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New Jersey Governor Begins Lobbying For County Fire, Police Departments
MATT KATZ
The Philadelphia Inquirer
TRENTON - Gov. Christie will travel to Camden County to meet with mayors and to lobby for creation of the first countywide police and fire departments in New Jersey, Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said Thursday.
Cappelli attended a closed-door meeting Thursday with Christie and elected officials from Camden, Trenton, and Newark - all of which have pursued or threatened police layoffs in recent weeks - to discuss public safety.
Christie summoned the leaders to Trenton, but would not comment afterward except to say it was a "good meeting." His office would not confirm that Christie would come to Camden County to meet with mayors to support such an idea.
In brief remarks beforehand, the governor described the gathering as one in a series of discussions he has had with mayors of the three cities "to get ourselves through these difficult times."
"We want to be helpful in any way we can," Christie said, flanked by Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. "We want to work together to try to come up with a way of providing for public safety in these cities, and for other essential services . . . and it's going to be a collaborative effort."
One idea for providing public safety while possibly saving money has emerged out of Camden County in recent weeks: Forming a regionalized police force in which towns could close their departments and opt in. A meeting was held Tuesday with county mayors, who appear open to the idea but concerned that the suburbs could end up subsidizing crime-fighting in Camden.
If the governor comes out publicly for such an idea, as State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) has, it could lead to the formation of county forces not just in Camden County but statewide as well.
"The governor expressed his full support to create county police and fire departments," Cappelli said after emerging from the meeting at the Statehouse. "He's looking for Camden County to be a leader in that, and he will lend us his support."
No date has been set for Christie's discussion with the Camden County mayors, said Cappelli, who introduced the county regionalization plan last month.
Cappelli attended the meeting with Camden County Sheriff Charles Billingham, who vowed that he would not be the chief of such a county department. The Sheriff's Office in Camden County assists municipal agencies, transports prisoners to the county jail, and handles security at the county courthouse.
Redd said that she had not decided whether she wanted the city police to be disbanded if such a plan were implemented, but wanted to review any "blueprint" for a county force.
"I have a responsibility to look at all possible solutions for increasing public-safety options for residents in Camden," she said after the session with the governor. "Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the unions' concessions."
Redd has been in on-and-off negotiations with police and fire union leaders to find contractual concessions after extraordinary layoffs last month, in which 67 firefighters and more than 160 police officers lost their jobs.
Copyright 2011 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC
All Rights Reserved
February 4, 2011
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Peter von Bergen on
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So the suburban Mayor worries that the suburbs would end up subsidizing the City department, eh? Well if all those people hadn't run away to the suburbs from the city, leaving it a mess, it wouldn't be such a difficult task to protect it, would it?
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Just another smoke screen to move further away from not having any money for the current retirement system. So let's close up all the fulltime local departments and move to a county system??
Smell sketchy to anyone else?
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Smell sketchy to anyone else?
Any idea proposed by that mutt is sketchy, same with any other politician out there preaching the "public worker is bad" rhetoric.
However, when it does come to consolidations, I do view this as the future of the fire service, however, what is being stated here by the clown of NJ is a very simplistic approach, the realities of merging are a bit more complex. Now fire districts or county systems are nothing new, but to change into one does take some planning and some work than to just willy-nilly say this is what we are doing. This means those smaller communities where there volly dept may not be enough will have to start paying more for a higher level of protection and it also reduces the redundant services or equipment.
Where I am, we believe consolidation is in the future and we came close to merging with another dept last year, but it doesn't mean we won't in the future. Our city is the largest with a couple smaller combo depts by us with a couple volly depts as well. Our union local has merged with a few other smaller locals so we are all now under one entity, in the event we do consolidate we should be more prepared because of talks already conducted. The biggest obstacles really does come down to the individual communities especially when it comes to ceding control. There are many politicians opposed to that, as well as many smaller depts, especially volly, who view such things as an attack.
Although, it makes sense to have a single set of resources vs multiple depts doing the same thing. No reason for everyone to have their own aerial if it is rarely used, no reason for every dept to have a HAZMAT or tech rescue team and equipment when it really is duplicated services. Consolidation is not a bad thing, but does have to be done correctly and not just a willy-nilly suggestion, this includes current contracts and protection of benefits, which most idiot politicians and kool aid drinkers of the rhetoric don't care about.
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