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UPPER TOWNSHIP - Speeders and other scofflaws in Dennis Township will have to take their fight to Upper Township Municipal Court.

Workers at Middle Township Municipal Hall packed up boxes and filing cabinets full of traffic tickets and court records Tuesday and shuttled them to Upper Township Hall, which will oversee Dennis Township's courts for the next five years.

Dennis had an agreement with Middle Township, but made the jump to Upper to save money.

"We're sifting through it now," Upper Township Deputy Court Administrator Nancy Palmer said. "It's going to be a slow process."

Meanwhile, a notice Middle Township sent to Dennis Township traffic offenders about the court change caused some confusion. Some motorists mistakenly thought the notice meant their court date was scheduled for Tuesday, Palmer said.

"They started coming in Monday, saying, ‘I want to plead not guilty to a ticket,'" Palmer said.

"We had to do it for the taxpayers," Dennis Township Mayor John Murphy said. "Merging will make our courts and their courts more efficient. Both sides are keen to save money."

Murphy said the township was satisfied with Middle Township's courts but was wooed by Upper Township's cheaper alternative.

"It's a better fit because they use the State Police and we use the State Police," Murphy said.

These shared-services agreements are expected to get more scrutiny once Gov.-elect Chris Christie takes office in January. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno will be spearheading an effort to combine more municipal services, Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky said.

"I think it's going to be a top priority. Gov. Christie has indicated his lieutenant governor will be responsible for shared services," he said. "Why does everybody need 16 court administrators, 16 public works directors? Police chiefs? We need to look at where the money is at - which is the school districts. They'll be looking at every nook and cranny."

Woodbine first raised the idea of merging courts but backed off the proposal because its employee salaries were lower than those in neighboring towns, Pikolycky said.

Meanwhile, Upper Township has also taken over municipal-court operations for Corbin City in Atlantic County.

Along with annual payment of $125,000, Upper Township will keep any fines levied on lawbreakers in Dennis Township. Nearby Ocean City raises more than $2 million per year in these fines. But Dennis Township does not have the same parking or traffic enforcement that creates this cash flow for Ocean City.

One incentive driving the merger is state-mandated safety improvements. Upper Township already has a secure court office with bulletproof glass. And it has a paid bailiff, a retired State Police trooper, to provide security, Mayor Richard Palombo said.

"They wanted a two-way video for the area where the prisoners are taken," Palombo said.

Ocean City provides 911 dispatching for Upper Township and fire and ambulance response for Strathmere. Palombo said he sees more shared agreements coming soon across New Jersey.

"We are excited about trying to do this. I'm a firm believer that towns have to look at ways to save money or generate money. The bottom line is it's less costly to run the system," he said.

One drawback - and a big one for politically quarrelsome New Jersey - is that Upper Township will retain the exclusive power of appointment for its judge, prosecutor and public defender.

But Murphy said saving money was worth sacrificing the patronage appointments.

"That's one thing you have to get over to do what's good for taxpayers," he said.

Contact Michael Miller:

609-463-6712

MMiller@pressofac.com

1 comment:

• tribabbitt (1) posts 9:04 pm

  All: Folks in government need to understand that sharing services almost always increases costs . . . it is a paradox. The uninformed fall into this trap sharing front and back offices and IT believing that money is saved, it is not. Without an understanding of the nature of demand we lock in waste. The biggest lever for improvement is the design and management of work. Please read: http://blog.newsystemsthinking.com/blog/shared-services-strategy/0/0/dos-and-donts-of-a-shared-services-strategy Regards, Tripp Babbitt www.newsystemsthinking.com www.thesystemsthinkingreview.com (Government)

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