As reported bynj.com, with a 4-0 vote, Lawrence became the first town in New Jersey to privatize its 911 police dispatching services, a move township officials said would save up to $1.1 million over five years and enhance public safety. The decision was fiercely opposed by current dispatchers and some residents who said not enough is known about the pay, benefits, and training that Cranbury-based iXP Corp., the winning bidder, would offer the dispatchers it hires.

Council members said they acted with public safety in mind. Only five dispatching jobs are filled out of nine positions, and police are routinely pulled off the job to help out. “Our population has gone up and our police have not gone up with that growth. We’ve had to do more with less,” Councilman Michael Powers said. “It’s not an easy decision or a decision I’m happy about.”

iXP Corp. won a two-year contract paying $719,400 a year to run the police department’s emergency dispatching service. The Council’s decision came after last-minute talks with the dispatchers’ union, who offered to renegotiate their contract with Lawrence in order to compete with iXP’s bid. “It’s been a really, really tough few months-I just ask you to please give it thought,” dispatcher and union vice president Susan Handelman said. “None of us want to leave. We’re all happy-we get along so well with each other.” She also said a vote for iXP would be only a short-term gain for the township.

Overall, iXP’s bid was about $1.1 million cheaper over five years when including costs such as having police officers fill in when dispatchers are absent, but without those costs it was cheaper by a slim margin to keep the dispatchers in-house.

Officials from iXP have said their recruiting and training practices produce reliable employees. Workers undergo background checks as well as hundreds of hours of training and ride-alongs with police. In their first year, those hired by iXP would earn the equivalent of the dispatchers salaries currently paid by Lawrence, through a combination of iXP’s starting salary and a sign-on bonus. Employees would also be eligible for quarterly and performance-based bonuses of $700 to more than $3,000 a year.

Lawrence is not the first community in the area to explore privatization of emergency communications. Officials in Princeton considered the idea last year but dropped it due to time constraints and officials’ heavy workload ahead of the January 1 consolidation of the two former Princetons.

Tags: Articles, dispatch, dispatching services, iXP, lawrence, privatization, shared services
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Photo of Donald C. Barbati Donald C. Barbati

Donald C. Barbati is a shareholder of Crivelli, Barbati & DeRose, L.L.C. His primary practice revolves around the representation of numerous public employee labor unions in various capacities to include contract negotiation, unfair labor practice litigation, contract grievance arbitration, and other diverse issues…

Donald C. Barbati is a shareholder of Crivelli, Barbati & DeRose, L.L.C. His primary practice revolves around the representation of numerous public employee labor unions in various capacities to include contract negotiation, unfair labor practice litigation, contract grievance arbitration, and other diverse issues litigated before the courts and administrative tribunals throughout the State of New Jersey. In addition, Mr. Barbati also routinely represents individuals in various types of public pension appeals, real estate transactions, and general litigation matters. He is a frequent contributor to the New Jersey Public Safety Officers Law Blog, a free legal publication designed to keep New Jersey public safety officers up-to-date and informed about legal issues pertinent to their profession. During his years of practice, Mr. Barbati has established a reputation for achieving favorable results for his clients in a cost-efficient manner.

Mr. Barbati has also handled numerous novel legal issues while representing New Jersey Public Safety Officers. Most notably, he served as lead counsel for the Appellants in the published case In re Rodriguez, 423 N.J. Super. 440 (App. Div. 2011). In that case, Mr. Barbati successfully argued on behalf of the Appellants, thereby overturning the Attorney General’s denial of counsel to two prison guards in a civil rights suit arising from an inmate assault. In the process, the Court clarified the standard to be utilized by the Attorney General in assessing whether a public employee is entitled to legal representation and mandated that reliance must be placed on up-to-date information.

Prior to becoming a practicing attorney, Mr. Barbati served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Linda R. Feinberg, Assignment Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Mercer Vicinage. During his clerkship Mr. Barbati handled numerous complex and novel substantive and procedural issues arising from complaints in lieu of prerogative writs, orders to show cause, and motion practice. These include appeals from decisions by planning and zoning boards and local government bodies, bidding challenges under the Local Public Contract Law, Open Public Records Act requests, the taking of private property under the eminent domain statute, and election law disputes. In addition, Mr. Barbati, as a certified mediator, mediated many small claims disputes in the Special Civil Part.

Mr. Barbati received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, magna cum laude, from Rider University in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Upon graduating, Mr. Barbati attended Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware. In 2007, he received his juris doctorate, magna cum laude, graduating in the top five percent of his class. During law school, Mr. Barbati interned for the Honorable Joseph E. Irenas, Senior United States District Court Judge for the District of New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey, assisting on various constitutional, employment, and Third Circuit Court of Appeals litigation, including numerous civil rights, social security, and immigration cases.

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