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Health & Fitness

January 28, 2014, Town Council meeting

A council majority approved proposals to renew a risk-management consulting contract with Fairview Insurance and reverse its previous position to instead vote to approve a resolution to investigate procurement of police weapons and ammunition at the January 28, 2014, council meeting.

The meeting agendas and related materials are here. The council meeting video, indexed so you can quickly find specific issues you want to watch, is here.

The meeting also featured a speaker from the non-profit Citizens Campaign who spoke about insurance procurement and the group’s model ordinance, a version of which failed at the previous council meeting for lack of a second to my motion to introduce. 

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In addition, a town redevelopment attorney briefed the council on the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision to consider an appeal by residents seeking a referendum on the town’s plan to issue $6.3 million in taxpayer-guaranteed bonds in support of the Edison Battery Factory project downtown.

The administration received a 4-1 council approval to renew the risk-management consulting contract with Fairview Insurance of Verona relating the town’s participation in the Garden State Municipal Joint Insurance Fund. It provides property & casualty insurance for municipalities around the state.

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The one-year no-bid contract awards Fairview, the town’s long-time insurance broker and consultant, with a commission equal to 7% of the town’s GSMJIF assessment from the Garden State Municipal Joint Insurance Fund (GSMJIF). The assessment and dollar cost of the commission aren’t specified in the contract. The 2013 budget line for the GSMJIF was $810,000, which would indicate a fee to Fairview of about $56,000. The town has paid Fairview approximately $1.1 million in fees in the last three years.

Ms. Heather Taylor of Citizens Campaign, a non-profit focused on improving government efficiency in the state’s local government, presented on the group’s model ordinance. The legislation, designed by insurance and legal experts to increase competition and transparency, has been adopted by more than a dozen municipalities and school districts. She estimated savings to date of approximately $50 million. Business Administrator Jack Sayers and several council members maintained that the administration was largely following the principals of the model legislation, was not in favor of restricting the administration’s options and didn’t see where the town could save money.

Ms. Taylor answered by saying the public entities that have adopted the ordinance or its principals all reported significant savings and that none that she knew of had expressed dissatisfaction with the effects of the ordinance. She said that the state Department of Community Affairs has made the ordinance part of its Best Practices Checklist; municipalities’ compliance with the checklist determines the level of their state funding.   

The council also reconsidered Council President Susan McCartney’s request for approval of a two-step research project to investigate the vendors and market for police firearms and ammunition to update the specifications and standards for procurement. Areas of study include “smart gun” technology, the capability of vendors to have efficient buyback campaigns to minimize second-hand sales in the private market, vendors that equip all their firearms with trigger locks and vendor commitment to “minimizing the ‘arms race’ between law enforcement and civilians.”

The resolution, submitted by Rabbi Elliot Tepperman of Bnai Keshet Synagogue in Montclair, was considered at the January 14 meeting. He and West Orange resident and firearms instructor Alexander Roubian engaged in a spirited debate during Public Comment and later when the council considered the resolution. Council President Susan McCartney’s motion to introduce the resolution did not receive a second and thus failed.

Mr. Roubian e-mailed the council before the meeting to say that he was on vacation and unable to attend the meeting. He asked the council to table consideration until its next meeting when he could attend. At the meeting, several people spoke at Public Comment for and against the proposal. Controversy arose when the council president moved for approval of the resolution without allowing further comment as she had said she would do at Public Comment. The resolution passed 4-1. I voted against the proposal as not appropriate to undertake when, according to the town’s police officials, our next firearms purchase is 5-7 years away and provisions in the resolution contradicted their understanding of the town’s role in the process. I also believed Mr. Roubian deserved to have a chance to debate the proposal.

The administration also received council approval to award two contracts for snow removal. Grabowski Construction of West Orange would provide snow plowing and salting for $225 per hour in the eastern part of town. Elite Snow Removal of Clifton would provide equipment to haul snow ranging from $90 per hour to $145 per hour. The proposed resolution does not indicate a not-to-exceed cost. The awards came from a second round of bidding when the first one did not produce sufficient bidders.

The council approved the administration’s request for approval of a salary ordinance on first reading to raise the maximum pay for a mechanic’s helper in the Public Works department from $49,372 to $58,141, or 17.8%. The ordinance will require a second reading and majority vote in favor to pass.

The administration pulled for a second time a resolution to padlock the Select-O Flash building at 18 Central Avenue as abandoned and unfit for occupancy. The administration pulled the resolution at the January 14 meeting to await the costs that it would include in a lien on the property.

Other matters on the agenda included:

- Plans to create an ordinance making Hazel Avenue one-way west-bound between Rollinson Street and Oak Ridge Road to improve safety at the Hazel Avenue School.

- A $7,404 assessment from Joint Meeting, which handles most of the town’s sewerage, for its share of a settlement in the Occidental Chemical litigation in which the state is seeking compensation for the environmental contamination of Newark Bay. The total settlement is $95,000.

If you’d like to contact the council with your thoughts on any of these issues, please send an e-mail to council@westorange.org or call 973.325.4155 to leave a message.

I’m a West Orange Township councilman since 2010, reachable at jkrakoviak@westorange.org. I'm a business communications consultant in my spare time.

 

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