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 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, 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.
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,” Maher said.
“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,” he said.
Councilman Borek expanded on Maher’s point. “People use 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,” he said.
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,” 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.
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 West Windsor’s legal department the township covers the costs of Planning Board Attorney Jerry Muller and other attorney 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.
