When it comes to managing the ill winds of a hurricane such as Sandy, West Windsor residents like to see their municipal government cut through red tape and deal expeditiously to get things done. But when it comes to holding meetings and scheduling motions, some residents and Township Council members prefer a more deliberate approach.
That was the take-away from the November 20 council meeting, where township officials reflected on the community’s response to Hurricane Sandy and also moved through an extensive agenda that had been made available to council members and the public just hours before the meeting began.
At the suggestion of Councilman Bryan Maher, a vote to continue the shared services agreement with East Windsor for an animal control officer was pulled from the agenda and moved to the next Council meeting on Monday, December 10. Maher pointed out that when Council first adopted the shared service agreement — a controversial move that meant terminating the services of longtime Township employee Bettina Roed — he had promised those opposing the move the chance to return to the board with any criticisms they had of the new arrangement after the first year of operation.
“We owe the residents the common courtesy of holding up our end of the bargain,” said Maher. “We just got these packets six hours ago. I’m not the only one displeased with getting the packets five hours before the meeting. That’s not respectful of our time.” Maher explained later that the information packets for council members — sometimes consisting of 100 pages or more of material supporting the agenda items — usually reach him on a Wednesday or Thursday before a Monday meeting. “That way we have the weekend to do our job and read the material,” he said.
Maher cited the delay as an example of the administration and mayor placing little value on communicating with Council. But Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, reached later by phone, said that this was a one-time glitch caused by the need to reschedule the November 26 meeting to November 20 to accommodate travel schedules of various council members. He agreed with Maher that receiving the packets on the same day as the meeting was not a good practice, but he insisted that “normally we are one week ahead.”
The animal control officer resolution was postponed to the next meeting, but not before Chief Joe Pica reported that the shared services agreement, which costs the township $18,000 a year, “is working well. It’s definitely saving money.” In its first year of operation, the department has only recorded four complaints from residents about the service. “Otherwise it’s working, it’s win, win,” the chief said.
As the Council was moving through other items on the agenda, Maher made another argument for a more deliberative approach. What appeared as several routine authorizations to execute “change orders” with contractors working on Township projects prompted a request from the councilman for more information.
One was for an additional $4,260 to pay for change orders on the installation of restrooms at the Schenck historic farm. Maher noted an hourly charge of $64 for a carpenter to do the work, plus payroll taxes, plus a 10 percent profit allowance. “It jumps out at Linda Geevers and me,” he said. “We’d like to see other examples of change orders and see if this is routine.”
Maher said one of his concerns was that contractors could win jobs by submitting the lowest bid, but then make up the difference by presenting change orders after the work was underway. He cited another change order requested at the meeting for $23,900 to do “supplemental work” for the apron and spillway repair at Grovers Mill Dam. “That’s 60 percent of the initial bill,” Maher said. “Either the job is not being spec-ed out properly by our people, or we took the low bid from some inexperienced guy, or there was some truly unforeseen issue. In the future I would like to have the township engineer explain why this happened and why we should approve it.”
Geevers noted that in the past Jim Parvesse, the engineer, was often present at “a lot of meetings. We need to bring some professionals in. Sometimes it’s better if we do things face to face.”
Township Business Administrator Marlena Schmid responded that the hourly rate and other expenses cited by Maher “seem like ordinary expenses — it’s public construction,” she said. As for the dam she noted that if the extra work did not get done, then the job might have to be re-bid with additional expenses involved.
Reached several days after the meeting Maher said he still had not received any contracts or change orders to compare with those on the November 20 agenda. Nor did he expect to. “It’s hard to get information from these people,” he said.
In other action at the November 20 meeting, the Council introduced an ordinance to execute a lease amendment with the U.S. Postal Service that would keep the post office at its current location, but reduce the size of its operation by roughly one half.
Mayor Hsueh said that the post office, which had expressed an intention to leave its facility entirely, initially negotiated for a lease it could terminate with 90 days’ notice. The township, however, was able to strike a multi-year deal with the Postal Service. The mayor said that the West Windsor Parking Authority was likely to take some of the space.
Hurricane Sandy Update. Police Chief Pica presented an overview of the township’s response to the storm. “Everyone was suffering a little bit,” said the chief, “but nobody got hurt, and no one got killed.”
At the request of Pica, Lt. Robert Garofalo came to the podium to discuss the continuous storm updates provided through Facebook, Twitter, and the Nixle system. The information system was critical in the hours immediately after the storm, when nearly every traffic light in town was not working and nearly 80 percent of the town was without power.
“At one point during the storm,” Garofalo reported, “we had 50,000 people interacting with us online — people from England, India, concerned about relatives they could not reach by phone.”
He urged all residents to sign up for the E-mail and text alert services now offered by the police department. The reverse 911 service, he said, will call people at their homes. But if the phone lines are down, then the other systems can reach out to people’s cell phones. “My 75-year-old mother can text,” he noted.
Recalling those early hours after the storm hit, administrator Schmid said “I felt I was in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ — 2,500 calls came into the call center that evening. They were each handling a call per minute. It was grace under pressure.”
Officials noted the town’s good fortune of having power remain on in the municipal complex. The Senior Center became the principal shelter for those who had to leave their homes. Since the storm, the mayor pointed out, the Senior Center now has its own fully equipped generator installed — in case the town is not so lucky in the next storm.
Suggestions for improving the emergency response included reaching out to the school board to designate a school as an emergency storm shelter to ease the strain on the Senior Center. Linda Geevers also suggested that the library, which had power, remained closed in the days immediately following the storm, when residents could have used the extra space — and power outlets.
The problem was that the county, which runs the library, had granted all its employees the week off. “The township only had one day off,” said Hsueh. Added Geevers: “If the library had power, they should have opened up. Every room in the Senior Center was full.”
Resident Al Lerner spoke during the public comment period to praise all residents for working together in the face of adversity. “For a while we have been known as the gang who couldn’t shoot straight,” he said, referring to the town’s reputation for political bickering. “But this was a great example of people coming together. All the solutions were non-political.”
John Church, also speaking during the public comment period, noted that “last year we had baptism by water. This year it was baptism by wind. We’ve had enough baptisms.” He added that “this is a good time for the town and property owners to do something about their trees. This is the time to take down trees that prove a threat.”
