April 27, 2012 Hon.

Chad Goerner, Mayor Members, Princeton Township Committee 400 Witherspoon Street Princeton, NJ 08540 Re: Police Promotions Dear Mayor Goerner and Members of Township Committee: We received a communication from Mayor Goerner and Deputy Mayor Lempert expressing your concern about the seniority of your ranking police staff. We discussed this memo at the Boroughs Public Safety and Personnel Committees, and we respectfully ask that you take no such action that would interfere with the important work of the TTF we appointed. With the advent of consolidation, the selection of the leadership of any municipal department (and particularly the police department) will directly and substantially affect the management of the new Princeton. Therefore, the selection must be done in a careful and rational process. The Townships expressed interest in the promotion of individual staff has articulated no such process. Rather, it suggests a desire to assert, for unsubstantiated reasons, a Township claim to the selection of a new Chief of Police for the new Princeton. The strategy of using promotions effectively raises the salary of staff at a time when it is in our collective interest to hold constant our costs to promote the greatest savings in consolidation. In particular to your interest in promoting a policeman to Acting Township Chief while carrying the costs associated, it is our understanding that the position and the title remains filled and on the books to years end. At a time when we are consolidating police departments to achieve savings for our taxpayers, it would be illogical to saddle the new Princeton with unwarranted police costs. The personnel subcommittee of the transition task force is in the process of recommending procedures for joint municipal implementation in the selection of department leadership. As they have outlined, that review should include experience, performance, disciplinary record, and lastly, seniority. Any attempts to arbitrary elevate or promote staff, absent meeting all of these criteria, would be a subversion of the process, undefensible in court, and a disservice to our citizens.

Hon. Chad Goerner et al. April 27, 2012 Page Two

The borough recognizes that there are experts on the personnel subcommittee whose advice, if allowed to be delivered without prejudice, we should all respect. We are also cognizant of recent controversies in Township management of personnel matters, in particular to the police department, which give us pause. We are averse to putting our joint selection process at risk for mere territorial suggestions or fear of what your memo describes as a potential for takeover. In the circumstances, we ask that if you desire to change the management of the Township police department during the pendency of consolidation, you seek the assistance of the Mercer County Prosecutor and Princeton Borough in making those decisions and that you defer any unilateral action that might impose a management, safety or financial risk to the residents of the future Princeton.

Sincerely yours,

Yina Moore, Mayor

YM/dw cc: Mercer County Prosecutor Princeton Borough Council Robert Bruschi, Administrator