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Politics & Government

Council Approves Introduction of Ordinance to Create New Department

After being tabled twice, the council voted 4-1 in favor of introducing an Ordinance to create the Department of Planning and Development on Monday night.

, the borough council voted 4-1 Monday evening in favor of Ordinance 2011-2 to create The Department of Planning and Development.

The department will consolidate the Engineering and Construction Departments, and provide supervision over the divisions of engineering and code enforcement. It will also attend to the administrative needs of the Zoning and Planning Boards.

Councilman James Cucco, who had voiced his opposition to the ordinance in previous meetings, was the only member to vote against the measure. Councilman Armand Galluccio was absent from the meeting.

While Council President Michael Gennaro defended the ordinance, , Cucco questioned how cost effective a new department would be.

“I still believe this is a good idea,” Gennaro said.

“We don’t know what the additional costs are going to be, and we don’t know what the savings are,” Cucco said in response.

Borough Administrator Doug Marvin told Cucco the savings will be $167,652, and will come about by hiring someone per diem to take the minutes at Planning Board meetings. Clerks who had previously been in charge of taking the minutes have since either retired or taken on other responsibilities.

“It’s really the shift and transfer of those duties and responsibilities, including up to this newly proposed department that is hopefully going to make everything work,” Marvin said.

Cucco sharply disagreed with Marvin, citing the need for an experienced clerk to take the minutes.

“If you haven’t taken the minutes, you are going to be hard pressed to give a logical answer to questions regarding zoning or planning board applications,” Cucco said. “To me, it just doesn’t make sense to do it this way. You are going to lose a lot of information and a lot of skills that have been developed.”

Councilman Vince Vyzas, who also serves on the Planning Board and is the council liaison to both the Planning and Zoning Boards, supported the ordinance because he believes it will genuinely save the borough money.

“This arrangement is being done at the loss of a stipend, which is at least equivalent to, if not greater than, what we would be paying a part-time person,” he said.

The councilmen debated the ordinance for nearly 40 minutes, but in the end, Mayor J. Brooke Hern insisted there be a vote rather than tabling it a third time.

“Deferring this again is putting off the inevitable,” he said. “We have to know where we stand, and we have to know what we will be able to do and not do.”

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A public hearing on Ordinance 2011-2 is set for March 14.

Council May Publish Proposed Resolutions and Ordinances On-line

The council discussed how it can disclose proposed resolutions and ordinances to borough residents along with the agenda that is now posted on a public domain on the Thursdays before council meetings.

“We have an opportunity to increase public participation and awareness in a way that can really strengthen the formulation of public policy in this community,” Hern said.

“There is no requirement that resolutions be released ahead of time, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be,” Borough Attorney Carl Woodward said.

Hern added that he would not have a problem with inserting a disclaimer that any resolution or ordinance listed on-line is subject to change.

Gennaro said he supports the concept, but wants to make sure council members can read the ordinances and resolutions before they are available to the public. He also expressed concern that members might not have time to make comments or changes to the ordinances and resolutions before they get posted on-line.

“I think it would be great to have the public see the resolutions we’re talking about so they can formulate intelligent questions and perhaps make suggestions that none of us have thought of,” he said. “However, I do have a problem with the public getting to see these things before the council does.”

The council made a compromise that while the agenda is posted on-line on Thursday, resolutions and ordinances will be available on Monday at noon. That way, most of them will be nearly finalized by the time they go public. The council plans on trying this compromise for the next meeting.

Emergency Generator Update

The council heard from Chief of Police Anthony D. Buccelli, Borough Engineer Andrew Hipolit, and Construction Official Keith Lynch regarding the placement of a new emergency generator that would provide power for Borough Hall and the Rescue Squad.

The borough got a new generator following a major snow storm in February of 2001, but Buccelli said the transfer switch was never changed along with it. While Buccelli said the generator works fine, it only powers certain portions of the police station.

While there was concern among council members that a new generator will be loud and discourage people from living in the area, Hipolit said it is essential to place it inbetween Borough Hall and the Rescue Squad so it can allocate power to both equally.

The estimated cost for a new generator is $300,000, with another few hundred dollars in maintenance costs over the course of a year.

“I know $300,000 seems like a lot if you were doing it for your house, but if you’re talking about putting in a piece of switch gear and generator set to serve a building like this, it’s not a lot of money,” Gennaro said.

Hern decided to table the discussion until the next council meeting on March 14 so that everyone could have questions answered and be ready to make a decision by the end of the month.

Community Pool News

The President and Treasurer of the New Providence Community Pool began the meeting with a presentation of their annual budget. They reported a five percent decline in membership, but said their costs have remained stable.

The pool is still operating with a positive cash flow, though.

“I think that in these times, the minor membership drop you’ve experienced is something that would be well within the range of expectation,” Gennaro said. “The facility is great, and I encourage everybody to get out there and use it.”

Storm-water Training

Hipolit followed the Community Pool with a training seminar on storm-water regulations as required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

He discussed ordinances that have been adopted by the borough to follow stormwater regulations, including the pet waste ordinance, litter ordinance, and the improper waste disposal ordinance, among others. The seminar also reiterated the need for communities to educate their residents and employees on proper waste disposal.

Additional Items

The council passed seven agenda items by a single roll call vote, including Resolution 2011-83, which awarded a contract to Fai-Gon Electric, Inc. for the Lieder Field Lighting Project in the amount of $232,924. The resolution on the 2010 recycling grant tonnage application also passed unanimously.

Although the council briefly discussed amending the “Alcoholic Beverages” Code to allow police to go on private property and intervene with underage drinkers ages 18-20, it was ultimately tabled and will be revisited at the next meeting. Current New Providence law permits police officers to step in at house parties with alcohol when it involves anyone 17 and under.

Public Comments

Resident Pat Moschetti asked if the Department of Homeland Security provides grants for emergency generators. The council said it would look into that possibility.

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Moschetti also commended the council for addressing the generator issue, but added that the emergency liaison, Mayor Hern, needs to make it a higher priority.

Moschetti also informed the council that he attended the budget meeting earlier in the evening, and said the borough must improve its ratables.

“We need to improve the ratables in our town so that when you have a tax increase, it’s spread over more ratables and is not as terrifying to individual taxpayers,” he said.

Hern assured Moschetti that the council is working on the ratables, and is high priority among council members.

Resident and Chairman of the New Providence Cable Advisory Committee Frank Sommo expressed his displeasure with the State Assembly for passing bill A-3766, which alters New Jersey’s regulation of competitive services provided by telecommunications companies.

Sommo said he is concerned that the bill allows cable companies to avoid consumer protection requirements that are currently required by law. The updated bill will reach the State Senate in late March as S-2664.

Sommo asked if Mayor Hern could appeal the matter to State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. in an effort to strike down the bill and maintain consumer protection from cable companies.

Hern said he could get in touch with Kean and District 21 Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, who was one of four primary sponsors of the bill in the State Assembly.

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