Westfield Not Looking to Copy Fanwood on DPW Outsourcing Plan

Last month's decision by the Fanwood Borough Council to sign an agreement with a union hall in Elizabeth that would give the town access to currently unemployed union workers for small capital projects is unlikely to be copied in Westfield.

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr said her town has capital funds available; however with a public works department that includes just six employees, there is often a shortage of manpower to tackle capital projects among the standard maintenance required to keep the town up and running as the reasons behind the community's decision to enter into the agreement.

Westfield Councilman Mark Ciarrocca, the chairman of the Council's finance committee, said the Westfield Town Council has not discussed a proposal similar to Fanwood's, in light of the town's current fiscal crisis.

"We have our full time public works folks and at this point we've chosen to move forward with them," he said.

"There are benefits to Westfield doing it this way—we have our employees and it's consistent."

According to Ciarrocca, Westfield's Department of Public Works boasts 25-30 workers, as Westfield has a population of roughly 30,000 as compared to Fanwood's 8,000.

Westfield Mayor Andy Skibitsky said that opposite to Fanwood, "We don't have the luxury of having capital money right now and nobody to do the work."

By agreeing to a DPW pay freeze this year as well as five unpaid furlough days, Ciarrocca said, the department has been able to avoid layoffs. The one year DPW pay freeze is similar to one the town negotiated with firefighters in a new contract.

Skibitsky said that most of Westfield's capital public works projects are road related, and it is much more practical to bid such projects out to contractors who have the right equipment.

"I think it works if you have a project that your employees would be doing," Skibitsky said. However, in Westfield's case because of their substantially larger public works department, they can afford to have employees doing those jobs.

Ciarrocca said that he sees public works moving toward another direction: that of joint public and private initiatives. He said the Westfield Baseball League has had success working in that manner.

The Fanwood plan will allow for the small borough to activate temporary workers by placing a phone call and have additional equipped union workers onsite almost immediately. This is especially useful in times of emergency, like a flood or blizzard, when more hands may be required. Fanwood also expressed the desire to give those unemployed union members who are Fanwood residents priority on jobs, thereby stimulated their local economy.

Westfield's mayor said that while the idea seems simple at first glance, it may not be as it's studied.

"What I always find with these ideas," Skibitsky said regarding Fanwood's plan, "is that the devil is in the details."

Despite that, Skibitsky went on to say "As long as the work is being done in an efficient and proper manner and the tax payers are getting capital projects done at a fair price, I don't see why we would look into it."