Bergen County freeholders move toward merging County Police, sheriff’s forces; override Donovan’s reorganizing veto
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 Last updated: Thursday October 3, 2013, 4:02 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
The Bergen County freeholders took the first step toward merging the County Police into the Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, a move that appears certain to provoke a legal challenge from County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
A second and related legal battle also loomed when the freeholders voted to override Donovan’s veto of changes to the county code that explicitly give the board the power to reorganize county government.
The merger ordinance’s introduction and the override were approved by identical 6 to 1 votes, with Democrats David Ganz, Joan Voss, Steve Tanelli and Tracy Zur joining Republicans John Felice and John Mitchell.
Republican Freeholder Maura DeNicola cast the lone dissenting vote on both measures.
It’s about time these two departments got merged. Bergen County is what, either the only one, or one of only two counties in New Jersey that maintains two departments? Too expensive!