The county’s taking over elderly and disabled transportation needs in Bayonne and other areas has prompted the Hudson County Freeholders to look more closely at existing services and developing a countywide plan that would be equitable to all municipalities.
At the Dec. 11 caucus meeting of the Hudson County Freeholders, Freeholder Bill O’Dea said that discussions in a freeholder committee have raised questions about the takeover of operations and the need to better review the county program.
Due to municipal layoffs, Bayonne recently was forced to suspend its transportation plan for the elderly and disabled. Hudson County agreed to provide transportation to seniors and the disabled in return for $100,000 to cover costs. The county has also taken over transportation for Christ Hospital in Jersey City as well, and O’Dea said other communities such as Hoboken have requested the county to provide transportation to its needy.
O’Dea said he would like to get a report on the long-term impact of taking over municipal transportation needs. “Do we have to hire new drivers? Are we taking on drivers who worked on the municipal level, and if so, are they becoming county employees when we takeover the program?” O’Dea asked.
A report should also include any chance of service, and a projection as to the impact of having the county take over all transportation for the aging and disabled.
O’Dea said he wanted to make sure the same services were available to all municipalities.
Freeholder Doreen DiDomenico, who sponsored the bill to help Bayonne, said she was also concerned with change. She also questioned whether the county should move the program to the Roads Department, suggesting also that drivers should get additional training in how to handle senior citizens and the disabled.
“We might consider providing drivers with CPR training and consider installing defibrillators in the vehicles because of the population being transported,” she said.
Keeping grant money in the county
The county continued to redistribute grant funding in order to keep within the new restrictive spending requirements.
It was noted at the last meeting that if county agencies don’t distribute their state grants to the appropriate needy groups, they may have to give the money back to the state. Health and Human Services Director Carol Ann Wilson told the freeholders that funds are being reallocated to meet the state requirements as to distribution, in order to keep from having to send the money back.
The department has managed to shift funds previously dedicated for administrative costs into social services for the homeless. Wilson said vacancies in the administrative staff provided more revenue.
In another matter, DiDomenico said representatives from the Jersey City Medical Center have appeared before her committee to clear up a mystery as to how the hospital could act as the state’s local Special Child Health Care Program when it had closed its pediatric department. DiDomenico said the hospital provides largely administrative services for the state program, which does not require a pediatric department.
Contract questioned in record keeping
O’Dea raised some concerns about a recommendation to hire a firm for records management in the Registrar’s Office, saying that the criteria seemed overly strict, requiring a bidding company to own the software for record-keeping. O’Dea said that this means that the county may have to hire the less-experienced company for more money, just because they meet the software requirement.
“The company you are recommending has about a year’s worth of experience,” O’Dea told a representative from the Registrar’s Office, “while this other company has 10 years, in some cases, in working with county governments in the state.”
O’Dea said the county could save $300,000 by awarding the contract to another bidder, and get a company that has more experience with handling county work.
County officials, however, said the other company did not have experience in this particular area, and that a company owning the software for services provided would reduce the downtime if there is a problem.
Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons said the county should look into eventually combining the county registrar and county clerk positions, since their offices provide similar operations. He cited a success story in Camden County in which the two offices were combined successfully.