By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, June 2, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03
In the first of what new Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber said he hopes will become regular meetings of municipal leaders, representatives of 45 county communities met with him Saturday to talk about regionalization and consolidation of services.
“The county is not that big anymore,” New Milford Mayor Theresa M. King said. “It’s 70 towns, and we all have the same problems. My concern is that the county put forth programs that do not duplicate themselves, that we don’t add . . . bureaucracy and additional costs.”
Saturday’s meeting, organized by Schuber and Charles O’Dowd, chairman of the Board of Freeholders, among others, examined regionalization in areas such as health, law enforcement, recycling, and a countywide 911 system.
“Regionalization as a word does not mean the end of home rule,” Schuber told those gathered, “but instead represents an approach which will aid communities during these most difficult economic times such as [those] we are facing.”
County government, Schuber said, will take a lead role in helping the towns find ways to share services and concentrate efforts to take advantage of the economies of scale.
One area that is being scrutinized is the potential for regionalizing law enforcement. First Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Paul Brickfield announced that a commission to study how that could be done would be named in July, with meetings and hearings scheduled in August and September.
He said many communities already share dispatching duties, have mutual aid assistance programs, and work together in other ways.
When asked what would happened if a town decided to opt out of a regional arrangement, Brickfield said that would be an impediment only if the proposal was for one central police department for the whole county.
“It is unlikely at this stage that a plan would emerge seeking that all 70 towns join into one force. The trend in the short term is for neighboring towns to at least start to share services, and look at consolidation later,” Brickfield said.
Regionalization is a bitter medicine for some, however, even those like Ridgefield Park Mayor Fred J. Criscuolo, who served on the Inter-local Governmental Relations Committee of the Schuber transition team.
The concept of regionalization is a direct attack on home rule that would cause the deterioration of municipalities by the year 2000, Criscuolo said. But he said municipalities have little choice.
“Since it’s been forced on us, it is the only way to go,” Criscuolo said. “Funding is almost terminated in most areas. With various laws and mandates from the state that require even more money, I think regionalization, or as we call it, intergovernmental relationship, is the only way to go.”
O’Dowd said he realized regionalization might be difficult to achieve politically.
“There are two standards to be met when we talk about cooperation and regionalization: will the service improve and will the cost decrease,” O’Dowd said. “If we can put all the cobwebs out of our brain about home rule and local control and understand that we’ll still have that because it is our decision to make. If we meet those two standards, then we have served our people and served them well.”
Keywords: HACKENSACK; BERGEN COUNTY; EXECUTIVE; MEETING; GOVERNMENT; OFFICIAL
Notes: Bergen page
ID: 17345185 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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