COURIER-POST STAFF- AUGUST 2, 2010

With construction permit revenue way down, Glo. Twp. must cut department's budget.

Gloucester Township, one of South Jersey's most populous communities, isn't seeing much construction these days. In fact, most towns aren't. It's the product of being mostly built out and the poor economy.

So when Mayor Dave Mayer looks at the township's construction inspection department, he sees a problem. The department was projected to bring in $700,000 in construction permit fees for the township last year but only brought in $300,000. The department's budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was $642,000. Something's got to give. It's a shortfall that could continue indefinitely, as township business administrator Tom Cardis wrote in a letter to the state Civil Service Commission.

Mayer's plan is the fiscally responsible thing to do: He wants to eliminate the six inspector jobs -- keeping only a township code official and the two department clerks -- and hire a private company to do all the building code inspections for the township. The private company would earn its money by getting a percentage of every construction permit fee collected.

There are other options available -- sharing these services with neighboring towns and a plan offered by building inspector Sal Giambri that would eliminate only two jobs but reduce hours for the inspectors. But we can see the logic in pursuing privatization.

Gloucester Township's days of seeing multiple large building projects at once may be over, as there isn't much land left. And by eliminating these six positions, the township saves not just on salaries, but also on the cost of health care, benefits and pension contributions. With a private company, the township wouldn't have to worry about those costs.

For these reasons, cutting some in-house staff and privatizing makes sense.

However, township residents would have reason to question the mayor's specifics for the plan if building inspector Bernard Shepherd is among the staff retained. Shepherd will have his construction license suspended in September for six months because of ethics violations. The state called for his license to be revoked in 2008 after finding that Shepherd violated conflict of interest rules by approving K. Hovnanian's construction of 17 homes at the same time the builder did work on Shepherd's Harrison Township home in 2003 and 2004. Investigators didn't specify how much, if anything, Shepherd paid the builder.

If an inspector or inspectors are kept on, those with spotless ethics records should be first in line to stay.

The township council is scheduled to have a work session tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the municipal building and Mayer said he's open to negotiation and will listen to Giambri's proposal. Township residents who want to offer their ideas should go tonight and make their voices heard on this issue.