Highland Park Council OKs $21,000 police equipment purchase using forfeiture funds

The Highland Park Borough Council approved a consent-agenda resolution on March 4 authorizing the purchase of police equipment to be paid from forfeiture proceeds, Council member Phil George said.

Council member Phil George, liaison to the borough’s public safety agencies, told the council the purchase will be paid with money seized in criminal cases and distributed through the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. “The most important thing from a taxpayer standpoint is we’re not paying for it. This is forfeiture money,” George said during the meeting.

George said the contract was bid under a cooperative purchasing arrangement so the borough could take advantage of group pricing. He described the purchase as roughly $21,000 “to the lowest qualified bidder” for the items detailed in the borough’s specifications. The purchase was listed on the meeting agenda as part of consent item 12(c).

A resident on Zoom, Lois Loving of North Second Avenue, asked for clarification about the item and about apparent overlapping entries on the agenda for prior cooperative-purchasing resolutions. George responded that the November resolution referenced the cooperative-pricing membership and that the current resolution authorizes the equipment acquisition using the forfeiture allocation from the county prosecutor’s office.

The council adopted the full consent agenda, which included the police equipment purchase, by roll call vote. The agenda listed the vendor and cooperative-pricing authority; the agenda did not specify additional contract numbers or a warranty schedule.

The purchase and its financing are recorded on the council agenda and minutes as part of consent item 12(c). No council member objected at the meeting; the vote to adopt the consent agenda was recorded by roll call as affirmative.