Administrators Outline Potential Post-Consolidation Princeton

Princeton's two administrators on Wednesday outlined preliminary organizational charts for a consolidated Princeton: it is both a starting point for personnel discussions, and a proposal that question if the recommended consolidation savings should be achieved mainly through personnel cuts.   

Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi and Township Administrator James Pascale outlined a preliminary organizational structure to members of the personnel subcommittee of the Transition Task Force. 

Where each administrator currently has nearly a dozen employees reporting directly to him, a merger would create fewer departments, but more levels of management. 

"We would say maybe take one of those people who are current department heads, elevate them to a larger position and have people report through them to the administration, just to really simplify getting information across a larger organization," Bruschi said. 

Where the two towns have duplicate positions- chief financial officer, for example- one employee may keep the position post-consolidation, while the other may become tax collector and the existing tax collector could become assistant tax collector, Bruschi said, stressing that the example was for illustrative purposes only. This type of model could create solid succession planning, something both municipalities lack, he said.

But there may be downsides to the plan. 

The Joint Shared Services and Consolidation Commission Shared Services estimated a consolidation Princeton would save at least $3.16 million a year in duplicate personnel costs, savings that helped spur merger approval in both the Borough and the Township in November. 

Additional, but unquantified, savings are expected to come through operational efficiencies.

Now the administrators suggest that rather than simply cut employees, it may be more efficient to redeploy them into other positions. 

"We think we could probably do some of those things for at least the same amount of money we thought we would save with the consolidation study and meet the intent of the study by ultimately removing positions but then looking at additional savings through things that were never initially contemplated through the consolidation report," Bruschi said. 

Savings would still be achieved through operational efficiencies- a single municipal audit and bulk purchasing, for example.

Consolidation Commission member Ryan Lillenthal, who serves as a liaison to the personnel subcommittee, suggested subcomittee members talk to the Center for Government Research, whose consultants prepared the initial cost savings estimates. 

"We (the Consolidation Commission) were very clear that the $3.16 million of annual savings came out of personnel costs and there would be additional operational savings," Lillenthal said on Wednesday. "I for one would be very disappointed if a balance sheet at the bottom looks the same, the $3.16 million, but it's achieved because you're dipping into the operational savings to make that happen.

"And if that's going to be done, the public needs to understand," he said. 

Under a new Princeton, Bruschi and Pascale potentially see just five functional departments: administration/finance, police, court, community development and community services. 

Consolidation becomes effective Jan. 1, 2013.