Tonight the Oaklyn Borough council dealt what should be the final blow to the Cappelli-Maley-Kakso Colonial Alliance Police Study, which critics and some elected officials have called (perhaps rightfully so) the first step of a backdoor plan to expand the Camden County Metro Police Department countywide. As of today, only the City of Camden is under the thumb of Lou Cappelli and the Camden County Democrats.
In a stunning turn of events few would have predicted a year ago the Oaklyn Borough council voted unanimously to reject the opportunity to participate in the Cappelli-Maley-Kasko 'Colonial Alliance Shared Service' project. The vote was 6-0. Concilman Ron Aron, a Haddon Township police officer and Oaklyn councilmember led the initiative to put an end to the Oaklyn’s particiation in the Alliance despite pressure from fellow Democrat Mayor Robert Forbes and the the subsititute solicitor Paul Gilligan who was filling in for Borough Solicitor Timmothy Higgins.
Oaklyn joins Haddon Heights, Haddon Township and Mt. Ephraim in declining to particiapte in the this Colonial Alliance. This is contrary to the desire of towns like Haddonfield and Collingswood who recklessly supported, endorsed and pushed this initiative. In fact, Maley-Kasko pushed for this ill conceived plan to the point they were willing to spend the tax dollars of their residents to subsidise the participation of others. Whereas towns like Barrington took their own initiative to partner with natural bordering towns to find reasonable cost saving opportunities, Collingswood and Haddonfield seem to have gone all in without first ensuring they had the cooperation and buy-in of every town involved.
Out of the original seven towns involved in the Colonial Alliance, Audubon's council vote is still outstanding. Even if Audubon council voted to participate in this project, without a natural and continuous border that exists among the three towns, there would seem to be no logical explanation for non bordering towns to effectively and prudently demonstrate a sufficient cost savings to pay for a study, let alone share vital services such as police services. For these reasons, and more, this is why any logical person might reasonable conclude tonight's Oaklyn vote must put to rest any notion that the Colonial Alliance should be studied, let alone implemented.
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