Despite an outcry from some residents who want a fulltime animal control officer (ACO), West Windsor Council is still studying the merits of extending a shared services agreement with East Windsor.
At West Windsor’s January 3 reorganization meeting, newly elected Councilman Bryan Maher asked Business Administrator Robert Hary for a clear presentation of the savings made by the shared services agreement, which Mayor Hsueh has described as a reduction of over $40,000 for the township.
“Is there a plan since we do not have an ACO currently? To be respectful to people in the community for bringing it up, meeting after meeting after meeting, it’s starting to cut into a lot of our time. We have big issues to deal with as the budget’s coming up and we need to put this to bed. It behooves the administration to figure out exactly what is going to happen, when it’s going to happen, and explain that to people so we can move on,” Maher said.
Former Councilman Charles Morgan, who changed his original stance and voted against the agreement on December 19, seemed convinced that the administration will put the same resolution in front of the new council to pass this month. So far no item has appeared on Council’s agenda, but Morgan predicts two possibilities, neither of which includes the re-hiring of Bettina Roed.
“If that doesn’t happen, West Windsor probably might hire a new ACO, but it won’t be Bettina Roed [the former fulltime officer in West Windsor]. Or the best answer is that West Windsor will revise the shared services agreement to provide the full level of services desired by residents — with the result that there will be five “yes” votes the next time around,” Morgan postulated.
Meanwhile Plainsboro proceeded with its own shared services agreement. One year ago Plainsboro made the decision to discontinue its shared services agreement with West Windsor Township for an animal control officer, months ahead of Bettina Roed’s position being eliminated. For 2011 Plainsboro opted for a shared services agreement with Helmetta Borough, which, according to Plainsboro Business Administrator Robert O. Sheehan, saved the township around $50,000 over the year.
For 2012 and beyond, the township committee approved a three-year renewal of the agreement with Helmetta Borough with annual cost increases of two percent. A resolution was passed at Plainsboro’s Township Committee meeting on Wednesday, January 11.
Sheehan says several factors came into consideration when shared services was agreed upon instead of hiring an ACO, including Plainsboro’s population size of roughly 23,000.
“One, the demands of this town do not suggest that we have a full-time person. Two, we’ve always ask the question ‘can this service be provided in a different and more efficient way’ and certainly years ago, when the agreement was first struck with West Windsor, the answer was yes. Certainly the trend for our municipality and others is to very aggressively pursue shared services agreements. We do have a broad brush of shared services,” Sheehan said.
In addition to Plainsboro, the full-service Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter currently serves the municipalities of Sayreville, South River, Spotswood and Manalapan.
