Paramus Agrees To Sharing Vehicle Maintenance Services With Ridgewood

The Borough of Paramus will be providing vehicle maintenance services for Ridgewood when necessary after the Ridgewood council unanimously passed the shared services agreement July 18.

The agreement entails the repairing of Ridgewood Village vehicles by Paramus's Department of Public Works (DPW) department whenever Ridgewood is under staffed or does not have the ability to make repairs, especially with larger vehicles.  

According to Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera, the Borough of Paramus performs a criteria check list before entering into shared services agreement with any Borough.

The first is whether or not the agreement will compromise services to Paramus residents in any way. If it does, the Borough does not move forward, said LaBarbiera. 

The second is whether or not the Paramus can offer the service for a profit.

"We've been doing a very thorough analysis to see what it will cost us to perform this work," LaBarbiera said. "If we can do it for a profit, then we continue. And third, can it be accomplished with our current workforce without any adverse impact to the department we are seeking shared services with?"    

LaBarbiera said the mechanical department has historically identified costs, and worked with the DPW staff members, without compromising services to the Borough of Paramus.

"That is one area, to the credit of [DPW Superintendent] Guy Picone, who has been running the DPW like a finely tuned business," LaBarbiera added. "This [Ridgewood] is just one of many Boroughs we've entered into shared services agreements with our mechanic department." 

But shared service agreements with other Boroughs has not always panned out,

In June 2011, the Borough of Paramus made a shared services agreement with the Borough of Oradell for recycling. After the agreement was up for renewal, Paramus went back to Oradell requesting a higher rate, from $264,000 annually to $272,000. Oradell declined and negotiations fell apart.

As a result, the Borough of Paramus was able to free up manpower for leaf pickup  in the fall.

According to Council President Michael Rohdieck, the Borough's DPW has already performed repairs for Ridgewood Village vehicles over the past two years before the shared services agreement was made.

"They've been sending us vehicles on a per-job basis whenever they couldn't handle a job or didn't have the manpower," said Rohdieck. "There are some items their garage doesn't handle."

Rohdieck said Picone has created a fee structure enabling the Borough to provide services efficiently for other municipalities. 

"For the work they couldn't handle, we were probably one of the better priced garages around, versus sending out to a private facility,” Rohdieck said. “And we have the most experienced garage with the same types of vehicles."

Picone could not be reached for comment prior to publication.