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Ridgewood NJ, did you know that Bergen County, New Jersey, is home to a staggering 70 municipalities? Among them, there are 56 boroughs, three cities, two villages, and nine townships, making it the county with the most municipalities in the entire state. But why does one of New Jersey’s 21 counties house about 12% of the state’s total municipalities?
Updated on August 6, 2017 at 8:46 AMPosted on August 6, 2017 at 8:45 AM
By South Jersey Times Editorial Board
Please, someone, bottle whatever is in the drinking water in Elmer borough and Pittsgrove Township, and feed it regularly to residents and officials in at least 100 of New Jersey’s smaller towns.
Whatever is in the water of the two Salem County municipalities has given them immunity against a lack of common sense. As of Aug. 1, the Elmer school district is no more, having been integrated into Pittsgrove’s public school district.
This merger of not-quite-equals gives New Jersey one fewer school district, and it was accomplished without all the Sturm und Drang that usually accompanies even whispers about district combinations.
Pittsgrove and Elmer officials who drink the water have, thankfully, refused to drink the Kool-Aid that suggests New Jersey requires every school district and municipal government it now has. Vast quantities of this punch are usually served by teachers’ unions and municipal lobbying groups.
Bergen County Police would be due hefty pay raise in consolidation with Sheriff’s Office, union says
MAY 16, 2014, 6:41 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014, 10:58 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A rose is a rose is a rose, author Gertrude Stein once wrote.
But is a realignment a merger or a consolidation?
That’s the question left dangling after a four-year contract that the Bergen County freeholders approved unanimously this week with the union that represents officers in the Bergen County Police Department.
And it’s a $1-million-a-year question.
The board’s Democratic freeholders contend that their plan to put the 89-member county police force under the command of the sheriff is a realignment, not a merger. The ordinance, approved by the freeholders in October, uses the word transfer, not merger.
Thus they hope to avoid a so-called poison-pill clause insisted upon by the union that would scuttle the deal if the department is merged, consolidated or disbanded into the Sheriff’s Office.
Under that interpretation, the new labor contract would be undone and the final overlapping year of the old contract would kick in.
Three years ago, at the request of Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, the union agreed to defer pay increases until 2014, the final year of the old contract.
This year, the union made concessions on wages in exchange for job security. It inserted the poison pill to protect against a merger.
If the transfer is not called off or voided by a court, and the union succeeds in invoking the poison pill, then instead of getting a 1.5 percent annual pay hike under the renegotiated contract, the officers would get a 10 percent raise starting this year under the terms of the old agreement. And they would have to negotiate a new one for future years.
The difference is about $1 million in annual salaries.
The freeholders voted for the realignment only after receiving written assurance from the county’s labor lawyer that nothing in the new contract limits which department can supervise the County Police.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-county-police-would-be-due-hefty-pay-raise-in-consolidation-with-sheriff-s-office-union-says-1.1018056#sthash.yZidHCIC.dpuf
