Five towns in North Hudson joined together in 1999 to form the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue squad, a regionalized fire department meant to save money and provide a quicker response time.
Since then, homeowners in the five municipalities, including Union City, West New York, Weehawken, North Bergen and Guttenberg, have taken advantage of the resulting Regional Efficiency Aid Program (REAP) tax credits to save them money on their tax bills. However, complaints of unfamiliar firefighters traveling out of their original jurisdiction and questions as to how much money was saved have, at times, tainted the benefits of the much-touted regionalization.
“The theory was that we can provide faster service and a better level of service as a regional department,” said co-director of the regional department Jeff Welz.
In fact, analysis of budgets before and after the regionalization showed that so far, there were definite savings in at least two out of the five towns. Some still complain, saying that it is better to have firefighters responding to fires in their own neighborhoods.
Union City Mayor and Public Safety Director Brian Stack has disagreed with some aspects of the regionalization, which occurred before he took office. But he does believe that firefighters from all towns in the Regional’s jurisdiction want to help the people in any area they serve.
“These men go out there and truly want to save people,” said Stack, who as mayor of Union City has seen a string of arson related fires in his municipality as well as at least three other major fires over the past 12 months. “These men put their lives on the line to save others.”
How much does it cost?
Every year, each of the five municipalities contributes a donor share to the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue (NHRFR) budget.
According to NHRFR Chief Financial Officer Christopher Pianese, the amount that each municipality contributes is based on the numbers that each had paid separately in 1998, before the regionalization.
Pianese said that the Regional looked at the total amount that each municipality spent on their individual fire departments, added those numbers and came up with percentage of the total for each town. Those percentages were carried over to the NHRFR budgets.
According to Pianese, the 2002 NHRFR budget totals $27.1 million. While this budget is up about $2 million from the original $25 million 1999 budget, Pianese said that the budget has not been raised by more than 5 percent each year.
“Comparing the 1999 budget and the 2002 budget is like comparing apples and oranges,” said Pianese explaining that maintenance and other costs were added to the budget in the subsequent years.
Union City, which will be paying $8.5 million to the regional department in the upcoming budget, is paying 33 percent of the total NHRFR budget.
Weehawken will be paying $3.9 million in their upcoming budget, only 14.8 percent of the NHRFR department. West New York, which will be paying $6.45 million into the upcoming budget, pays 25.5 percent of the NHRFR budget. North Bergen, who will be contributing $6.68 million, is paying 26.2 percent of the total NHRFR budget.
Guttenberg, who only had a volunteer department before regionalization, pays a flat rate of $1.5 million to the budget each year. According to Pianese, this number has not been increased since 1999. Guttenberg’s volunteer department is about to disband, and equipment that they had on loan from the Regional department is going back to the Regional.
All of these figures are higher than three years ago. In 1998, Union City spent only $7.5 million on its individual fire department, $1 million less than today. Weehawken spent $3.4 million, which is half a million less than today. West New York spent $5.7 million, which is .75 million less, and North Bergen spent $5.85 million, approximately .9 million less. But Pianese argued that none of these municipalities is paying more than they would have been paying this year if they had kept their individual fire departments.
“You have to factor in percentage increase for each year,” said Pianese, who is also the Chief Financial Officer for the town of North Bergen.
Pianese said that individual fire departments would have probably increased at 4 percent a year, due to annual salary raises, new equipment and other annual expenses.
But wasn’t the point of regionalization to save money, rather than to keep things the same?
“At worst, the municipalities are spending the same amount of money as they would have been without regionalization,” said Welz – “but receiving greater efficiency.”
Whether Union City and Weehawken have saved money is unclear.
With the estimated 4 percent increase, Pianese said that Union City would have been paying $8.8 million to run its own department. That’s about $300,000 less than what they will actually be paying in the upcoming year.
Weehawken would have been paying $4 million with the 4 percent increase, which is approximately $100,000 less than their donor share.
On the other hand, West New York would have been paying $6.65 million with a 4 percent increase. They are currently paying the regional $6.45 million. North Bergen would have been paying $6.85 million with the increase, but is only paying $6.68 million, approximately $200,000 less.
The lack of savings is doubly painful to a municipality like Union City, which provides most of the money but not as much of the department leadership.
Originally, Welz said, each of the four municipalities in the Regional had one officer in the position of either chief or director, giving the department two full-time chiefs and two part-time directors. However, Welz said that through attrition the department appointed one chief.
In 1999, NHRFR had one full-time chief from Union City and one full-time chief from West New York, as well as one part-time director from North Bergen and one part-time Director from Weehawken. However, the following year, both of the full-time uniform chiefs retired. Those two chiefs were then replaced by one chief, Ed Flood from Weehawken.
The two part-time directors, Welz and Mike D’Orio, are still active in the department. Both are also directors of public safety in their towns, Weehawken and North Bergen.
With such a small savings in each municipality, Stack said that his city’s financial team is looking into whether the regionalization has actually saved the municipality money.
“What happened is we wound up supplementing a lot of the other departments,” said Stack, who has always been honest about being against the regionalization.
“If I had been mayor at the time of the regionalization, I am not sure that I would have done it,” said Stack. “At least not for the reasons that [former Mayor Raul ‘Rudy’ Garcia] did.”
Stack complained that Garcia did it to get a one-shot revenue amount into his town budget.
Regionalization was a buzzword
At the time, the architects of the plan said that much of the savings would come through attrition – the retirement of some of the senior members of the departments. Gov. Christie Whitman had been a major proponent of regionalization.
In New Jersey, it only makes sense. The nation’s densest state has approximately 567 municipalities, which results in its having the highest property taxes per capita out of all the 50 states. One reason property taxes are so high is that each of these 567 municipalities can have a fire chief, police chief, and school superintendent. Regionalization means fewer high-paid supervisors and lower property taxes.
‘REAP’ing benefits
Welz said that the bulk of the savings will still come through attrition of the department’s high-ranking officers.
“After the first year, we streamlined through the department with the early buy-out option,” said Welz. “More than 50 people retired, and a lot of them were high ranking officers.”
These chief officers who have retired have since been replaced by younger firefighters. Welz said that none of the cost savings was done through officer demotions or layoffs.
Welz said that the department also eliminated the duplication of positions created when all four departments joined together.
“Instead of four staffs, we now have one,” said Welz. “We are one department instead of four. That represents savings.”
An extra savings, that goes directly to the taxpayers in these municipalities.
The Regional Efficiency Aid Program (REAP) credit is a program that provides each municipality that regionalizes with a sum of money that is to be divided amongst the taxpayers who qualify for the credit. In order to qualify for REAP credits, a landlord has to live in their building and own a dwelling of up to four families or an apartment building that is strictly residential. The landlord also had to have owned the building since October of the year before to qualify for the credit.
North Bergen receives $1.9 million in REAP credits, Union City receives $2.3 million in credits, Weehawken receives $600,000 in credits and West New York receives $1.5 million.
This money from the state comes in addition to the Distressed Cities Aid and other state aid programs offered to each municipality.
Manpower
According to Welz, the number of firefighters responding to each fire has increased tremendously. Welz said that prior to regionalization, the minimum number of firefighters responding to a fire’s first alarm was 15. Now, NHRFR responds to first alarm fires with a minimum of 25 firefighters.
“The number of men you send on the first alarm means the difference between a one-room fire that is contained in that room and a fire that spreads across a couple of buildings,” said Welz.
Another benefit of having a regional department is that a company from any of the five towns can respond to a fire. Companies are dispatched based on proximity to the fire, not on the boundaries of the municipal lines.
For instance a home in Weehawken, depending on the municipal borders, may be closer to two firehouses in Union City and North Bergen than it is to any of the firehouses in Weehawken.
Also, the regionalized department can respond to up to four simultaneous alarms, where as when the departments were separate, many towns could only respond to one fire and had to call for mutual aid from other towns to fight a fire happening simultaneously in their town.
Not all are convinced of the value of the regionalization.
At a recent Union City council meeting, Angelo Palombini, a 30-year firefighter who had protested passionately the closing of the 47th Street firehouse, spoke of his sense of loss and concern for the safety of residents in that vicinity. “The people of Union City lost a firehouse,” he said. “We had four and now we have three.” He pointed out the proximity of schools, a daycare center, and 200 units of new development in that area. “They need a firehouse in that area,” he said “The people from Weehawken run this fire department….I know our mayor only has one vote.”
Palombini brought up a fire on 48th Street. “More would have died if [the response time] hadn’t been so quick. [Now] you have to wait for Weehawken or West New York to come to your rescue. And now they’re building a new firehouse on the waterfront, not in Union City. The people of Union City better wise up.”
Palombini added, “We pay the highest portion of that [NHRFR] budget, yet we don’t have anybody in a leadership position.”
More firefighters
The increased number of firefighters responding to a fire has also allowed more firefighters to ride in each company. According to Welz, each truck, or company, rides with a minimum of three men, and about one third of the companies ride with four men.
“I would like to see all of the companies riding with four men,” said Stack, who recently joined the Regional’s management team. “We need to hire more manpower.”
Welz said that in some towns, companies were riding with only two men while on their own as individual fire departments.
On its own, Union City had six companies, with 16th Street as a two-bay (or two-truck) company and 43rd Street as a one-bay company with a part time second company. Union City had the most companies out of all of the North Hudson towns.
Weehawken and West New York both had four companies and North Bergen had five companies with a part-time sixth company.
However, according to Welz, during peak vacation times, many of these towns have been forced to close certain companies. With the regional, all 18 companies are fully operational at all times.
The regional department’s 18 companies include 12 engine companies, five ladder companies and 1 rescue unit and a staff of 210 firefighters.
New firehouse
The department is also adding one more company in West New York, in a new firehouse on River Road.
Stack still wants to see more companies.
After the fire that took place on Mother’s Day last year, right across the street from the 29th Street fire house in Union City, many residents wanted to see a second rig added to that firehouse. The fire left 32 Union City families homeless, and residents were upset that the three firefighters assigned to man that firehouse were out grocery shopping when the fire was reported. Recently, the NHRFR added a ladder company to the firehouse, making it a two-bay firehouse.
Pianese said that the Regional department has purchased $1.5 million in new equipment since its inception, with the money coming from the regular budget.