Hillsborough Approves CFO Shared Services Agreement With Alexandria

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The Township has expanded its list of shared services with the new agreement for Chief Financial Officer(CFO) services.

The Township Committee passed a resolution for the new shared services agreement on Tuesday night.

The new agreement calls for Hillsborough Township to take on the responsibility of CFO services including payroll and accounts payable and qualified purchasing agent services for Alexandria Township in Hunterdon County.

Committeewoman Samantha Hand questioned whether this agreement would impact any of the financials.

"I want to make sure it doesn’t negatively impact the town of Hillsborough - any of our financial services, financial standards," said Hand at the Tuesday Committee meeting.

Township Administrator Anthony Ferrera said the new agreement would not impact the town negatively and is similar to other shared services in Town.

Ferrera pointed to the shared court services Hillsborough has with Manville, Montgomery, and Branchburg.

"The Township Committee had the same concerns when we first started and I can let you know those three courts... are the top in the vicinage," said Ferrera.

He added that typically the Township gets back at least half of the salary or stipend paid to staff members for the extra work as revenue from the agreement.

"My goal is to grow the Finance Department and to take on additional shared services and additional towns and when we need to do that we'll bring on people to do that. Because the last thing I want to do is put a taxing effort on any of our employees," said Ferrera.

Committeeman Shawn Lipani added that the "League of Municipalities has been talking about shared services amongst municipalities, amongst the county, amongst the state for years because of the lack of people and lack of employees available. And it alleviates some of the responsibility off of the smaller municipalities."

Alexandria Township has a population of roughly 5,000 people which Lipani said is about smaller than the population of Country Classics.

"[Alexandria's] budget is minuscule. It's actually less than most of our departments so this is not a heavy lift for our department. But as a revenue source to us, in these times, is needed especially with the cost of employees and rising costs to run the Township," said Lipani. "A $75,000 contract nets us $35,000 back roughly half. I think is a good first step and I have more than full confidence in our employees to handle it."

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