Shared Services Forum Slated for June 18

Officials from Fanwood and Scotch Plains are exploring the possibility of sharing more services, and they want the public's help deciding the best way to do so.

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr and Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool will seek public feedback during a forum on the issue that will be held at 6:30 p.m. June 18 at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.  

Fanwood Councilman David Valian said the forum will provide the two communities an opportunity to gather ideas from the public.

“What this is going to do is give everyone an opportunity to give us some idea of what your thoughts are,” Valian said.

The two townships already share some services, such as the public school system. They also have a shared services committee that's been meeting for years. Now, though, the two townships are taking the idea to the next level by conducting a complete study on the financial and service benefits that could come from merging more departments. 

Dan Mason of Jersey Professional Management, a consulting group out of Cranford, has been responsible for advising the current shared services committee since 2000. He will also lead this new study and will be in attendance Thursday night.

Valian noted that the forum is strictly an opportunity for the two municipalities to review and consider the matter, and that no decisions have been made on shared services.  

“People are going to come up and ask what is this going to result in. What is this study going to end up as?” Valian said. “The fact is that this is exactly what we are saying. It’s a study. We’re not going to end up with two towns joined at the hip. What we are going to do is to find out what that means."

David Pickering, a former Fanwood council member, expressed concern during the borough's council meeting regarding the involvement of Mason.

But Mayor Mahr defended the selection of Mason by saying that he has the experience needed to get the job done.

“He has a company that works up and down the State of New Jersey doing just this, shared services,” Mahr said. “Scotch Plains, Fanwood and the Board of Education have been meeting for nine years, going on 10 years, as a shared services coordinating council. He has been our lead person. He is the facilitator, he keeps the agenda moving forward, he identifies things that we should be doing, and he has a track record in looking at the depth of the meat of shared services that satisfied the professionals and us.” 

Mahr said earlier this month that the townships have applied for a grant through the Department of Community Affairs to underwrite the cost of a consultant, which she estimated at $40,000.

Mahr pointed out that one thing to be taken from this forum is that in a recession, Fanwood and Scotch Plains are both taking the issue of shared services seriously.

"I think it’s interesting that out of 566 towns in New Jersey, only six communities are having serious talks about substantive sharing services, and we’re one of them," Mahr said earlier. "That’s an indication of how serious our towns are about addressing some property tax relief."

Scotch Plains Councilman Jeffrey Strauss stressed during the township's Tuesday night meeting that the forum is simply the first opportunity to start talking about the study.

"There are no substantial answers yet, just questions," he said.

The study is already underway, in some regard. Mahr said the consultant has begun speaking with different members of the town departments, and will continue to do so in the coming weeks.

Now, she said, the towns want the public to start contributing to that conversation.

“I firmly believe that you need a dialogue with the people, that elected officials should never lull themselves into thinking that they know best,” Mahr said. “We’re here to serve the taxpayers, so we need to hear from the taxpayers what they believe we should be looking at as far as shared services. We think we have the answers, but it’s always a good check and balance.”

For more information on the meeting, call 908-322-8236.