Council OKs contract to privatize janitorial services
Russell casts 'no' vote, says council omitted from process
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

Paring 42 jobs from the Brick Township payroll has helped to plug the nearly $4 million hole in the 2009 municipal budget, Business Administrator Scott M. Pezarras said.

"That was the whole goal," Pezarras said. "You had to try and fill that $4 million hole."

Township officials had planned to eliminate 47 positions, but last-minute retirements in 2008 saved five jobs. The workers — including all the building inspectors, janitorial services, many public works department employees and all the senior-services bus drivers — were laid off Dec. 31.

The Township Council wasted no time filling in the gaps with private services. Council members voted 6-1 at the Dec. 31 meeting to award a $125,000 contract to Asbury Park-based United Cleaning Contractors to provide janitorial services in all township-owned buildings.

The move will save $285,000 for janitorial services in 2008, he said.

The township spent roughly $410,000 for the six workers and supervisors, a number that included the cost of benefits, Pezarras said.

Councilwoman Kathy Russell voted against the United contract. Russell asked if anyone from the council had reviewed the bid specifications or any of the companies' background information before the vote.

"My vote was a no because of the fact that nobody on this council looked into the specs," she said. "Nobody on the council did any review of any of these companies' background information. I believe we were omitted from the process."

"If you had read your package, all the information was in there," council President Ruthanne Scaturro said.

Russell said she had not received her council packet until the day before the council meeting.

The move will save a minimum of "50 cents on the dollar," Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said at the meeting.

"I would much rather have the people work here, but we don't make that decision, Trenton does," he said. "We are losing some really good people. Some people I know … would do anything to compromise and save their jobs. Unfortunately, they weren't given that opportunity."

United will clean Town Hall, Civic Plaza, the Dealaman farm building, the public works building, and a section of the VFW building the township rents for senior services, Pezarras said after the meeting.

Several of the buildings will be cleaned in the mornings, but the municipal building will be done after hours, he said.

Councilman Brian DeLuca asked if the "status" of the outside workers who will clean the municipal building will be checked.

"We have sensitive material on people's desks," he said.

The bid specifications require that the company is bonded and that background checks are done to make sure workers have no criminal records, Pezarras said.

"We even asked them to go beyond that," Pezarras said. "We are actually going to perform our own kinds of background [checks] on them."

Township officials spent much of the past six months grappling with ways to deal with the $4 million shortfall. Acropolis and the administration have blamed the problem on the state-imposed cap on the amount that can be raised by taxation each year, a $1.3 million increase in health-insurance premiums for township employees, a $700,000 cut in state aid, and a $500,000 hike in fuel and utility costs.

The problems are not likely to disappear in 2009. Pezarras said there's a good chance that state aid will be reduced even further in the next budget year.

"It doesn't look too promising," he said. "We usually don't have a final figure until well into the time they [the state] prepare their budget. We're going to draft a budget assuming it will remain unchanged. We'll take the same amount and use it as a revenue source; then we will hope for the best."

This year's $700,000 cut in state aid "probably cost us 10 to 12 jobs," Acropolis said, "because the state of New Jersey can't get their house in order. They are not making some of the hard choices they have to make."

The administration will defer school taxes to lessen the impact on the 2009 municipal budget, he said.

"If you don't want to defer the school taxes, then you want to raise taxes," Acropolis said.

The mayor also blasted a plan by Gov. Jon S. Corzine for municipalities to take a pension payment "holiday" so towns can defer making pension payments for several years.

Acropolis called it an "election year ploy." "That is something that will eventually have to be paid for by the taxpayers," he said.