file photo by Boyd Loving
Ridgewood police, fire departments present budget requests
MARCH 27, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014, 3:35 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
Ridgewood police officials attribute the department’s proposed 7 percent spending increase, in part, to a spike in mandatory officer training and the imminent replacement of aging administration vehicles.
During a Village Council budget work session last week, Chief John Ward detailed the police department’s anticipated 2014 expenses contained within its $6.6 million budget. The heads of the fire and information technology departments also presented their individual budgets.
Work sessions resume on Thursday night.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/community-news/ridgewood-police-fire-departments-present-budget-requests-1.752822#sthash.fKhq5ond.dpuf
7% – 2% = 5% too much.
Go back to the drawing board and find 5% in “savings”.
There is a 2% cap on property taxes, why can’t the RPD keep their budget growth under 2% like the BoE and the Village ? The training costs are $10,000 on a budget of $6.6mn. The new cars are $100,000. Where does the rest of the $400,000 requested YoY increase come from ? How does that increase benefit residents through improved public safety ?
Does anyone know how to write or apply for a federal or state ‘grant’?
There has to be grants available to qualify for.
Silence from the union hacks…. it’s funny, these requests don’t even include pensions & healthcare costs for public safety – which are EXEMPT from the 2% cap. This just boggles the mind – everyone else is finding ways to reduce costs, and the RPD just brazenly asks for a 7% increase ? What ? And $100,000 for new cars because many of the cars in your current fleet are 6 years old ? Maybe they wouldn’t experience so much wear & tear if they weren’t always out on extra duty shifts protecting Verizon & PSE&G trucks. Can’t the department manage it’s capital equipment in a way that prevents surges in budget requests any given year ? This whole request should trouble the Council and the VM.
I thought seven senior officers were retiring ? Shouldn’t that be a savings of over $840,000 in salaries alone ? And why does our PD need better equipment than a SEAL team in Afghanistan ? Ridgewood has a low crime rate, so just because we want all the whiz bangs doesn’t mean we need them ?
They would like to become a para military group.
These responses are great….
The Bergen Record reported today that Federal/state grants have gone to many municipal departments for enforcing distracted driving (cell phones etc)
I didn’t see Ridgewood on the list.
We could have filled the town coffers with the fines.
How come we didn’t get a grant?
Did we even apply?
The Ridgewood cops apply and participate in NJDHTS grants when they are available and the dept. qualifies. The town has been reluctant to participate because of the expense involved. The way it was explained to me is although there is grant money available the town doesn’t get a dominant split of the resulting funds, the violations bureau gets court cost’s the majority of the fine money goes to the state and sometimes to qualify you must have a certain amount of officers, summonses, and or arrests. I’ve heard some of these grants only pay so much per hour and the town won’t make up the difference so the grant goes unfilled.
#5s money raised from Pseg and Verizon goes into the general fund of the village to the tune of 250,000 dollars in admin, and vehicle fees. Thus the dept. has to ask for this money back which inflates the cost of the budget proposal. If the money was given to the PD directly there would be a much smaller request. Also money garnered by vehicle usage fees helps keep older vehicles alive in the fleet, those are the vehicles you see on traffic details. Other towns use money raised by vehicle fees to replace police vehicles, the village chooses not to do this. The budget presented reflects this. Please post all the facts not just those you want the public to see.