Remarks prepared by Commissioner Ed Borden, Director of Public Safety and Public Affairs

Please let me begin by thanking the Lions Club for hosting this event. It is a wonderful tradition, a wonderful day and a wonderful opportunity to come together to honor one of our most dedicated citizens.

I would like to take this opportunity to speak to you briefly about the significant developments in my department this past year – particularly in controlling expenses -- and the profound obstacles that the actions of the Governor and the state legislature have put before us as we work to maintain public safety in Haddonfield.

In the spring, we negotiated a new, four year contract with our police officers union, the PBA, on terms very favorable to the Borough. The first year has no increase in salaries and the average increase over the life of the contract is only 1.5% per year. The union also agreed to an increase in prescription co-pays and a major adjustment in the sick leave policy in favor of the borough. I cannot stress strongly enough how responsible and public spirited I found the attitude of our officers union to be in this time of crisis.

Just within the past week, we commenced a joint services arrangement with Audubon to share Municipal Court services at a substantial savings for Haddonfield. All of our cases will now be heard in the Audubon Municipal Court. We have a fixed, three year agreement with Audubon to provide these services for an annual flat fee. The first year’s fee will be $37,500 and will increase to $40,000 during the life of the contract. The continued operation of our own independent court would have cost more than $120,000 this year, so that even with some expected increase in police overtime as a result of officers going to Audubon to testify, we will realize over $60,000 in savings every year.

When I became a Commissioner in 2005, the Police Department had 29 full time employees, comprised of 25 sworn officers, a parking enforcement officer, one civilian clerk and two part time civilian employees. Since that time, I have made personnel cuts each year in order to minimize tax increases. We now have 23 employees, six less than 2005, comprised of 21 officers (4 less), a parking enforcement officer and a clerk. This year, we were forced to do away with the position of School Resource Officer, eliminating an important prevention link to our students and ending the DARE program after more than 30 years. We often hear bombast from Trenton about how local and school officials do not control increases in cost. The budget of the Department of Public Safety in 2005 was $3,462,000. My department’s 2010 budget, five years later, was $3,419,000. That’s $43,000 less in real American dollars.

But even with these very significant cost-cutting measures, I am quite concerned about the public safety challenges we face in 2011 and the resources we will bring to bear.

You are well aware that we had a significant increase in residential and commercial burglaries last year, particularly toward the end of the year. The first weeks of January show no letup.

Nonetheless, the nonsensical 2% state cap law forces us to find $750,000 in cuts a proposed borough budget of about $14 million which has no new personnel, programs or services and already has major privatization initiatives. If we are forced to decrease police personnel this year, the next thing that is likely to go is our two officer detective bureau. Haddonfield would become a town, like some others, which simply does not have officers assigned to investigate crimes.

So why do I tell you this? It is to explain that these initiatives from Governor Christie that many seem to favor have serious, tangible effects in Haddonfield and in every town in the state. I would like to hope that we will not see a decrease in the number of officers on Haddonfield’s streets in a year when break-ins are on the rise and when Camden is laying off half of its police department, and I will do my best to prevent it. But we are all in this together. When the state administration cuts state aid, mandates increases in expenses, and then tells us to find $750,000 in cuts, you will see the effects in our community