Representatives from the Tabernacle Rescue Squad are opposed to the idea.
Tabernacle Township Committee voted 3–2 to introduce an ordinance the next town hall meeting that would create a Department of Public Safety. The department would be headed by a newly created position called public safety director and would preside over both the Tabernacle Rescue Squad and the Tabernacle Fire Company.
Committeemen Joseph Yates and Joseph Barton and Mayor Stephen Lee voted in favor of the ordinance. Committeewoman Kim Brown and Committeeman Richard Franzen voted against.
Representatives from Tabernacle Rescue Squad, including Chief George Jackson and EMS Captain Steve Cramer, both of whom were present at the meeting, objected to the ordinance. Their opposition to the ordinance lies primarily within the following line: “The Tabernacle Township Department of Public Safety, in order to support the provision of emergency services and the volunteer companies serving the township, shall bill for ambulance and transportation and other services provided by the emergency service entities operating within the Township.”
Currently, the TRS bills for ambulance and transportation itself, which is how it makes money to fund its fleet of ambulances and other medical equipment. According to the language in the ordinance, that policy would change. Instead of TRS conducting its own billing, the town committee — under the direction of the newly created Department of Public Safety — would do it for them. As a result, the department would take in that revenue. Jackson feels that would allow the department to put TRS’ revenue into a pot it would share with the fire company. As a result, according to Jackson, if, for instance, the TRS needed a new ambulance, it would have to ask the public safety director for the funds. Because the funds are put into a pot the TRS shares with the fire company, it’s possible the TRS might be denied those funds if, say, the public safety director determines those funds might be better allocated for funding a new tanker for the fire company.
Lee responded during the council meeting, saying “that’s not how it would work.” A few seconds later, Lee, saying he didn’t want to “go through the conversation [I had with Jackson] the other night,” abruptly ended the public discussion portion of the meeting.
Lee feels the newly created department would make matters more efficient.
“We have the opportunity where we have a strong organization with the rescue squad, which has been built with taxpayer money, and we have a fire company that has been built with taxpayer money. Now we have an opportunity to be able to put a structure in place to have a person and the leadership of both organizations to run emergency services. And not just sit here and have meeting after meeting to talk about what to do next,” Lee said.
In a phone call after the meeting, Lee explained the township’s administrator, Doug Cramer, “has a lot of jobs.” These jobs include being the director of public works, recycling coordinator, and “a liaison between the rescue squad and fire company” in addition to being the township administrator.
The creation of a Department of Public Safety would “take some of that responsibility away from him,” Lee said in a phone call the next day.
Still, the rescue squad sees the opportunity as a money grab.
“It seems like you’re looking at just the perspective of the money rolling in and not the people who are putting the ambulance on the street over 700 times so far this year so that you can have that billing,” added Cramer during one of the public comment portions of the meeting.
In other news, council deliberated whether it was interested in purchasing land at the corner of Carranza and Chatsworth roads. The land would be used to build a new town hall. Council decided it would first talk to the Pinelands Commission about the land before moving forward on the potential project. Council also agreed that renovating the current town hall was also still on the table.
