What does budget hold for Salem County workers, taxpayers?

Freeholders are expected to unveil their 2016 spending plan Wednesday night.

SALEM -- Salem County freeholders are scheduled to introduce their 2016 budget Wednesday night and should provide some long-awaited answers for the county workforce and taxpayers.

County workers are on edge, fearing layoffs and what the future holds with the county exploring the privatization of the Salem County Correctional Facility's nursing staff and the 911 dispatch center.

Officials say the proposed budget is balanced, but haven't released any other final details yet.

All along, Freeholder Director Julie Acton has said the budget process has been difficult, something she reiterated in an email on Tuesday.

"We were elected by the public to do our due diligence and explore every possible option to reduce the tax burden. Exploring the options includes investigating and weighing the pros and cons from the shared-service perspective, as well as from those who utilize the service during response time," Acton said.

"Everyone's input is valuable. Our employees are also our taxpayers. We understand and are sympathetic to their concerns. We have 64,180 residents that we must take into consideration, especially when our decisions will impact lives."

Wednesday's regular freeholder meeting begins at 7 p.m. It will be held at the Lower Alloways Creek Municipal Building in Hancocks Bridge.

Cuts already made

In March, officials said $1.2 million would be saved in employee salaries and benefits.

Departments heads were told for 2016 they needed to trim their budgets by 15 percent.

Along with that, the freeholders voted earlier this year voted to institute a hiring freeze.

They ended the practice of providing stipends to county employees who opt to not enroll in the county-sponsored health care plan.

The board also voted to freeze their own salaries -- $25,410 for members and $26,410 for the director.

A privatization push?

As another cost-saving measure Salem County is exploring is privatization or shared-service agreements that could see a private takeover of the medical staff at the Salem County Correctional Center and the operation of the county's 911 dispatch center.

The 911 center has 30 full-time and seven part-time employees and costs about $2.6 million a year to operate. As for the jail nursing staff, there are 15 full-time and three part-time workers along with one nurse practitioner and the director. That staff costs the county about $1.25 million a year.

Salem County has already advertised seeking bids for the jail medical services. Outside bids are due by this Friday.

A draft request for proposals (RFP) for county dispatch services has been drawn up, but not yet advertised, officials say. Preliminary talks with Gloucester County about providing dispatch services for Salem County are taking place.

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Debra Sellitto, Gloucester county spokeswoman, said the idea is being "explored."

The Gloucester 911 center provides fire/police and EMS dispatching for all of its county, Sellitto said. Gloucester recently updated its 911 center and also provides dispatching for five municipalities in neighboring Atlantic County -- Buena, Buena Boro, Folsom, Weymouth and Estelle Manor.

Asked if Gloucester County would consider hiring Salem County dispatchers if a deal is reachee, Sellitto said it is "too early" to speculate on any of those type of details.

"There is no current plan for a deal," said Salem County Spokeswoman Brenda Banks of contracting with Gloucester for dispatching. "We are only checking all options available to Salem County. If something works, we will take the next step."

Banks said the talks are only "exploratory" and there is no dollar figure on what the county hopes to save if there is a deal.

She also said if there was an agreement with Gloucester, the hiring of Salem County workers "would definitely be a topic of discussion."

On Tuesday, in response to an emailed question whether the balanced budget was based on privatization of 911 and nurses at the jail, a statement from Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Katie Coleman was forwarded:

"The budget as currently proposed includes assumptions for substantial labor savings that can be realized in several ways, including voluntary concessions by labor units, employee attrition, and/or decreasing employee work hours through legal means available to the county."

No other details were included.

Fewer freeholders?

Unhappy with what they say are constant requests for givebacks by county workers, members of the Salem County Fraternal Order of Police began a petition drive to reduce the number of county freeholders and cut the pay for those that remain.

Lt. Bob Gant, FOP president, said Tuesday that 500 signatures have already been gathered. He said signature drives are being planned across the county and the FOP has received calls from people wanting to sign the petition.

The questions that the FOP members hope to see on the November general election ballot would ask for the freeholder board to be cut from seven to five members and those who remain have their salaries cut by 20 percent.

Gant said FOP members -- many who work as county's sheriff's and corrections officers -- became frustrated over requests that county workers give back and believe the county freeholders should do their part.

Acton, in a previous interview, said Salem County's freeholders work hard, noting they have no aides as elected officials in some other counties do.

Gant said based on the county's population, each freeholder is costing each resident $2.67.

Gant has also come out strongly against privatization plans.

"You can't let another county run our county," Gant said. "We don't want to see any further job losses or for-profit companies coming in taking control of our facilities."

"All studies we looked at, we saw no proof privatization saves money. We said that and we stand behind that," Gant said.