The Tiger report recommended outsourcing the entire department to other town’s facilities
The Tiger report recommended outsourcing the entire department to other town’s facilities that are already under contract to perform repair work on Ridgewood vehicles for less than it costs for Ridgewood to perform the work. Why would we want to sell this outdated inefficient facility, just to build a new inefficient facility?
Before we go with Big Al’s suggestion to sell the current facility and build a new facility on another site, we should investigate whether it makes more economic sense to simply outsource the work as needed, instead of carrying the department’s full time salaries, in addition to long-term pension and health benefit obligations.
In addition, I imagine the site may require some remediation, which could make it difficult to sell.
The Tiger Team is finished. Thank you for your service.
PJ hasn’t realized that yet.
Why is the Tiger Team finished? Are you a village worker afraid of losing your job?
Outsource the Tiger Team.
I don’t think PJ realizes it yet.
The Tiger Team may have finished what they were asked to do. You may not appreciate what those people did for the Village. But, I do, as do most people I know in Ridgewood.
Fortunately, their recommendations were documented in their report, which the Village Council has and should be using as a road map to guide their efforts to reduce village expenses, improve municipal operational efficiency, reduce property taxes and preserve municipal jobs. Ken Gabbert has demonstrated that he is unable or unwilling to focus on these things and the Village Council needs help.
Every taxpayer in town should read their report. I was shocked by it. People may have differing opinions about some elements of the recommendations presented. But, we can all be in agreement that the facts are scary and we cannot continue with “business as usual” in the operation of Ridgewood. We need immediate long-term structural changes to some of our departments and to our union contracts.
I agree with the comments posted by #6 and also thank the team for their efforts. I may not agree with all of its recommendations but Ridgewood does need to examine alternatives as the current system is not working. Personally, I would rather see some heads at the top rolling rather than the rank and file employees. BOE and teachers unions are also a big part of the problem but this is not unique to Ridgewood. I am not anit-union but it appears that the public unions continue to be out of sync with the real world in their demands.
The council is not obligated to carry out all recommendations. The “team” did a lot of work and their findings should be reviewed by the elected officials. There is no mandate for the village to follow the recommendations of this unelected committee.
A committee with different members may have come to different conclusions on the subject of the budget. Our financial obligations are growing, we all knew that. The biggest problems are salary, benefits and healthcare costs. With unions this will be very difficult to tackle.
This is true. The Village Council has no obligation to follow the specific recommendations of the Tiger Team. But, the Village Council asked them to perform their work. They don’t appear to have had any particular agenda, which is more than I can say for any of the Village Council members. Their report presented a great deal of factual historical information that had not been presented to taxpayers in the past. They also appear to have presented some very thoughtful and recommendations to address our fiscal problems. Although, as they suggested in their report, there are many other areas that need to be looked at, including the BOE. While the the Council may not have an obligation to follow the recommendations, I can’t imagine why they would not want to avoid at least using them as a starting point.
I would suggest that the Village Council DOES have a obligation to explore these recommendations thoroughly. If they can come up with better ways to reverse the run away annual increases to Ridgewood’s property tax liability, that is great. But, doing nothing is not an option.
If you or others have a reason why any of the recommendations shouldn’t be followed, explain why or come up with better alternatives.
people should look at the fire and police depts at what they make. they have the big over time .
the team never talked to any of the village workers who know how to save money. so we all think the team is not that smart with some of the things they came up with. the workers know a lot. bad move tony .
I hate to be the one to burst the bubble here: it’s not the unions, it’s the headcount. The contracts are in place and it will cost as much to get out of them as to pay them. The structural change is in managing one metric: headcount.
The unions have exacerbated the problem in a way that is hard to even imagine and was certainly short sighted on their part, but at the end of the day we need to deliver the services the village government provides with fewer people on our payroll.
If you reduce the number of people you dramatically reduce the cost both in the current year and in future years.