Notice of the Township Committee special budget meeting on January 21, 2012

[Police]

The starting salary for an officer us 45k and they willget 1.5% raises over the next 5 yrs.

The problem I see us will I have someone when I need them. If I am being robbed, my wife assaulted, my child goes missing, or a suspicious person walking in my neighborhood or driving through I want them to respond. These are all issues last year that came up. So I don't care what I am paying for my safety at that point. We spend thousands on nice to have programs and ignore the need to have of police. There us gang activity in the warehouses, we have a lot if transient people with the hotels.

So while I can see Main St as sleepy. I want someone ready in an emergency.

[huh?]

[questions]

[Cost Concious]

In order to get costs in check why don't we merge or at least share services. The police department seems to be some Sacred Cow that we must hang on to no matter what. The reality is that it is very expensive and in this day and financial age may not be worth the cost. Every home rule advocate is really out of touch with reality by saying we need our OWN police department. The days of the few local Police officers who lived in town and knew us all and knew our children are gone. The days when they knew when your lights were are on and your car was in your driveway are gone forever. The duplication of administration, facilities and equipment is not realistic. One other item that really needs a look see is public works. Someday go over to Plainsboro and see their facility. We should be definitly sharing those services and that equipment. Most towns have so many pieces of equipment that gets limited use [chippers for example] they should be shared. We could still maintain the same personnel who know our town and just eliminate the facility drain. The spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a new storage garage in the wetlands adjacent to the cedar brook is ridiculous and just shows how wasteful we can be with tax payer dollars.
We have to start to be more cost concious and here are a couple places to start. We don't have much say on Board of Education spending so lets start with what we have direct control over.

[Police]

[$$$]

[Employees]

Police and all full time employees get pension and medical. Tell us what the TC member said. The increases are right there in the notes. Police and all employees will contribute more on medical per NJ law.

[Replace]

No one is saying add officers. The issue is keeping minimum levels as 2 officers retired. The cost of replacing them still saves the town. Plus the town removed retiree medical for new employees a few years ago and pension contributions cease when they retire just like in the private sector.

[Oldtimer]

While nothing is "sacred", it is not a realistic consideration to further downsize or altogether get rid of our police department. The department functions at a bare minimum keeping 2 officers in the township to answer calls and handle basic responsibilities (traffic enforcement, school crossing etc..). It was nice living in Cranbury when there was only one officer working in the 1960's, 70's, and into the early 80's but those times are a distant memory of yesteryear. True Cranbury has very little violent crime however on the outskirts our village is a busy highway and a warehouse district that has significantly more demands for police, fire, and EMS than most residents realize. If we are looking at another relativelly small municipality ie Plainsboro, Monroe, or South Brunswick to take over policing in Cranbury it is likelly that eventually that municipality is going to be charging Cranbury nearly as much as it costs for Cranbury to maintain its own police department. An example of this is the failed attempt to dissolve Hightstown Police Department and have East Windsor take over. If there was a county police department or if Cranbury were "donut hole town" where there was a redundancy in services this might be different.

[Township Resident]

All of the Township employee salaries can be found on the Asbury Park Press website (app.com) under Data Universe. Very interesting! Unfortunately, it doesn't yet list 2011 salaries.

[App]

That website is not correct. I have used it in the past and there are a lot of errors. The reason is Twp staffs often are paid from multiple budgets so App sometimes double counts or misses salary information.

It may be good or it may be way off on a person

[wcody]

I looked at the APP site, it looks fairly accurate for base salaries of township employees. It does not include overtime, benefits, etc. Township employee salaries are a matter of public record.

[App]

Mr. Cody I just looked and in some cases the salaries are good and others it is off it seems based on Monroe where I live now and know some salaries. I have not asked for Cranbury data in a few years. Maybe Cranbury is different.

My suggestion for anyone who really wants the numbers. Go to town hall or call town hall. It is public data and you can get everything up to date. It's more reliable and you can even ask for total payroll data. If you see medical costs it will shock most people.

I actually do this every once and a while and since most employees in a town are hourly it is interesting to see year to year. It also can show you where OT is an issue.

[Stillthesame]

Public salaries in Cranbury are not secrets. It is easier and more accurate to ask at town hall. APP is not always current. If u want to know what the cops are making for base salary and benefits you can get a cop of the police contract. You should also get copies of contracts from surrounding towns. You will see that Cranbury is on the low end of average for Middlesex and surrounding counties. Same thing with other municipal employees.

[Too Many Police]

Thank you for the App site its very informative and it shows how we have had too many police over the years for such a small town

Cranbury Police Officers by year

2010 18
2009 19
2008 19
2007 20
2006 18
2005 18
2004 20
2003 18
2002 17
2001 15
2000 14


http://php.app.com/njcrime/results2.php?COUNTY=Middlesex+County&MUNI=Cranbury+Twp.&YEAR=%25&Search=Search

[Breasonable]

In 2012 there are 15 officers including the chief. The same number as in 2002 before hotels, numerous industrial/office parks, Liedke Drive, Four Seasons, etc..It costs each household less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks per day to maintain the police department.