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Council endorses efforts to opt out of Civil Service
(by Kathryn A. Burger - October 01, 2008)
With no discussion, the Park Ridge Borough Council recently approved a resolution urging the New Jersey Legislature to enact legislation that would allow
New Jersey ’s municipalities to opt out of the Civil Service System.
The system has been in the borough, “forever – from the very beginning,” said Gene Vinci, the borough administrator. Mayor Donald Ruschman said it has been at least 40 to 50 years.
Currently, there is no statutory provision allowing municipalities to opt out of the system. The resolution reads in part, “The Mayor and Council of the Borough of Park Ridge believe that it would be in the best interest of efficiency and employee management if municipalities were able to choose to remain or opt out of the Civil Service system.”
The resolution did not originate with the borough, rather, it was sent from another municipality, although Vinci did not recall which one. The
Village of
Ridgewood is the closest municipality that employs the Civil Service System. Others in
Bergen
County include Bergenfield,
Fort Lee , Moonachie, Tenafly and Waldwick.
Asked if the borough was considering opting out, should legislation permit it, he said, “At this point, we are not at a stage where we know enough about it or what would be needed to opt out, based on the assumption that special legislation is enacted. If it is enacted, we would then evaluate the staff and employees. In our current situation, it’s not always the best set of circumstances. It’s difficult to hire people, promote them – there’s a layer of protection that the employees have,” he said, adding that there is also a lot of “administrative red tape in filling a position. It gets frustrating since it’s a long, drawn out process. It doesn’t always seem to be in the best interest of the town or the employees.” He said legislation has been talked about, “but no one knows the specifics.”
Ruschman agreed that there are constraints as far as promotions, changing job titles and hiring. He said the “slowness” of making any personnel changes can be frustrating. “Other than that, there is no great dissatisfaction with the system, but it does have its limitations,” he said.
Vinci said another drawback was if the borough tried to arrange shared personnel services with other towns. “It creates a problem. We have Civil Service here and the other towns don’t. It’s difficult to combine jobs if one is Civil Service and the other is not.” He said, for instance, that if three municipalities wanted to share a code official, “We’d never be able to be the lead town since we can’t employ someone who is not in the Civil Service System. If we wanted to participate, one of the other two towns would be the lead and pay us.”
The resolution also specifies that if the legislature is unwilling to enact legislation to allow all municipalities to opt out, that they enact special legislation that would allow
Park Ridge to do so.
Ruschman said if any legislation were passed that allowed the borough to opt out of the system, they might explore it.
Kathryn A. Burger's e-mail address is burger@northjersey.com.
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