Plan to merge Bergen County Police and Sheriff’s Office will be ‘dead on arrival,’ official warns
Wednesday, September 25, 2013 Last updated: Wednesday September 25, 2013, 11:45 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
A Democratic proposal to merge the Bergen County Police Department into the Sheriff’s Office will be “dead on arrival” if it reaches County Executive Kathleen Donovan, the county administrator warned the freeholders on Wednesday.
County Administrator Ed Trawinski said Donovan will veto any such plan, which he contends would go beyond the powers that state law gives to freeholders under the county-executive form of government.
“This plan is not a plan. It’s a scheme that’s dead on arrival,” Trawinski told the board during their work session.
“What you’re doing is against the will of the voters who created this form of government,” he added, referring to the referendum that created the county executive job 27 years ago.
No action was taken on the proposal, which is expected to be crafted into an ordinance that will be introduced at the next board meeting on Oct. 2.
But several Democratic freeholders said they were confident their plan would have enough support to overcome a veto and survive any legal challenge.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/Democratic_plan_to_merge_Bergen_Countys_police_department_and_sheriffs_office_will_be_dead_on_arrival_administrator_warns.html#sthash.Vu3x5kMt.dpu
There is an important split in Republican circles in Bergen County on this issue. That is to say, it is not just another garden variety dispute between Republicans and Democrats. Bergen County Sheriff Saudino, a Republican, has long been on record in favor of combining the two departments, but skeptics could easily claim that he arrived at this position based on the fact that his department would be the one that survives, and that he would occupy the top spot in the hierarchy once the combination takes place.
Fortunately for Saudino, he is not alone. Other highly-placed Republicans in Bergen County favor the change. For example, Bergen County Republican Organization head Bob Yudin has been a vocal proponent of combining the departments. This has netted him a great deal of static with Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan. By contrast, the majority of rank-and-file Republican Committeemen and Committeewomen side with Yudin, sharing his desire to reduce duplication and save money. This explains why they re-elected him to his position as Chairman last year (it was a three-way contest with a lot of good-old-fashioned ‘electioneering’). Hence, Yudin and the Bergen County Committeemen and Committeewomen have lined up behind Saudino and against Donovan on this issue.
Long story short, there is no reason to credit Democrats as the only folks who are being reasonable in this debate.