Preview: May 7 Town Council meeting

Proposals to allocate $1.2 million for severance costs, borrow $475,000 to create a public park on Ridgeway Avenue, and pay an additional $190,571 for sewer and street construction head the agenda of the May 7, 2013, town council meeting. 

The meeting also includes a proposed resolution supporting a program to encourage shopping in town by letting merchants direct discounts to customer property-tax bills. 

The meeting agendas and related materials are here.

The administration is asking council approval for an emergency appropriation to cover severance costs for lay-offs or retirements of town employees (no details in the resolution). State law and labor contracts have allowed public employees to accumulate unused sick days, vacation and holidays, days off and compensatory time during their careers that can be paid out at their final pay rates when they leave. West Orange faces an estimated “accumulated absence” liability of more than $10 million. The appropriation would be repaid in equal amounts over five years. The town last addressed this issue in 2011, borrowing nearly $450,000 to meet this expense. (I’ve asked the administration for more information on this issue.)

The administration has proposed an ordinance on first reading to spend $500,000 to create a passive park on town land fronting Ridgeway Avenue, including borrowing $475,000. The debt would be repaid by the town Open Space Trust Fund, which is funded by town property owners at about $150,000 annually. The Open Space Commission, where I’m the council liaison, voted to recommend the plan at a special meeting last week. I voted against the proposal because we may not have to borrow all or part of the money given the substantial balance in the trust fund – which should amount to about $400,000 once the 2013 tax funding is made in the next few months.

Another proposed resolution would allocate any revenue from the undeveloped portion of the Ridgeway property to replenish the Open Space Trust Fund. Yet another resolution would pay an additional $3,000 to the project architect, Dowd/Baretto, over its $35,000 contract. The resolution indicates printing costs exceeded the $2,208 allowed expenses in the original contract, so that another $2,941 is required.

The administration is also asking for additional funding for two construction projects:

- $94,000 to the engineering firm of Paulus Sokolowski & Sartor – a 67% increase in the original contract amount of $139,390 – for additional work on the Mayfair Sewer project. The resolution said the firm helped overcome unforeseen obstacles during the project, saving at least $200,000. The proposed increase comes with no specifications of how the price was derived.

- $96,571 to Reivax Contracting, a 20% increase in its original $482,856 contract to improve Belle Terre Road, for further street improvements on Garfield Avenue. 

The council is also asked to approve a $15,250 competitively bid contract for engineering and survey services for planned work on Yale, Harvard and Oxford terraces, 

The “Shop Local” program is designed to benefit local merchants by providing an incentive to property owners to shop at participating businesses in exchange for a discount that is applied to the customer’s property taxes. The program is based on one now underway in Marlboro, N.J. The merchant pays for the discount, which can vary, and for transaction fees. The vendor, Fincredit, has a website on the program, www.propertytaxcard.com. 

Two other agenda item related to the town’s efforts to retain emergency radio frequencies, which the Federal Communications Commission recently ruled should be surrendered as part of a legal fight with New Jersey Transit and New York City. The administration requests a contract not to exceed $5,000 to hire a lawfirm and an executive session to discuss the situation. The FCC order is here. 

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