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The town of Kearny has place GPS location devices in every town vehicle. (police cars, fire, dpw, even the street sweepers) Does anyone know, 1) how much each of these devices cost to buy and install, 2) how much does the service cost to have the system up and running? 3) How many town vehicles does the town of kearny have?

In the history of the town of Kearny there has been zero thefts of town vehicles. How does the town justify spending tax dollars on items we do not need? I wonder what company got the contract do install and run these systems? I would guess there is some connection to friends in town hall.

The town also installed hand scanners for all town employees to scan in and out. How many hand scanners have been bought and installed? how much have they cost for both? how much has the service and upkeep of the devices cost the town so far?

It would be interesting to see if there is some connection between the companies with the GPS and the handscanners . Someone is going to owe some political favors i think. Why when the town is trying to save money were these two things implemented? Aren't we supposed to be cutting back?

Please dont turn this post into a bashing of the mayor, or the police or fire departments, or business administrator..I would really like someone who knows to try and answer the total costs of these systems, and what was the thinking behind buying all this stuff. It really makes no sense. Not only have no vehicles have ever been stolen, but GPS is discoverable which means if a town employee gets into a motor vehicle accident, the records can be pulled to see how fast the fire truck was going, direction ect. so there go lawsuits which will cost the town money. Are the GPS used to find out where employees are to catch them slacking off work? if so isn't that what the town pays supervisors for? why pay them extra money if they aren't doing there job.

It all looks like they are just shady deals done by a certain few who wanted to sell out big contracts to friends. Prove me wrong.

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The town of Kearny has place GPS location devices in every town vehicle. (police cars, fire, dpw, even the street sweepers) Does anyone know, 1) how much each of these devices cost to buy and install, 2) how much does the service cost to have the system up and running? 3) How many town vehicles does the town of kearny have?

In the history of the town of Kearny there has been zero thefts of town vehicles. How does the town justify spending tax dollars on items we do not need? I wonder what company got the contract do install and run these systems? I would guess there is some connection to friends in town hall.

The town also installed hand scanners for all town employees to scan in and out. How many hand scanners have been bought and installed? how much have they cost for both? how much has the service and upkeep of the devices cost the town so far?

It would be interesting to see if there is some connection between the companies with the GPS and the handscanners . Someone is going to owe some political favors i think. Why when the town is trying to save money were these two things implemented? Aren't we supposed to be cutting back?

Please dont turn this post into a bashing of the mayor, or the police or fire departments, or business administrator..I would really like someone who knows to try and answer the total costs of these systems, and what was the thinking behind buying all this stuff. It really makes no sense. Not only have no vehicles have ever been stolen, but GPS is discoverable which means if a town employee gets into a motor vehicle accident, the records can be pulled to see how fast the fire truck was going, direction ect. so there go lawsuits which will cost the town money. Are the GPS used to find out where employees are to catch them slacking off work? if so isn't that what the town pays supervisors for? why pay them extra money if they aren't doing there job.

It all looks like they are just shady deals done by a certain few who wanted to sell out big contracts to friends. Prove me wrong.

You can thank the teacher for the hand scanner; the town tried to put them there and somehow they had the power to refuse them and the town got stuck with it. Honestly I don’t know how they got away from that. As for the gps and hand scanner, I don’t know any town that doesn’t have them. The scanner are in warrant so if one of them fails all they have to do is call it in and it’s replaced for them for free. As far as big contract, the scanners are from ADP, so it seems unlikely that there were any shady deals (ADP is a large payroll company and not a mom and pap company). As for supervising, the dpw has about 100 employees, it’s unrealistic to monitor them all the time so the gps helps. If you see an employee out of town while he suppose to be working all you have to do is get a pic or better video and he so fired, nice motivation to do your work.

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The town of Kearny has place GPS location devices in every town vehicle. (police cars, fire, dpw, even the street sweepers) Does anyone know, 1) how much each of these devices cost to buy and install, 2) how much does the service cost to have the system up and running? 3) How many town vehicles does the town of kearny have?

In the history of the town of Kearny there has been zero thefts of town vehicles. How does the town justify spending tax dollars on items we do not need? I wonder what company got the contract do install and run these systems? I would guess there is some connection to friends in town hall.

The town also installed hand scanners for all town employees to scan in and out. How many hand scanners have been bought and installed? how much have they cost for both? how much has the service and upkeep of the devices cost the town so far?

It would be interesting to see if there is some connection between the companies with the GPS and the handscanners . Someone is going to owe some political favors i think. Why when the town is trying to save money were these two things implemented? Aren't we supposed to be cutting back?

Please dont turn this post into a bashing of the mayor, or the police or fire departments, or business administrator..I would really like someone who knows to try and answer the total costs of these systems, and what was the thinking behind buying all this stuff. It really makes no sense. Not only have no vehicles have ever been stolen, but GPS is discoverable which means if a town employee gets into a motor vehicle accident, the records can be pulled to see how fast the fire truck was going, direction ect. so there go lawsuits which will cost the town money. Are the GPS used to find out where employees are to catch them slacking off work? if so isn't that what the town pays supervisors for? why pay them extra money if they aren't doing there job.

It all looks like they are just shady deals done by a certain few who wanted to sell out big contracts to friends. Prove me wrong.

I am not sure on the cost, but the GPS was installed to keep track of where each vehicle is and where they have been, there have been cases where the town workers have been out of town with the vehicles on company time, doing personal business so they wanted to stop that. as far as the supervisors go, there are too many employees to follow each and everyone. The supervisors job, is to oversee the work being done and to make sure it is done correctly and completed. Some of the supervisors even do the mannual work along side the employees. The hand scanners were installed to make sure that no one but that employee clocks in & out, it is a common practice used by many companies, where ther is a question of who clocked in for someone else,that is either late or just not there. In the long run, the town is saving money with these devices. So there really isn't any secrecy going on.

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I am not sure on the cost, but the GPS was installed to keep track of where each vehicle is and where they have been, there have been cases where the town workers have been out of town with the vehicles on company time, doing personal business so they wanted to stop that. as far as the supervisors go, there are too many employees to follow each and everyone. The supervisors job, is to oversee the work being done and to make sure it is done correctly and completed. Some of the supervisors even do the mannual work along side the employees. The hand scanners were installed to make sure that no one but that employee clocks in & out, it is a common practice used by many companies, where ther is a question of who clocked in for someone else,that is either late or just not there. In the long run, the town is saving money with these devices. So there really isn't any secrecy going on.

So because someone in another town took a town vehicle out of town and did private business, the town of kearny justifies spending all that money to put tracking devices in all their vehicles? how many vehicles are there? i would say atleast 200..

Who is keeping track of where vehicles have been? its illegal in NJ for a civilian to observe tracking devices on police vehicles...Look it up if you dont believe me.. So the town is wasting money.

Ok, so lets say there is one employee who is scanning out early or coming to work late, how then is the town saving money by having that person scan in? what you are saying makes no sense at all.

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You can thank the teacher for the hand scanner; the town tried to put them there and somehow they had the power to refuse them and the town got stuck with it. Honestly I don’t know how they got away from that. As for the gps and hand scanner, I don’t know any town that doesn’t have them. The scanner are in warrant so if one of them fails all they have to do is call it in and it’s replaced for them for free. As far as big contract, the scanners are from ADP, so it seems unlikely that there were any shady deals (ADP is a large payroll company and not a mom and pap company). As for supervising, the dpw has about 100 employees, it’s unrealistic to monitor them all the time so the gps helps. If you see an employee out of town while he suppose to be working all you have to do is get a pic or better video and he so fired, nice motivation to do your work.

im sorry , but if your supervisors can't control there employees then you fire or punish the supervisors you dont spend money for machines to keep track of employees that are supposed to be doing their job. thats the whole point of having superviors.. if not they would just be employees. If you have a town employee out of town when they are supposed to be working then fire them, i still dont see the justification for spending money to babysit adults who are at work...how can i be the only one here that thinks that is insane. you get paid to go to work, you people act like there is some huge conspiracy against the town where all the employees are trying to get over or something.

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You can thank the teacher for the hand scanner; the town tried to put them there and somehow they had the power to refuse them and the town got stuck with it. Honestly I don’t know how they got away from that. As for the gps and hand scanner, I don’t know any town that doesn’t have them. The scanner are in warrant so if one of them fails all they have to do is call it in and it’s replaced for them for free. As far as big contract, the scanners are from ADP, so it seems unlikely that there were any shady deals (ADP is a large payroll company and not a mom and pap company). As for supervising, the dpw has about 100 employees, it’s unrealistic to monitor them all the time so the gps helps. If you see an employee out of town while he suppose to be working all you have to do is get a pic or better video and he so fired, nice motivation to do your work.

The hand scanners cost 35,000 each. The town purchased them. They did not get stuck with them. They were purchased from a private company and are not from ADP.

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looks like im gonna have to find out for myself..its gotta be public record right? I dont even know how i would go about getting information like that.

Go to the Clerk's office and make an OPRA request for a copy of the purchase order for the hand scanners and gps system. If you would like to remain anonymous (by law you do not have to give a name when you make an OPRA request) You can email your request to the Clerk. You do not have to give your name. The link for the form is http://www.kearnynj.org/forms/opraform.pdf. Download the form fill in the information and email your request.

There is no charge for electronic documents since there is no copy being made.

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looks like im gonna have to find out for myself..its gotta be public record right? I dont even know how i would go about getting information like that.

Email address for OPRA request.

jdarco@kearnynj.org

If you do not get a response and or the document within seven days contact below.

In order to request access to government records under OPRA, you must complete all the required portions of and date this request form and deliver it in person during regular business hours or by mail, fax or electronically to the appropriate custodian of the record requested.

If it is necessary for the records custodian to contact you concerning your request, providing identifying information, such as your name, address and telephone number or an e-mail address is required. Where contact is not necessary, anonymous requests are permitted; except that anonymous requests for personal information are not honored.

Except as otherwise provided by law or by agreement with the requester, if the custodian of the record requested fails to respond to you within seven business days of receiving a request form, the failure to respond will be considered a denial of your request.

If your request for access to a government record has been denied or unfilled within the time permitted by law, you have a right to challenge the decision by the Name of Agency to deny access. At your option, you may either institute a proceeding in the Superior Court of New Jersey or file a complaint in writing with the Government Records Council (GRC). You may contact the GRC by toll-free telephone at 866-850-0511, by mail at PO Box 819, Trenton, NJ, 08625, by e-mail at grc@dca.state.nj.us, or at their web site at www.state.nj.us/grc. The Council can also answer other questions about the law.

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The town of Kearny has place GPS location devices in every town vehicle. (police cars, fire, dpw, even the street sweepers) Does anyone know, 1) how much each of these devices cost to buy and install, 2) how much does the service cost to have the system up and running? 3) How many town vehicles does the town of kearny have?

In the history of the town of Kearny there has been zero thefts of town vehicles. How does the town justify spending tax dollars on items we do not need? I wonder what company got the contract do install and run these systems? I would guess there is some connection to friends in town hall.

The town also installed hand scanners for all town employees to scan in and out. How many hand scanners have been bought and installed? how much have they cost for both? how much has the service and upkeep of the devices cost the town so far?

It would be interesting to see if there is some connection between the companies with the GPS and the handscanners . Someone is going to owe some political favors i think. Why when the town is trying to save money were these two things implemented? Aren't we supposed to be cutting back?

Please dont turn this post into a bashing of the mayor, or the police or fire departments, or business administrator..I would really like someone who knows to try and answer the total costs of these systems, and what was the thinking behind buying all this stuff. It really makes no sense. Not only have no vehicles have ever been stolen, but GPS is discoverable which means if a town employee gets into a motor vehicle accident, the records can be pulled to see how fast the fire truck was going, direction ect. so there go lawsuits which will cost the town money. Are the GPS used to find out where employees are to catch them slacking off work? if so isn't that what the town pays supervisors for? why pay them extra money if they aren't doing there job.

It all looks like they are just shady deals done by a certain few who wanted to sell out big contracts to friends. Prove me wrong.

What an odd question? Doesn’t every town have GPS and Hand scanners? You should ask why the teachers at Kearny don’t have them.

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What an odd question? Doesn’t every town have GPS and Hand scanners? You should ask why the teachers at Kearny don’t have them.

The teachers don't have them and don't need them because they are an unnecessaryexpense. They tried to install them because a BOE member didn't like the fact that he had to use them at his town job.

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The hand scanners cost 35,000 each. The town purchased them. They did not get stuck with them. They were purchased from a private company and are not from ADP.

To dispel rumors the hand scanner didn’t cost 35k, and we use ADP. Every township that I work for or even visited has hand scanner, and GPS on their cars, and the town employee did get stuck with them. It was suppose to go the teacher, as for exact cost you can fill out an opra from http://www.kearnynj.org/forms/opraform.pdf .

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So because someone in another town took a town vehicle out of town and did private business, the town of kearny justifies spending all that money to put tracking devices in all their vehicles? how many vehicles are there? i would say atleast 200..

Who is keeping track of where vehicles have been? its illegal in NJ for a civilian to observe tracking devices on police vehicles...Look it up if you dont believe me.. So the town is wasting money.

Ok, so lets say there is one employee who is scanning out early or coming to work late, how then is the town saving money by having that person scan in? what you are saying makes no sense at all.

Well just think about it for a minute, if an employee is caught where they shouldn't be, then he will be docked for that time, if someone scans in late then he is not paid for that time. Do you think for a minute that puching in for someone else is fantasy? Well your wrong, I have seen it for myself, a coworker calls a buddy and says " Im gonna be late, clock me in" or they take a longer break then authorized, we are not living in a perfect world and these things do go on, and yes it has happened in this town, a worker being in a local mall when he was suppose to be on the job.

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Well just think about it for a minute, if an employee is caught where they shouldn't be, then he will be docked for that time, if someone scans in late then he is not paid for that time. Do you think for a minute that puching in for someone else is fantasy? Well your wrong, I have seen it for myself, a coworker calls a buddy and says " Im gonna be late, clock me in" or they take a longer break then authorized, we are not living in a perfect world and these things do go on, and yes it has happened in this town, a worker being in a local mall when he was suppose to be on the job.

lol..So the town feels that because someone calls someone and says" hey can u punch me in, im gonna be a few minutes late" they are justified in spending thousands of dollars? lol what a joke, wouldn't it be easier to have their immediate supervisor report them or write them up for being late? my point is if your paying a supervisor money to supervise then let them supervise. The other post hit the nail on the head, if they weren't supposed to keep track of their workers, then they would just be regular workers themselves not supervisors.. The way i see it, is Darco doesn't trust the supervisors in the DPW. Thats why he wants hand scanners and gpd tracking devises..lol..

So lets get this straight..The town spends thousands of dollars to catch people not working.

Town employee or Mr. Darco. As of the installation of your brilliant Watchdog technologies how many employees have been docked pay? lol...im guessing its not going to add up to thousands of dollars of savings for the town..So please give a better answer then someone got caught at the mall...Only an idiot would justify spending all that money for one incident like that.

I see the mayors county vehicle parked at town hall. Why is he using his county vehicle when not on county business? hmm..See normally i wouldn't care, but since the town is making a big stink about nothing it should go both ways. Also someone should tell the mayor its illegal to drive and talk on the cell phone which he does on a normal basis.

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I would venture that the more compelling reasons the administrator decided to go with the GPS are due to his need for control, mistrust and the view that town employees are slackers and freeloaders.

The cost of the GPS system and the vendor(s) selected can be obtained through OPRA; whether the system went out for public bid should also questioned in the OPRA request. Like most fleet GPS, I’m sure that the vehicles can be monitored and tracked from a PC or laptop, if the appropriate software is installed.

The town seems to have a very large fleet of vehicles: between DPW, the construction department, the health department, the water department, the police and fire departments, recreation and administration there seem to be a significant number of vehicles.

What one perceives as unnecessary, government can always justified as needed, so the why for spending is difficult to ascertain.

I have been told that the hand scanners did cost money to purchase and install even though it’s tied to the ADP system. What that cost was and what the cost may be to maintain and process the data could probably be obtained through OPRA.

From what I’ve observed over the past few years, the supervisors act as nothing more than figureheads, not exercising much authority; authority and oversight appears to be exerted more by the administrator than the department head.

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Well just think about it for a minute, if an employee is caught where they shouldn't be, then he will be docked for that time, if someone scans in late then he is not paid for that time. Do you think for a minute that puching in for someone else is fantasy? Well your wrong, I have seen it for myself, a coworker calls a buddy and says " Im gonna be late, clock me in" or they take a longer break then authorized, we are not living in a perfect world and these things do go on, and yes it has happened in this town, a worker being in a local mall when he was suppose to be on the job.

It's a hand scanner, how can you punch in with a different hand?

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The teachers don't have them and don't need them because they are an unnecessaryexpense. They tried to install them because a BOE member didn't like the fact that he had to use them at his town job.

Are you kidding me, the teacher here are a joke. They leave early here all the time. What town doesn’t have hand scanner? Do you know any job that employees more than 100 people and doesn’t have hand scanner.

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I would venture that the more compelling reasons the administrator decided to go with the GPS are due to his need for control, mistrust and the view that town employees are slackers and freeloaders.

The cost of the GPS system and the vendor(s) selected can be obtained through OPRA; whether the system went out for public bid should also questioned in the OPRA request. Like most fleet GPS, I’m sure that the vehicles can be monitored and tracked from a PC or laptop, if the appropriate software is installed.

The town seems to have a very large fleet of vehicles: between DPW, the construction department, the health department, the water department, the police and fire departments, recreation and administration there seem to be a significant number of vehicles.

What one perceives as unnecessary, government can always justified as needed, so the why for spending is difficult to ascertain.

I have been told that the hand scanners did cost money to purchase and install even though it’s tied to the ADP system. What that cost was and what the cost may be to maintain and process the data could probably be obtained through OPRA.

From what I’ve observed over the past few years, the supervisors act as nothing more than figureheads, not exercising much authority; authority and oversight appears to be exerted more by the administrator than the department head.

you are totally right, there gotta be like 300 vehicles total for all the departments. Thats a lot of GPS units. That had to cost a fortune, and for what? to be able to tell where the vehicle is..Do we misplace firetrucks on a daily basis that they need to be tracked? give me a break. Who has access to this information? Is it the mayor? Business administrator? Shouldn't both of them be doing their jobs instead of looking to see where the street cleaner vehicle 1 is at 10am. If they have that much free time, maybe they aren't doing their jobs correctly. I just dont see the benefit. The mayor or business administrator should tell exactly what all these things cost the town and what they continue to cost the town and why we need them. But they won't because both of them have no ba$$s. I would respect a guy more if they came out and just said that they mistrust everyone and are on a power trip.

The worst part is, the mayor and business administrator are temporary employees. They aren't putting in 30 years like the rest of the town employees.. what a joke.. Thats what you get for hiring out of towners...The mayor says he lives in town but id guess he spends most of his time in newark. And the B.A. well, im pretty sure nobody likes him in town, which is a terrible thing.

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The teachers don't have them and don't need them because they are an unnecessaryexpense. They tried to install them because a BOE member didn't like the fact that he had to use them at his town job.

Why, what makes teacher better than everyone else? Does D'Arco scan and all other town personnel. Then teachers and the Board of Ed should too. What makes them special? Do we pay their salaries or are they paid by the state. If we pay, they should be treated equally, like the rest. :excl::excl::excl::excl::excl::excl::excl::excl::excl::excl::excl:

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It's a hand scanner, how can you punch in with a different hand?

I was talking about the difference of a hand scanner and a regulat time clock, that in the past workers could punch in for others, now it is impossible.

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Are you kidding me, the teacher here are a joke. They leave early here all the time. What town doesn’t have hand scanner? Do you know any job that employees more than 100 people and doesn’t have hand scanner.

actually, and im being 100% honest here. I know two people that can scan each other in and out. Dont ask me why it works for them but it does. i have seen it with my own eyes. They dont do it, but i have seen it done.

the hand scanner doesn't check fingerprints. i think it scans the size and shape maybe? either way, there are two people who it works for, id imagine there are more. but they are the few.

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Are you kidding me, the teacher here are a joke. They leave early here all the time. What town doesn’t have hand scanner? Do you know any job that employees more than 100 people and doesn’t have hand scanner.

Are you kidding me? If the teachers are leaving early all of the time who is in the classroom with the students?

As a matter of fact the company that I work for employs about 4000 people and each person types in their hours on a computer time sheet on our website.

Sounds like you're a teacher wannabe and very jealous.

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Are you kidding me? If the teachers are leaving early all of the time who is in the classroom with the students?

As a matter of fact the company that I work for employs about 4000 people and each person types in their hours on a computer time sheet on our website.

Sounds like you're a teacher wannabe and very jealous.

Lol that great that they TYPE it in, but how accurate is it hmmm… maybe if they scanned in it would be accurate. Also as far as the question of teachers being in the classroom, first go after school and actually see how many of them are after school. Do a roll call during the day and you’ll be surprise how many of them can’t be found.

As far as the wannabe teacher, no thank you. I was in the school system here, spent 5 years in esl, can’t even write and read Portuguese. I had so much fun try to learn all the science and math class that I was suppose to know but didn’t because of being stuck in esl. That teacher later became a Principal. Also a current Principal was promoted from a gym teacher, that’s great I can see nothing every changes. So if you think I’m jealous or wannabe teacher then explain to me how great these teachers are.

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Lol that great that they TYPE it in, but how accurate is it hmmm… maybe if they scanned in it would be accurate. Also as far as the question of teachers being in the classroom, first go after school and actually see how many of them are after school. Do a roll call during the day and you’ll be surprise how many of them can’t be found.

As far as the wannabe teacher, no thank you. I was in the school system here, spent 5 years in esl, can’t even write and read Portuguese. I had so much fun try to learn all the science and math class that I was suppose to know but didn’t because of being stuck in esl. That teacher later became a Principal. Also a current Principal was promoted from a gym teacher, that’s great I can see nothing every changes. So if you think I’m jealous or wannabe teacher then explain to me how great these teachers are.

Great job teacher, not only won’t you punch in on a hand scanner but you seem to be goofing off. Look at last Wednesday observer all the surrounding town score have gone up, except Kearny. If 50% of our taxes are going to public education can you at least make an effort? It’s funny how everyone so concerned about gps and hand scanner but 50% is miss spent and nothing is said.

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