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Hand scanners a no-go
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - February 28, 2008)
The proposal to replace the borough’s punch card system with biometric time recorders was voted down Tuesday after Mayor Roger Fyfe broke a tied council vote.
Since last November, the governing body has considered the implementation of biometric hand scanners to clock employee hours and track policies. Rather than using hand or finger printing, the device uses logarithmic calculations of different points on the hand to identify an employee. The technology was presented to the mayor and council on Nov. 26, 2007 by Robert Widmer, a borough resident and president of the Hackensack-based Widmer Time Recorder Co., Inc.
“The chances of two hands being identical is one in 10 million,” Widmer said at the time. “This has taken over the time card industry.”
Widmer said studies have shown that the system, which would have cost the borough an approximate $1,600 to outfit two borough locations, saves about five minutes per day per person. The borough currently employs approximately 30 staffers.
The current system uses punch cards and a time management program that produces data such as the number of holidays an employee has left in a year and how long someone has worked for the borough. That information is not automatically archived and has to be entered manually into the database. The biometric system would have been automated, and information would have been immediately stored on a borough database.
The governing body, however, was split at the Feb. 26 meeting on whether or not to abandon the currently used punch card system in favor of what some considered an extreme time clocking method that could raise concerns among employees that they were being watched over.
“Not now,” said Fyfe as he cast his tie-breaking vote. “I think it might be a bit much for what we need.”
Council members Timothy Lane, Leah LaMonica and Salvatore Talarico voted against the biometric hand scanners while Martin Kent, Lorna Scully and Chuck Wehrle voted in favor of the new system.
Kent, who had favored the biometric technology in November, reiterated his support Tuesday night, downplaying “big brother” concerns.
“How we use the information is up to us,” he said.
Kent added that even though the biometric scanners were voted down, he still wants “to see some form of regulated time management” for accurate records of where borough employees are.
Administrator Maureen Administrator Maureen Iarossi-Alwan said that she will explore other time recording systems for the borough to consider.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
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