VIDEO: Yesterday evening, Deputy Mayor Steven Langert and Committeeman Albert Akerman addressed the senior residents at the Lions Head community prior to a community board meeting. During the address, Akerman briefly thanked the residents who voted for him and offered the residents to further reach out to him with any concerns they may have.
Deputy Langert spoke about how he and the Mayor have worked together vigorously to bring down the tax levy in the largest municipality in the County. Langert mentioned the savings from the EMS contract, savings in health insurance benefits and other cuts he says helped keep taxes down.
Watch video for the full address.
Great job guys.
Steve, I think when you say $2M in savings with the EMS you mean $800,000 for three years-not a one time savings of $2M.
is there any chance of merging the 2 departments?
then we’ll have to build even bigger station so you can complain about that too?
You ruined peoples lives by cutting them 30 percent… you shouldn’t be bragging.
Steve all the way from your bro
#4, retired EMT-P. You are missing the point of this article. With that being said, what you fail to recognize is the fact that the EMS Department consumed, yes, consumed almost 1 million dollars or taxpayers money. No one, and let me repeat this, no one said that these employees do not do a fantastic job and that they are not highly trained respected employees, we all know they are. As a side note, almost all of the department does not reside in Lakewood. However, that not being my point, when EMS services can be provided by another provider at a cost of zero, a 30 percent pay cut doesnt seem all that bad. Unfortunely, the EMS employees were highly paid, and in fact one of the highest paid EMS departments in the country. I know what you are thinking…the town gave them this pay raises so it’s not their fault. However, when a town is facing budget shortfalls and/or a lack of revenue and/or residents wanting a reduction in taxes or for whatever reason, sacrifices need to be made and in an effort to keep their jobs, they (the EMS) accepted the pay cut. Now one can argue that they were forced to take the cut but I leave you with this. Did anyone prevent them from applying for another job? The answer is no. So, any government employee, who I pay and I assume you pay, and who is willing to quit their job and find a better job, be my guest. Look around Ocean and Monmouth County and you will see plenty of people out of work. The choice was theirs, take a pay cut and come in line with other professionals in their field or be like the thousands on unemployment. They made the right choice.
you cut the fire dept. budget even more!!
You apparently have know idea where your tax money is being spent, you should go to a town meeting. It is very interesting to see. EMS may have took a pay cut but other departments got a raise. The EMS has been there for over 30 years with many dedicated employees serving this town, so when you work for a company/town for 15+ years, do you as worker expect to never see a raise especially since it is such a thankless job. There are so many things wrong with this and such little space to list. If you were at the town meeting a year ago you would have seen the way they forced this employees to take take that cut.
U gotta feel bad for the seniors. At the end of the day, even tho their taxes reportedly went down this year , they get the least out of they’re tax $$ – No public school, no bussing to yeshiva, no garbage, no snow removal (we didn’t either, true)they don’t really use the parks. It seems they were mekabel steve & Isaac very nicely but, really, I can’t imagine they’re thrilled w/ their peckel.
yes the ems dept took a pay cut that u see as warranted…but do you agree that the other depts. in this town all got pay raises????