file photo by Boyd Loving
Tiger Team Recommendations : Evaluate Outsourcing Services of the Central Garage
The Village Council is expected to discuss the future of the Central Garage in December 2012. The Central Garage is located on over 1.3 acres in a commercial zone on Chestnut Street north of Franklin Ave, below and along the rail line that bisects the Village. As a Village owned property, the large lot is tax-exempt. The facility is responsible for maintaining Ridgewood’s fleet of Village vehicles. The 2012 budget for the Central Garage was $802,763.
In our discussions with Village representatives, we learned that the Central garage has high costs from Workman’s Comp and the facility is highly capital intensive. It was clear from our conversations that the Central Garage is widely viewed as operationally and financially inefficient.
The Ridgewood News reported on November 4, 2012 that the “Village Council unanimously approved the appropriation of $40,000 from the municipal capital account for (a project to purchase and install a new hydraulic lift), which has a total sum in excess of $76,000.” In the article, the Village Manager defended the purchase and answered a question about why we could not use a neighboring municipality’s lift, by explaining, “for us to take our vehicles to another municipality when our full fleet staff is here, that would be difficult…every single opportunity, we explore shared services.”
We understand that “borrowing” another municipality’s lift is not a practical solution. However, the right questions do not appear to have been asked. We do not believe that the Village has scratched the surface of exploring “every single opportunity” for shared services. As Village management acknowledged, they do not account for the cost savings and/or benefits that may be realized through shared service arrangements. Nor, according to Village management, are shared services usually entered into for economic efficiency. This should be the primary reason for entering into shared services.
This is an example of how the lack of a metrics-based management process in Ridgewood results in inefficient expenditures. The failure beyond repair of a major piece of essential equipment and the prospect of a capital expenditure that will add almost 9.5% to the Central Garage budget in 2012 provides an appropriate opportunity to evaluate long-term alternatives for the Central Garage. If a long-term Strategic Financial Plan was in place, we expect that two questions would have been posed; 1) Can we afford to replace this piece of equipment? And, 2) Is replacement the most appropriate or cost effective solution? When considering the alleged inefficiency of the Central Garage and its long-term impact on the budget, our view is that the answer to both questions is probably “no”.
Ridgewood has an existing fleet maintenance contract with Paramus at a labor rate of $65/hr. Under the Paramus contract, Ridgewood is billed for parts at the state contract rate (40% discount), which is the same as Ridgewood’s cost. According to the Village Manager, the Village has a high level of satisfaction with the quality of work and responsiveness provided by Paramus. Since an external service provider would bill the Village only for time actually spent repairing Village vehicles (eliminating non-productive hours), we believe the services provided by the Central Garage could be delivered more cost effectively by outside providers at a substantial savings, which would offset any perceived convenience offered by the Central Garage. Thus, we recommend that the Village Council evaluate outsourcing the services to at least two (2) neighboring municipal garage facilities by expanding Ridgewood’s fleet maintenance contracts with Paramus and/or establishing new ones.
If a thorough cost/benefit analysis, endorsed by the FOB, supports our view and these services are outsourced, we recommend that the land be leased (not sold) for commercial redevelopment in a way that thoughtfully addresses needs within the Village while generating a sustainable source of revenue. Given the zoning of the area, proximity to the rail line and numerous proposals for housing developments currently in-process in the Village, we are not convinced that this is a suitable site for an additional multi-family housing development.
It is well known throughout the village employees, that the garage has it’s problems, as far as the inabilty to get work out, that is partially due to reduction in work force through attrition and layoff. The complete lack of training is also a factor. add to this one of the mechanics is an active miltary reserveist, management has developed a situation that brings the working roster down to one man several weeks a year and no men if there is sickness or injury. One mech was out almost a year with a back injury. Another one had a tire explode while being inflated. If you want to run a bare bones, skeleton crew like this. You cannot reasonably expect efficency or competency especially with no continuing training.
We can outsource lots of things to save money. Why not merge with county police? Why not out source firefighting? If an RFP was offered for fire services there would be business people who would step up. We wouldn’t need the garage if we merged with the county.
This could be a model of an outsourced town.
I didn’t move here to have an outsourced town. I moved here to have competent, knowledgeable, local workers. Part of what makes Ridgewood wonderful is the fact that our workers care about this town as much as the residents.
Outsourcing and shared service agreements won’t solve all our financial problems. But, there are definitely opportunities that need to be explored. Doing nothing and hoping against all odds that our problems will fix themselves is not an option. It isn’t a question of whether we want our workers to care about our town. It is a question of what we can afford.
Unfortunatly there have been other experiments with shared services, even regionalization, as far as cost it really does’nt work out. LongIsland is a prime example their property taxes are higher than ours and their services lag way behind us, bigger isn’t always more efficent . Don’t get roped in by the initial purchase cost savings, once your are into maintanence fee’s and usage disputes all benifits are out the window. The adjoining municipalities could actually lose out in the overall picture. Ridgewood had an agreement with Midland Park for gasoline and that ended, Ridgewood and Glen Rock had a “joint meeting” to enable” Central Dispatch” Midland Park is out and Glen Rock and Ridgewood pick up the slack. There has been change at central to make it appear cost efficent but the last time I could get documentation of village cost expenditure it was in the area of 750,000.00 dollars. That was when Chief Corcoran was the boss at rpd I would hate to see what the numbers are now especially after somone who knows their way around a budget looks at them. So dont think outsourcing is always the answer.
The BOE outsourced maintenance about 10 years ago. The same workers were in the schools (at least the schools that my children attended) but they saved money. We should look at successful outsourcing not just what did not work.
Each opportunity for outsourcing must be evaluated, not all will be feasible. It doesn’t hurt to look. County police sounds good. Most towns do not have paid fire departments so it is difficult to figure out how to merge. Why is it that NYC police and fire love to work in the suburbs?
When the boe went to the marriot corp there was a new crew of people who came and an undercurrent of complaints regarding dirtier facilites and increased theft. The field maintenence was so bad the town took back the field maintainence work so that didn’t work either. Alot of internal complainants were brow beaten into accepting a lower standard. Very similar to central dispatch.
Its not lack of training…the men in the garage (well i should say most of them) are completely experienced in their jobs…and absolutely care about the town as well…outsourcing can lead to a whole bunch of different problems and may in fact be less cost effective…. too many chiefs and not enough indians is what the problem is… Organization is the big problem and that comes from the top down…
who come’s up with this bull shit. the new team. what the fuck do they know about working on the village’s fleet. who the hell is giving them in fo.
this team better wake up and stop talking to the manger’s who think they run this town.
none of them know how to work on or fix a sink.
what a joke.
I HAVE ONE RECOMMENDATION. AND THAT IS OUT SOURCING THE NEW AND ONLY TIGER TEAM.
IT LOOK’S TO ME WELL YOU KNOW.