April 9 Town Council meeting

Town council approved a four-year labor contract for Public Works supervisors and a request to proceed with contracting for a vendor for ambulance-transportation billing and for payroll processing at the April 9, 2013, meeting.

The meeting agendas and related materials are here.

My challenge to the legitimacy of the selection process for the executive director of the Downtown West Orange Alliance (please see my post on the March 19 meeting for more background) was also a focus of the meeting. The Alliance manages the special improvement district of property owners on Main Street and Valley Road, which promotes the areas to customers and tenants.

The president of the Alliance trustees provided the council with a written response to some of the issues I raised at the last council meeting. I declined to engage in an extended discussion of the issues because I had not had an opportunity to speak with two of the Alliance selection-committee trustees whom I had originally consulted about the president’s response.

Nevertheless, the issue flared during the General Matters Pending portion of the meeting, when council members speak on issues of interest to them, as well as the Public Comment period among both residents and council people.

Also mentioned during the meeting but not extensively discussed was a legal opinion from the town attorney that disputed the council’s power to conduct a formal inquiry of the situation. My motion to conduct the inquiry was defeated 2-2 at the March 19 meeting.

The council approved authorization to seek payment for ambulance-transportation services from patient insurance coverage; the original enabling resolution could not be located, according to the town’s chief financial officer. As a result of the resolution, the town will raise the fees it charges closer to industry standards and review vendors as the town’s current contract ends. The council approved the town’s request to seek a billing service through competitive proposals, a process that gives the town more flexibility in determining the vendor rather than competitive bidding, which depends primarily on price.

The West Orange First Aid Squad has decided to begin seeking similar reimbursement so that it can pay for staffing. As a volunteer organization, the squad had previously qualified for incentive retirement contributions, known as LOSAP, from the town. Therefore, the town’s 2012 LOSAP contribution of about $13,000, which the council approved, will be the last payment. Although both the squad and town will seek reimbursement, the town’s business administrator said it doesn’t expect much, if any, negative impact on its revenue from ambulance reimbursement. Last year the town received nearly $289,000 in revenue from the service.

The council also approved a four-year labor contract ending in 2013 – following protracted negotiations -- with about a dozen Public Works supervisors. As with other recent settlements, the contract calls for no salary increase in the first two years and 2% raises in the last two years of the contract. The maximum salary of an assistant director will rise to $97,117.

Two town police officers, Detective Keith Boryeskne and Officer Jerome Pleasants, were honored for their performance during a fire at an apartment building on Pleasant Valley Way March 2. They were able to rescue two residents despite difficult smoke and fire conditions.

The council also approved:

- Solicitation of competitive proposals to handle the town’s payroll processing.

- The funding of a successful tax appeal amounting to $18,433 for 2011 and 2012 for property at 97 and 99 Northfield Avenue.

I’m a West Orange Township councilman since 2010 and reachable at jkrakoviak@westorange.org. I am a business communications consultant in my spare time.