Politics & Government

New Sewer Bill Talks Held Behind Closed Doors

Town officials discuss changing the way Cranford is billed for sewer service during closed sessions and late-night meetings.

Cranford property owners may soon be paying their sewer bill apart from their regular property taxes.

But you wouldn't know that, as the topic was initially brought up by the Township Committee behind closed doors at a special meeting on April 5. Then it was brought up at a April 12 meeting after 12:15 a.m., following two closed-door executive sessions, one of which lasted two and a half hours.

The agenda for the April 5 meeting said the committee planned to go into closed session to "discuss personnel and contractual matters related to the proposed 2010 Municipal Budget." Meeting minutes show that the Committee went into executive session at 9:25 p.m.

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What they talked about was the possibility of moving sewer charges out from under the Township budget. Property owners would then see a separate bill for their sewer fees. In doing so, the town would remove $1.6 million from its budget and keep the budget increase below the state's cap of a 4 percent annual tax hike.

"The subject was an alternative proposal to mitigate tax increases," said Commissioner Dan Aschenbach. "That should not have been discussed in closed session."

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"I'm not going to comment, nor should Mr. Aschenbach," said Mayor Mark Smith on why that topic was made part of a closed session. "Something like that... if the conversation is related to the 2010 Municipal Budget and how it would affect reducing the number of personnel or furloughs, it needs to be in closed session. Though I'm not saying that was discussed..."

New Jersey law states that government bodies can close a public meeting if it deals with anything that would infringe federal or state confidentiality laws, invade individual privacy, involve a collective bargaining agreement or contract negotiation, personnel issues, or a handful of other exceptions.

"This is a policy that represents over $1.6 million of budget change that should be discussed by the community and not behind closed doors," said Aschenbach.

If approved, the new sewer bill would cost some taxpayers slightly more than what they are used to seeing since the fees would no longer be eligible for a federal tax deduction, if they are part of a sewer bill and not part of their property tax bill.

Aschenbach puts that increase at $65 for the average Cranford homeowner. Smith says the increase would be in that neighborhood, but he can't put a specific number out there when the new rates haven't been finalized.

"Removal of the fees paid to Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority appears to be the only way that the Township can get under the 4 percent levy cap without crippling municipal services," said Smith.

He pointed out that the change would not affect those taxpayers who don't bother to itemize their deductions. About 35 percent of tax filers across the nation itemize deductions according to the IRS.

"Assuming the same percentage of Cranford residents itemize, the change would not affect roughly two thirds of Township taxpayers," said Smith. Cranford Patch was unable to find such statistics for Union County.  

The new sewer bill would cover all RVSA charges. Though there may be some slight administrative costs associated with the separate collection, the current plan involves using the current tax mailing system to deliver the new bill to homes and businesses in town, said Smith.

Residents would receive their new bills on a semi-annual, or, more likely, an annual basis. The Township Committee plans to discuss a rate system during the workshop meeting on Monday. They intend to introduce an ordinance during the official meeting on Tuesday.

As for their April 12 twilight affairs?

"There were a lot of legal protocols we had to follow, a lot of negotiations with the employees. An attorney was involved in one case, a union rep in another," said Smith. "[The sewer discussion] could it have been carried, but no, we needed to understand if there was enough support to move forward with that solution. We needed to figure out how billing would be done. We thought about engaging a utility company..."

Closed session minutes reveal that the Township Committee eliminated two personnel positions (an engineering aide and an information systems technician) and discussed other contractual matters. The Committee didn't get to the new sewer bill until after midnight.

"I hate to have meetings run that late," Smith said. "If someone wants to see that as sinister sure, but it really wasn't our intention."


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