch Plains was continuing to pursue transferring its dispatch operations to Union County's police headquarters in Westfield. Fanwood moved its dispatch operations there last September. 

"It's not on the list, but we haven't forgotten it," DePaola said. "It's a separate thing." She added that a merger of the Scotch Plains and Fanwood police departments would naturally require a consolidation of the two towns' dispatch operations. 

Glover also raised the point that if Scotch Plains and Fanwood do agree to merge their police departments, they should consider consolidating the municipal courts – which work in close conjunction with the police departments – at roughly the same time.