Also at the March 5 work session attorney Michael W. Herbert, head of West Windsor’s law department, explained changes in the law department impacting positions such as the municipal prosecutor, Jeffrey Rubin, who will have his salary increased by $2,500 because municipal court sessions had increased.
On the other hand the public defender, John W. Hartmann, will no longer be a part-time employee receiving health benefits. Instead the position will become a consultant only, going from a part-time salary of $6,476 per year to $19,200 said Business Administrator Robert Hary.
“We’ve eliminated the position as an employee with benefits, which saves on cost because he had a family plan,” Hary said, adding that Hartmann outbid other prospective candidates this year.
The total cost for legal services operating expenses will remain at a constant $113,120 although last year a heavy amount of litigation cost the township $171,331.45. Total operating expenses for the township’s legal services would remain constant at $313,920 if council approves the amount in the proposed budget.
Total costs for the township’s municipal court were submitted as $33,798, almost four thousand more than what was budgeted for last year. However in 2011 actual court costs totaled only $20,159.14.
Labor counsel cost will remain at $30,000 despite a total of nearly $33,000 charged last year and legal fees, including the township attorney’s cost, will also be steady at $170,800.
Herbert spoke about the accomplishments his firm — Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell — has delivered for West Windsor, including the International Schools Services (ISS) lawsuit for tax exemption, which West Windsor won as the State Supreme Court ruled that the township properly denied ISS’s property tax exemption for 2002 and 2003 because the combination of its activities and operations with profit-making affiliates “was significant and substantial” — with the benefit of direct and indirect subsidies flowing from ISS to the for-profit entities.
The InterCap settlement stands as the most notable outcome his firm handled in the past year, mainly behind the leadership of Herbert’s late father, Michael J. Herbert, who died last September. Herbert junior updated Council on another legal battle, as this week there was a motion for summary judgment in Mercer County Superior Court for litigation with the Axelrad property on Clarksville Road.
Herbert says this year his firm will assist the Department of Community Development in open space preservation initiatives. Herbert, Van Ness, Cayci & Goodell has also been working with the state DOT on its transportation initiatives on behalf of West Windsor, as well as the Department of Environmental Protection as the township and parking authority develop the Alexander Road compost site.
Other projects Herbert’s firm continues to handle include the implementation of the PSE&G bicycle and pedestrian path and working on the “state toolkit” that Governor Christie signed into law in late 2010 and is intended to help municipalities handle the 2 percent property tax limit. That includes union negotiation and pension reform.
Herbert brought up one issue that Councilman Maher decided to examine at the work session: residents’ attempts to change the zoning of their properties.
“Certain properties were zoned as commercial, and all of a sudden they became farms. The original building is still there but there’s a farm in the front yard and all of a sudden they are paying us a lot less in property taxes. One of the biggest reasons, from my research, that the residential tax has gone up so much in the past 10 years is because a lot of the commercial and other non-residential revenues have gone down or stayed flat. It’s a little unnerving for a resident knowing that all the other residents are paying more in taxes because they changed something legally and now they pay us less,” Maher said.
Councilman Borek expanded on Maher’s point.
“People are using a loophole that is disingenuous to the rest of the taxpayers. While others are paying higher taxes commercial property owners can say ‘we know a farmer’ and flip it so that they pay taxes on a farmer’s house, which is a loophole in the system.”
Borek says the perfect example of this problem was the JCC property.
“Linda [Geevers] and I had wanted the township to get the back taxes but there was no fallback and we didn’t get the back taxes with that deal,” he said.
Herbert and Hary said that the input of the township’s counsel for defense of real property assessments, Harry Haushalter, would be necessary as would information from Sam Surtees, the township’s municipal land use manager. Maher asked Hary if the item could be put on the council’s agenda in the near future, and Hary agreed to do so.
Finally Geevers asked Hary ahead of the meeting to provide Council with data on all of the various attorney fees the township pays. Aside from Herbert’s firm and the items covered under West Windsor’s legal department the township covers the costs of Planning Board Attorney Jerry Muller and other fees.
“There’s different places in our budget where we have legal fees — planning board, zoning board, affordable housing — which are not covered by the $313,920. I would like to get a sheet telling us what was budgeted and how much was actually spent,” she said.
Geevers also spoke about the township’s affordable housing expenditure and whether legal fees were included in what was set aside in West Windsor’s $2 million affordable housing trust fund.
Neither Louth nor John V. Mauder, the township’s assistant chief financial officer, were present to break down those and other financial details, and Mauder serves as the township’s municipal housing liaison.
Hary said that some funding does come from the fund while the rest is budgeted.
