Jenkintown Borough Council submitted a Letter of Intent to the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, which is a division of the Department of Community and Economic Development that administers the state’s Peer Assistance Program.

The decision to submit the letter was approved during council’s meeting on Wednesday, May 22.

According to borough manager George Locke, the letter is the first step towards receiving pro bono consultation services. In July 2023, Jenkintown’s borough council voted 8-0 to contract with Bellevue Communication “to provide professional consulting and communications services,” according to the agenda.

Locke said private consultation services like Bellevue can cost upwards of $20,000.

“Instead of hiring a consultant to do the work, we’ve found that if we request the state, they’ll come in and do it. It’s called Peer Assistance, and they do it free or charge. They specialize in helping out municipalities,” he said.

If approved, qualified professionals will evaluate the borough’s policies and procedures, and then make recommendations as to how to money can be spent most effectively.

“They have retired chiefs and specialists. We talked to them about our police department. They’re looking at our EMS and fire services, too. With all this in the works, we could use all the assistance we can get,” Locke said.

No meetings have taken place as of yet and a timeline has not been provided, though the agency indicated a relatively quick turnaround time.

“They just said once you’re accepted, they’ll reach out and define a scope of work for the project,” Locke said. “They seemed to indicate it’d happen quickly after we were chosen. I think it should be soon.”

The borough is currently under police contract negotiations which are expected to go into union arbitration at the end of the summer.

“We’ve made a couple offers and they aren’t pleased with it,” Locke said.

Locke noted that council did not request the agency to look into regionalizing the borough’s police department.

“We didn’t check that box. We’re trying to make our police department sustainable,” Locke said. “We’re excited about it. Hopefully it’ll be positive. It’s great that the state has something like this.”

The borough’s announcement and the Letter of Intent are below:

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