Wall DPW Restructuring Plan

  I was one of the 50 people who attending the Wall Township presentation on restructuring the DPW, outsourcing grass cutting, and acquiring 7 new garbage collection trucks.  The meeting and presentation once again confirmed the failures and inabilities of our government and elected officials. They failed to tape the meeting, so that it could be televised for people who could not attend. They failed to be totally open and transparent. They failed to show they had done (1) a complete total cost of acquisition analysis (2) a total cost of ownership analysis, or (3) a comparison of their proposal to hiring more employees.  Mr Bertrand claimed this project had been ongoing for 3 years, yet the public was only informed of it the week before the presentation.  This shows their failure to have an open government and public participation in the entire process.  They were unable to answer basic questions on the financing, interest, insurance, depreciation, maintenance, repair, fuel, and downtime costs that would be added to the $3.3M acquisition cost of new collection trucks. Mr Bertrand was unable to show the alleged $250,000 in savings he claimed at the beginning of the presentation when the financial numbers (that didn't add up) were shown.  They failed to mention that the current snow plows won't fit on the new trucks, and we will be faced with either buying plows (no cost figure), outsourcing snow plowing (no cost figure), or outsourcing plowing (no cost figure).  And Mr Bertrand actually admitted the township is failing to do all the DPW work that needs to be done.  Bertrand showed that no employee positions would be eliminated, and that 1877 manhours  (the full timei equivalent of 7.32 employees) would be reallocated to doing the unfinished DPW work.  Which begs the questions to be answered - why didt the township downsize and eliminate staff if they needed them to complete work?  And why wasn't a cost study done comparing adding 7 employees to buying 7 new trucks plus outsourcing grass cutting?   The Township Committee voted unanimously to move forward with their acquisition and outsourcing proposal that will cost much more than the $3.5M they state - in spite of their failure to do a complete financial analysis, their failure to do a cost comparison to adding employees instead of acquiring new equipment, and their failure to answer residents valid questions and concerns.  Their failure is a sham and a shame.