Dear Editors. With all the recent whining of some cops potentially losing their jobs, I ask the people this. Why in an economy where thousands are getting laid off should cops be spared their jobs when there are plenty others losing their jobs too?
Now you will say that this a safety concern, well don’t you think the police department can shuffle things around to ensure that the safety of its citizens is not compromised?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big supporter of the men in blue and tip my hats to the work they perform and appreciate the fact that they’re risking their lives for us each day, but take a look at Newark who just laid off over 150 cops for expamle. I did not work out the exact percentage it is of the force, but to me it sounds like its a huge chunk of police too.
Yes, it hurts to lose a job, but the municipalities and cities around the garden state must be run like a business, and in an economy such as this, every business looks to make cuts.
And it’s not just police. What about the public works workers? They’re facing the same amount of layoffs too. And so are other departments.
Everyone is feeling the pinch and I expect the Unions and the police department to feel that too, because in this economy, it’s unfortunate but these things happen.
A supported of the LPD and a taxpayer.
(TLS welcomes your letters by sumitting them to [email protected])
Everyone always says that “run it like a business” when politics is involved you can’t. When we try to be cost effective, one resident will call and complain to a politician and the whole system gets disrupted. I ask any resident to come down and see what we go through everday and how much money is wasted do to special demands from Taxpayers who don’t understand the word no, when it places a burden on already strained services. Is money wasted yes, is it wasted because of taxpayer indifference yes. It’s easy to blame the employees but we are only doing what the politicians and taxpayers ask for. A resident fogets to put out the trash, calls and wants us to come back, we say no, they call their favorite committeeman and we send the truck back , wasting fuel and labor. But that’s what the taxpayer wants. Then it’s our fault when our costs rise.
why was the PBA post removed ?
conceded?
To DPW:
If someone forgets to take their garbage out, let them smell it all week! It’s their problem. If what you say is accurate,then it’s just another one of the corrupt acts of our politicians. Unfortunately we’ve gotten used to corrupt politicians. I don’t see it ending anytime soon. And just for the record-I believe you because although I would never think of calling the DPW back if I forgot to put my garbage out, I know others wouldn’t hesitate thinking everything “comes to them”.
there should be no exceptions to the rules ,however this is lakewood and exceptions to everything seems to be all to common place.
the town is bleeding the taxpayers dry. Laying off workers is like putting a bandaid on an amputated limb. Stop all the waste and there will be no need to lay off anyone!
A suggestion, perhaps the supervisors that work for the DPW should not be allowed to bring their trucks home after work. This would cut the cost of fuel usage, extra wear and tear on the trucks and therefore perhaps be a revenue savings. This would especially be effective if an employee lived in another town and had a considerable distant to drive each and every day. Years ago the Ocean County Health Dept. allowed the nurses to bring their County owned cars home after work, ( they were not allowed to use them off of work hours), this practice stopped due to the cost factor.
Another cost savings suggestions is to pick up recycling every other week, as many of our neighboring towns do.
Every small savings adds up. There are ways to cut corners without laying off people.
Maybe the audit should look @ why we charge the PUBLIC schools for trash pickup and don’t charge the private schools anything. Seems like the taxpayer gets @#$%^ twice. #5 You are correct but there are a couple of supervisors who respond to off hour problems and responding to the location quickly w/ your tools is important. The waste of fuel is nothing compared to not seeking $ from landlords and private schools for services they are receiving on joe average taxpayers back. We are talking millions to pennies.
So go ahead lay off five cops. Just don’t complain when you have to wait on the side of the road for a half hour for a cop to show up for your motor vehicle accident. Don’t complain when you have to wait over an hour for an officer to come take your report for a stolen bike or stroller or that they don’t even show up at all. Don’t complain when you have a suspicious person walking through your neighborhood and it takes the cops a half an hour to show up and the guy is gone. Lakewood PD is grossly understaffed in a township of 85,000 plus residents to have 8-9 officers working an evening shift is insane. Brick, Toms River and Howell have almost double that. Then you wonder why those towns are rated as some of the safest to live in not just in NJ but the entire nation.
To #5,all your good ideas are ways to cut jobs and still get the job done.
In today’s economy we need to make deep and painful cuts, both in the private sector and in the public sector. We need to lower taxes, we need to cut waste, and we need accountability.
We need to appreciate what the committee members are doing, they know its unpopular and it will hurt there reelection. But they are doing whats right. G-D bless them.
To DPW guy:
I believed you regarding what you said about people calling you back when they forgot to take their garbage out. I don’t believe what you claim about charging public schools and not private. You are either lying or simply mistaken. I would think you’re probably simply mistaken and there must be something that either you are not saying or just don’t know. Such a thing would never fly and you won’t convince me otherwise. You don’t need an audit to uncover such a basic disparity. So it’s either not true or there’s something missing here. Can someone please enlighten us?
we dont need officers puling over an EMT on his wy to call nor do we need officers enforcing law abiding citizens and ticketing for non enforcable”violations”. whe there is no money there is no sympathy. People can’t keep a roof ovver their head or put bread on their table.the unions can scare us all they want it won’t work.
DPW ir right. There’s tons of waste @ the DPW. No pun intended. But, the biggest waste is that they pick up from the whole downtown for FREE. There’s like a 20 block grid that gets garbage pick up every day, for FREE. & u & I are paying for it.
To #10
I’m not 100% positive what WE need. What YOU need is an English teacher, and you need it desperately!
#10 So I guess when the economy is bad the police should stop enforcing the law. The tax problem in Lakewood is caused by the same people who are complaining. For every new tax exempt property the rest of the citizens are forced to pick up the burden. Tax exempt schools should not be in the industrial park.
First of all that was a rumor ( look it up ) that an officer pulled over an EMT on the way to a call. More like a EMT member in his own vehicle racing to do a transport ( non emergency call ) and using his lights down Rt 9, because of traffic, and shut them off when he saw officer out directing traffic , so officer flagged car over to see why he had lights on then shut them off. FACTS FIRST NOT FICTION.
Second of all who would you rather see laid off , a worker who is non essential or an officer who PROTECTS AND SERVES 24 hrs a day.
THIRD driving is a privilege in NJ not a right. So obey the laws and officers will not have to be bothered writing you tickets. If i disobey a traffic law i understand that i will get a ticket.
Fourth why is there a warning posted that Howell Police is writing tickets on Squankum road, warning Lakewood drivers not to talk on their cell phones now. Isn’t that against the law in NJ.
First off TLS, I am fed up with the moderation of comments. Secondly, Mayor Langert, please go ahead and lay off the cops. The Overtime alone will cost you much more than the salary of the officers plus benefits. The most junior officers are single with no kids and the benefit packages are inexpensive. The overtime rate for the senior officers is triple the regular rate of the junior officers.
Finally, Chief – it is time for you to step up to the plate and stand up for your officers and fill the positions that are vacated. Out the officers that are sitting behind desks on the road where they should be and stop trying to justify their inside jobs. Put 1 of your deputy chiefs on midnights and or evenings and let him be accountable for his time.
Time to outsource certain Township Departments .At the same time wwe should have a countywide police force why does every township need facility wiyj chiefs deputy officers etc.. it will e more cost effecive to abolish these small township Police force and have a county wide system..
Anon @ December 5, 2010 at 8:35 pm- Regardless of whether it would work, the “nicer” towns will do whatever they can to avoid any consolidation. Brick, Toms River and Jackson would fight tooth and nail against sharing a school system or police dept with Lakewood. It would also put way too many administrators out of a job, it would never fly. Besides that, the residents of Lakewood would never get the kind of preferential treatment they do now if power belonged to the county.
Lakewood has a huge problem right now,along with most of America.Close the borders before its too late
In the Torah in the Parsha of Shemitta & Yovel, Hashem Guarantees & promises anyone that if they keep these Halachos they will always be taken care of. (either by getting double in the Sixth year or even having extra) Where is Shemitta & Yovel TODAY in the Diaspora? Where can we find this when outside of Israel is not even responsible for these Halachos? The answer is Hashem promises anyone that if he runs his business with %100 honesty-employer or employee- (coming to work on time & not even a minute late, never using your office time to check your personal needs or the news on the computer, paying your employees on time etc…) he is guaranteed to always have money & never have the need to struggle to make ends meet. This is where we are holding today, for those of us that have been-& still are- honest, from before the economy started going downhill in the beginning of the century. They are the people that are guaranteed to make it through the economy-even- when it crashes. MAY NOONE ELSE NEED TO BE LAID OFF FROM THEY’RE JOBS.
Why the comittee don’t give up their salaries and benefits??? They have part time jobs with full time benefits and pensions.I see cuts everywhere but why not start with them.All of them have regular jobs or are owners of their bussines.Everything that DPW guy is saying is true,I used to work there.The town between Main st to 5 st is done everyday free of charge.Let the store owners pay for the services.When ppl put the garbage can out late,we have to go back cause they will call 1 of our politicians and a call will be place to DPW.But none of them will ever admit that,they are politicians.
I’m glad you have all the “facts” straight. I’m just wondering where you pulled your information from??? And fyi all Hatzolah members head to calls in their OWN vehicles so I’m not sure what you’re talking about. The only way you’d know better is by being part of Hatzolah,but I doubt someone so bright like you could ever make it on. As for the post about Howell-that’s something that only us unfortunate Orthodox people have to deal with. You don’t have to worry about Howell PD. We have a very special place in their hearts that will never be replaced.
to 9 – I am not in the habit of lying or simply mistaken. I am 100% sure and have seen the documentation. They told seven DPW men Friday they are being laid off because they didn’t approve the health care proposal the Mayor is pushing. A dumb move on our part as it was a pretty good package and would save the Twp. money, but a few mis informed employees were able to pursuade the majority. A true shame for both sides.
we can save millions of dollars if the school busses were filled taking children to school. We would save more if children used the old fashion way of going to school, “walking”
to wake up call: im not familiar with alot of your statement but correct me if im wrong sounds like something i am familiar with “do on to others as they would do onto you”. i like it kepp up the positive the world needs it
DPW Guy voting yes or no there was no guarantee they will keep the guys.The police turn the proposal down the day before your guys vote,so the DPW vote didn’t count.The layoffs were coming no matter what.Somehow the township have to come up with that money so even if DPW ok the proposal,the 7 guys were going to get layoff thanks to the police vote the day before.The proposal says that all bargaining units have to aproved the health package.Meaning that once the police turn it down the vote of the other unions means nothing.You should know that,you used to be a head shop steward.And a good one too.I’m sorry for the guys who got layoffs but it was gonna happend anyway.