If you’ve been living in Aberdeen a while, have you noticed a change?
Have you noticed that big projects never seem to get done anymore? Transit station, swim club, Glass Anchor, senior housing, everything seems to be in limbo.
Have you noticed the money problems getting worse? That Aberdeen no longer maintains a rainy day fund, that its credit rating has been cut, or that it might, on occasion, need to raid the public library’s coffers?
Have you noticed retirees increasingly leaving Aberdeen to escape the high property taxes?
Have you noticed more vacant properties in the area? (Ten more sheriff sales scheduled for September.)
Have you noticed certain programs getting cut and the money never seems to be restored?
Have you noticed few seem to care and nobody does anything about it?
This is what a death spiral looks like. It starts slow and nobody cares. It speeds up and everyone pretends someone else will fix the problem. And then . . . collapse.
Need more evidence?
2006 Pension Contributions:
Police and Firemen - $238,883
Public Employees - $51,558
2013 Pension Contributions:
Police and Firemen - $945,052
Public Employees - $248,170
Percent Increase over 7 Years:
Police and Firemen - 396%
Public Employees – 481%
2007 Employee Group Health - $810,000 (2006 numbers unavailable)
2013 Employee Group Health - $1,640,804
% Increase over 6 Years – 203%
"Those are just some
of the things that the town provides to the residents for essentially $121 a
month," Councilman Gregory Cannon said. "That's less than my cable
bill." – Matawan-Aberdeen Patch, March 25, 2013
Give Councilman Cannon
credit for saying what everyone on the council was thinking. “Don’t worry. You
can afford another tax increase. Taxes too high? It’s not our fault. We spend
so little. We really are doing a great job spending your money.”
I wonder if there’s a
single homeowner whose cable bill is higher than his property taxes.
Oh, you say, I make an
unfair comparison. After all, the municipality only controls municipal taxes.
It’s not the council’s fault that you’re also taxed for school, county, fire,
sanitation, and sewage.
I think the comparison is
quite fair.
First, the “average”
homeowner pays far more than $121 a month once you exclude apartments and
condos from the mix. (No offense to Councilman Cannon.)
Second, the council budget
is $16.3 million, $5.6 million above the tax levy. Where does Councilman Cannon
think that money comes from if not the taxpayer? And even that number doesn’t
include the two fire districts, over another million dollars a year. Nor does
the budget include the full cost of the road program, millions a year paid with
IOUs. Debt payments have skyrocketed 15% in one year and now account for nearly
a tenth of the budget.
And what happened to the
reserves? In 2006, the township had $7.6 million in reserves. Now, it’s half
that.
As for the school
district, the fact that it costs an average $15,000 to educate one child hasn’t
discouraged the township one whit from residential housing. But all the
non-residential development, those projects that would actually reduce property
taxes, have been in “development” for a decade. Then again, what can you expect
when the town engineer is bankrolling every election.
Of course, council members
can shield themselves from tax increases by voting salary increases for
themselves, which they do.
Total municipal spending
including all the township’s branches of government, is over $50 million a year
or, using Councilman Cannon’s “average homeowner”, about $600 a month. That’s awfully close to the "average" property tax bill not to mention a
lot of cable.
Here’s a different comparison
for Councilman Cannon – How many councilmen have municipal salaries higher than
their property taxes? Maybe they should learn to pay their own property taxes like
everybody else
>>> Read more!
My thanks and appreciation to Chelsea Naso of the Matawan-Aberdeen Patch for her yeoman’s work and, on this occasion, for interviewing Mayor Fred Tagliarini and Town Manager Holly Reycraft. I happen to like Mayor Tagliarini and Ms. Reycraft. They’re both good people trying to do right by their community. However, I’m also opposed to many of the town council’s actions and feel compelled to respond to some of their answers.
Below are parts of the interview with my comments:
Q: In January 2009, the town council introduced a Pay-to-Play ordinance. Then the council never discussed or approved it. What happened and why won't the town council end the practice of awarding contracts to their largest campaign contributors? The most egregious example is the township engineer, CME, who contributes tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns and receives over a million dollars a year from the township. When was the last time the township had competitive bidding for a professional services contract?
Fred: To the best of my knowledge, all candidates of all parties follow the guidelines set forth.
Holly: We have a pay to play ordinance that is the same as the state requires. They [CME] get appointed each year. I appoint the engineer, based on recommendations from the council. They [CME] are mostly paid through escrow funds. Everything goes out to bid as per law. We don’t pick them based on their contributions. If you keep changing firms, there’s no continuity.
Fred: A lot of engineering firms will contribute to both campaigns. Engineering firms donate, businesses donate. I don’t know an engineering firm that doesn’t make donations. I know engineering firms that will contribute to both campaigns.The township does not request nor receive competing bids for “professional services” such as engineering, town planning, legal, or accounting. Engineering alone (CME) receives over a million dollars a year from the township.
Since the good people of Aberdeen have supported their monolithic democratic town council for over a decade, I have to assume to following will be welcome news.
By all accounts, the Aberdeen Democrats are expected to retain monolithic control of the town council following this Tuesday’s election. And, since this is a democracy and the Democrats have an extensive public record, it can only be assumed the township enjoys the following:
Pay-to-Play – The township engineer gets over a million dollars a year after contributing tens of thousands of dollars to the Democrats’ election efforts. A convicted felon was appointed lead developer for the transit developer after depositing $100,000 in a township slush fund. The town’s attorneys, planners, accountants, and many of the developers are regular contributors to the Democrats’ coffers.
Full Non-Disclosure – After the Democrats’ election filings were prominently posted on this blog, including the “consulting fees” to Councilman Vinci, the Democrats engineered the campaigns and fundraising so that not a single contributor would be revealed. This year, alone, the democrats have already declared $35,000 in contributions but not a single donor who gave more than $300.
>>> Read more!
"That ain't working, that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free" - Dire Straits
Wonderful news. Aberdeen’s town council has found a way to save a million dollars in electric bills over the next fifteen years and get a free roof to boot. And, if you believe that, there’s more wonderful news. The senior housing center on Church St. will finally be developed. As will the transit village, Anchor Glass, and Aberdeen Forge. And, between the cost savings and new ratables, residents will finally see some tax relief.
Find it all a bit hard to believe? You’re not the only one.
Last June, the township issued an RFP for a company to build and maintain, at its own expense, solar panels for township properties plus install a new roof for town hall and then charge the township for the electricity generated by the solar panels at sub-market rates.
New Jersey has the fastest growing solar power market in the country so you’d think there'd be a lot of competition for such a plum assignment. Yet, only one company responded. Nexus Energy Solutions, a spin-off from Nexus Development, has no experience building or installing solar panels aside from having hired other companies to install solar panels at its office headquarters and parking garage.
By coincidence, I’m sure, Nexus is also a regular contributor to the state’s Democratic Party. Another coincidence, I’m equally sure, is that the town council is all Democrat and has a well-documented history of pay-to-play.
Anyways, despite having roughly the same experience as any homeowner who hired a contractor to install solar panels on his roof, Nexus’ proposals received an average score of 93 out of 100 in the township’s proposal review.
>>> Read more!
Well, you know it’s election season when the town council stops publishing their council minutes. The last published minutes were for June 21st. Can’t say I’m surprised. The town council probably didn’t want to revisit Silver Oak’s $100,000 slush fund, funneled through CME to the democrat’s reelection campaign, so close to the election. Or, that if the transit village ever did get off the ground, all the tax money would go into a PILOT program allowing the council to spend money like a drunken sailor without “raising” taxes.
Still, it’s been quite a sleepy season. Not too much campaigning on either side. They don’t even have websites listing the candidates. (No, I couldn’t name them all, either.)
So, it all goes back to party politics. If you like the Democrats retaining monolithic one-party rule for over a decade, vote Democrat.
If you like the pay-to-play, the crowded schools, and the new residential developments, vote Democrat.
If you’re pleased with the progress at the transit village, Anchor Glass, Aberdeen Forge, and the shore, vote Democrat.
>>> Read more!
Workshop Meeting, May 17, 2011 –
Holly Reycraft stated she spoke to Dan McCarthy regarding projects, Anchor Glass is a standstill; New Jersey Transit is holding up Transit Village; an agreement is being worked on with the Senior Center; Seawall – garbage pails are ordered with Clean Community Grant money, we are restricting 100 feet for the fishermen to fish – 50 feet one end and 50 feet the other end.Bless her soul. It’s a wonderful thing to have a competent town manager with no personal or political agenda.
Mr. Weinstein asked what is going on with the old pool club.Did the Mayor say “waiting”? That seems like a fair use of the word. After all, those beautiful plans were drawn about three years ago.
Ms. Reycraft stated they took buildings down and is starting to get work done.
Mayor Tagliarini stated he is looking to move quickly, they are waiting for zoning board approvals, the plans are beautiful.
"Elections Shouldn't Matter as Much as They Do" – Nancy Pelosi
The real question is why don’t elections matter more. Since 2009, not a single Aberdeen representative on the town council or school board has sought reelection upon completing a full term. (On the school board, Demarest took a break and then ran again when an uncontested seat opened.) This January, Aberdeen will have its freshest crop of elected representatives in a decade. And, yet, the expectation for change is rather subdued.
In Washington, an old axiom declares, “Staff is policy”. A corollary is you can’t change policy without changing staff.
To give a couple examples, in 2007 the school administration maintained the budget had already been cut to the bone and that additional cuts would undermine critical areas. Then O’Malley was hired and the district miraculously discovered millions of dollars that could be cut without impacting the district’s core mission.
We were told controlling expenses for legal and special education was beyond our control. Then we hired a new attorney and new director of special services. Legal expenses dropped by over half and out-districting has dropped by ten percent.
Again and again, policy is driven by staff.
For years, it’s been frustrating to file OPRA requests to obtain copies of town ordinances. Regulations were posted but not ordinances. There was no legitimate reason to not post the ordinances (just as there’s no legitimate reason to not post minutes from the planning and zoning boards) but such was the township’s practice.
Recently, Ken Aitken requested the ordinances be posted. There was no objection from the interim town manager, the town council approved, and presto, they’re now posted. Having said that, some of what’s posted is truly disturbing and points, once again, to the need to change staff.
Bond Ordinance 2-2011 aims to raise $1,709,735 for ” THE MAKING OF ROAD IMPROVEMENTS AND THE ACQUISITION OF NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EQUIPMENT”.
The title gives the strong impression that the bond is necessary to fund “road improvements” and “information technology equipment.” Not so. As detailed in the ordinance itself, the IT equipment only costs $7,000 and has an expected shelf life of five years; hardly the “capital improvement” you would bond for any more than a homeowner would refinance his mortgage to buy a new stereo system.
Why then did the township include the $7,000 purchase in the bond notice? Because everybody knows that “road improvements” is synonymous with CME Associates, the town engineer and underwriter for the town council’s upcoming election efforts.
These shenanigans will never end so long as the town council continues engaging in pay-to-play. Specifically, the township needs to hire a town manager untainted with the scent of corruption (as is the interim town manager), and replace the town attorney, town engineer, and town auditor. Until that’s done, no matter who’s elected, the townsfolk should expect more of the same.
The same holds true in the school district. Despite replacing nearly every administrator at the district level, educational gains have been modest and will continue to be restrained so long as the teachers are represented by a leadership faithful to former AFT President Albert Shanker’s dictum, “When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”
Staff is policy and you can’t change policy without changing staff. Every elected representative hoping for change needs to understand this. >>> Read more!
Well, we all saw this coming, at least everybody but the developer, our “dear leaders” on the town council, and their political hacks on Aberdeen’s planning board and zoning board. Six years after being built, the Cambridge Park development remains over three-quarters empty. The one sale went to a Californian transplant whose employer fronted half the mortgage.
The developer continues to “update” the year built – now showing 2009 – and maintain the properties, but no amount of window dressing will hide the plain fact that the lots are too small. The house at 75 Cambridge practically touches its property borders on all sides. The other homes lack fences and decks to maximize their puny yards.
The four houses plus the undeveloped lot in the back provide the town an annual windfall of $50,000. But those short-term gains will soon become long-term losses.
Tax sale certificates, totaling over $30,000, have been sold against the three vacant houses indicating the developer may be struggling to maintain the properties. If so, the homes will be forced down to market prices. Once occupied, even an average of one public school child per house will cost the district over $5,000 per house. At two children per house, the development would lose the town $75,000 a year.
Of course, by the town council’s calculation, even if each house was home to a dozen kids, the municipal tax rate would still drop from the additional ratables and the inevitable school tax hikes would be blamed on someone else.
Meanwhile, the neighbors can’t be too pleased with an oversized empty development. Which brings us back to the original point – What was the town council thinking? >>> Read more!
Aberdeen’s town council must’ve thought it was pretty funny passing a budget nine months after the fiscal year had already begun because they recently performed an encore, posting the 2010 budget in 2011. Heaven forbid the taxpayers might want to know how their money is being spent.
These pages have detailed before the skyrocketing taxes and plummeting reserves but, with a budget like Aberdeen’s, it’s so chock full of surprises there’s always something new to discover.
The latest nugget is the township’s Cadillac group healthcare plans. At $1,604,000 for 85 employees, that’s nearly $19,000 per employee. (See sheet 14) Considering that’s just an average, we can only imagine what a family plan must cost.
Healthcare is also the fastest growing part of the budget, having doubled from $810,000 in only four years.
It’s all the more shocking considering the town council’s repeated claims of tackling healthcare costs. In June, 2009, Mayor Sobel stated, ”health insurance costs and contractual costs skyrocketed this year. That is why we changed our health insurance carrier to save $300,000 a year.“
Three months later, Mayor Sobel insisted, “next year we will see a savings from our health insurance.”
The town even issued a press release announcing, “Savings from this strategic move should be realized beginning in the first quarter of 2010.”
In fact, over that “next year”, insurance costs rose 35%, adding another $400,000 to the budget.
Thank goodness for the savings. I guess the next announcement will be about ending play-to-play. Oh, wait. Aberdeen already did that one too. >>> Read more!
Last month, I wrote the following: “The township’s ‘secret plan’ is to offset [future] spending increases with new development through PILOT programs.”
Sure enough, last week Aberdeen Township posted an RFQ for an “Attorney experienced in Pilot Agreements”. And, as predicted, the town council will use the PILOT programs to hoard the lion’s share of projected revenue from all major new developments, such as the new housing projects on County Road and Rt. 34. The town council will use the new funds to mask increased spending and crow about holding down taxes while the school district is burdened with integrating and educating the influx of new students.
Next to appear will be the reappointments of Aberdeen’s three stooges –
Town Attorney Dan McCarthy – Infamously lied to the town council and over a 100 residents at a packed public meeting that Aberdeen would lose its COAH certification in two days if the council did not approve unwanted housing development despite knowing Aberdeen wasn’t even on COAH’s agenda for that month.
Town Planning/Zoning Board Attorney, Michael Leckstein – First denied residents the right to make comments at a public meeting. Then threatened to use “police force” against those residents who asserted their right to speak.
Town Planner Richard Coppola – He was against the COAH housing before he was for it.
These three stooges kept telling us that we had no choice but to accept a massive COAH development on County Rd. and an accompanying development on Rt. 34, that it was a done deal, and the town council would be acting irresponsibly if it did not approve the development.
Shortly thereafter, the developer contacted the Cliffwood Housing Association, negotiated a smaller development, and the town council quickly claimed credit.
These three stooges will all be reappointed. After all, pay-to-play, patronage, and political corruption has its privileges.
Then there’s Tom Fallon, our eternal auditor, who never ever warns the township it’s burning through all its reserves. His father, a fellow CPA with whom Tom worked, was a bigwig in the Monmouth County Democratic Party until he went to jail for bribing a public official.
Talking about jailbirds, let’s not forget our famed transit village developer, William Bocra, who sat in prison for bribing an IRS official. Or former Aberdeen Forge developer, Anthony Spalliero, also convicted of bribing a public official, who died last month.
(Yes, our town does have a penchant for felons and their families. It’s no surprise given the council’s willingness to skirt the law – See the last campaign where a majority of the council conspired to circumvent campaign disclosure rules or just think of retired policeman Vincent Vinci.)
Of course, the trophy goes to CME Engineering, a firm that bills for nothing but time yet scores over a million dollars a year in a small town of 6,000 homes and a smattering of businesses. Not that CME hasn’t earned it. Without its generous support, the Aberdeen Democrats may not have been able to maintain monolithic control of the council for the past decade.
This dreary show repeats itself every year and gets more expensive with each showing. The public knows it, hates it, but believes that’s the cost of living in America.
Not so. It’s just the cost of living in Aberdeen. >>> Read more!
For over a year, Joe Criscuolo, the recently departed town manager, had been rumored to be leaving Aberdeen Township, whether willingly or not. And, he looks to be moving up, garnering a job in his hometown of Old Bridge, earning an additional $10,000. Excluding the previous town manager, Aberdeen has earned a reputation of rewarding its cherished employees (see Coren, Kelly, Lauro, etc.) and this seems to be part of that tradition. But, what makes this story remarkable is the advertisement seeking a new town manager.
TOWNSHIP MANAGER – ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP,MONMOUTH COUNTY. 18,000 population, $18M municipal budget, 85 FT Employees. Council/Manager form of Government. Seeking experienced professional to serve as CEO, oversee all daily operations and report to 7 Council members, including the Mayor. Must be highly motivated, goal/results oriented and have excellent communication skills to deal with all levels of government and community. Must have a strong financial background. Responsibilities include overseeing municipal services, capital planning and labor relations. Must have 5+ years experience in municipal government management. Bachelor’s degree required. MPA preferred. Salary range DOQ/DOE. Send 8 copies of resume and cover letter, including salary requirements to: Fred Tagliarini, 19 Faith Lane, Aberdeen, NJ 07747 Ad Posted January 14, 2011 Ad Removed February 28, 2011. [Bold added for emphasis]
How bizarre. I can’t imagine the school board president requesting all job applications for the superintendent’s position be sent to his home. Nor has any other town’s job posting at the League of Municipalities made a similar request. The question is why.
One possibility is convenience except that receiving the applications at home is inconvenient since the other council members will now need to wait until Mayor Tagliarini distributes the applications. Furthermore, he will be responsible for storing and distributing the applications rather than a town employee.
Perhaps the issue is confidentiality, that the council doesn’t want any town employee to be privy to whom has applied. If so, why has the township requested “8 copies”? Who will receive the 8th copy?
The process is troubling because the mayor, first among peers on the town council, has now been appointed gatekeeper of all the applications. By default, he has the ability to exclude any application from consideration.
Another problem is, given Aberdeen’s troubling history of political patronage, the town council has given the residents one more reason to believe the fix is in.
Finally, we’re still left with the original question. Why instruct applicants to mail their resumes to the mayor’s home? >>> Read more!
Three years ago, Aberdeener.com was launched at a moment everything started to change. The Great Recession was getting underway and the nation was about to take a dramatic turn to the left, electing the most liberal president in history and awarding super-majorities to the Democrats in both houses of congress.
Locally, Dr. Gambino’s election to the school board shifted the balance of power and a new administration under Dr. O’Malley directed the district toward achieving objective goals.
On the flip side, the popular town manager, Stuart Brown, was summarily terminated after waging an internal battle against corruption and waste. The teachers union was picketing at school board members’ homes for higher wages. And Aberdeen and Matawan were among the top five highest taxed municipalities in Monmouth County.
Over the next three years, the Tea Party was born, Governor Christie was elected, and the country has shifted back to center-right. On the school board, only one of six Aberdeen representatives has served more than one term. In the township, a majority of the council seats turned over although every seat stayed within the local Democratic Party.
So, what will the next three years bring?
Higher Taxes
Nobody living in Aberdeen would expect otherwise. Over the past three years, municipal taxes have increased roughly 30%. The township’s “secret plan” is to offset spending increases with new development through PILOT programs. PILOT stands for “payments in lieu of taxes”.
Property taxes have to be apportioned to each tax collecting body, i.e. school, county, fire, etc. The township’s meager 17% share of property taxes from new development wouldn’t be enough to offset new spending, meaning municipal property taxes would keep rocketing upward despite the added revenue from new development. However, PILOT payments aren’t taxes so the township gets to keep the lion’s share and technically hold down taxes while allowing spending to soar.
No such luck by the school district. The township favors residential development over commercial development because developers prefer residential. Unfortunately for taxpayers, any development that attracts children is a net loss. At over $15,000 per student, any unit with a child will cost the town more than it can recoup through taxes. Furthermore, children from low-income families, on average, require more services and, therefore, cost more. COAH housing could be especially costly to the school district.
Meanwhile, the school district has never developed any significant revenue streams aside from taxes and state funding. There’s some hope of developing an autism program to attract out-of-district students but, until that happens, the focus is cutting costs. The district has already begun outsourcing – cafeteria, substitutes, custodians – and there’s more to go – transportation, secretarial, aides, guidance counselors, child study teams, etc. Classes can be cut, class sizes can increase, and more extra curricular can be eliminated. However, at some point the cutting will stop.
Meanwhile, contractual and statutory increases are on the march. Last year, prior to the budget cuts, the district projected a $3.5 million increases from salary, pension, health, and special education. The average teachers union officer saw his salary increase about 25% over the prior three years.
Some day, in the not too distant future, those annual increases will overwhelm any cost cutting measures.
It doesn’t have to go this way but we all know it will. Governor Christie’s 2% cap should help but don’t discount those wily politicians and public administrators who will use every trick in the book to take your money.
Self-Serving Politicos
The school district has a $60 million budget and the board members are paid zilch. Fire District #1 has a budget equal to 1% of the school district, yet each fire commissioner earns $5,460. As a percentage of the total budget, the fire district spends more money on each fire commissioner than the school district spends on the combined salary and benefits of the district superintendent, deputy superintendent, and business administrator.
Two of those five commissioners, Vinci and Lauro, also earn salaries from the town council as well as their state pensions from years of public service to the township. Add all that to the free land given to Vinci and the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to divert highway workers from driving in front of his house, and it’s still not enough to satisfy their senses of entitlement. In 2009, the fire commissioners voted themselves a 36.5% raise.
Ultimately, the townsfolk don’t care. Both Vinci and Lauro would likely cruise to reelection. This past year, the town elected a board member who testified against the school district in a labor dispute, played racial politics, and acknowledged voting to pay herself for working as a poll worker during a school board election.
And, at some point, Barza will regain control of the school board and appoint administrators to their liking. It won’t happen soon but it will happen. That’s because the largest pools of candidates for local elective office are the PTO’s and the sports leagues. Most of the current school board members come from neither.
School board elections are usually a luck of the draw. Placement on the ballot is determined by pulling candidates’ names from a hat (literally) and the candidates at the top of the ticket nearly always win. Whichever group fields the most candidates over time will ultimately control the board and Barza is in an excellent position to do just that.
That’s why Aberdeen has rejected every property tax increase at the ballot box for nearly a decade but still sees property taxes increase every year – either the people a) don’t think it matters who they elect b) don’t know who they’re electing or c) don’t know what their representatives are doing once elected.
While on the school board, I strongly opposed any tax increase. Had there been two other members of the nine-member board who shared my opposition, school taxes would not have risen this year.
Education Advances Slowly
The first thing that people will notice and quickly forget is that the draconian cuts didn’t undermine the students’ education.
Next, as students from the middle school who benefited from an accelerated curriculum move into high school, test scores will rise.
However, any advancement will be limited. Among the staff, there are several ideological battles underway – Should the district focus upon test scores or preparing students for post-high school? What are the skills and knowledge our students need to acquire before graduating? How do we test and grade our students? What do we do with teachers who can’t teach? How do we help our struggling students? How do we enable our stars to advance according to their potential?
Unless someone becomes a powerful and incessant advocate for moving in one direction, the district will always drift along the path of least resistance. That means the least work and the least headaches. The community won’t fight for higher standards and neither will most of the staff.
Local Reporting Will Continue to Deteriorate
The local papers lack resources for investigative reporting. As they continue to struggle, fewer town meetings will be covered. Excluding bloggers and the rumor mill, the community will continue to know less and less about what’s happening. And the opportunities for corruption and incompetence will expand.
Housing Will Continue to Struggle
Huge backlog of unsold and foreclosed housing. High unemployment and underemployment. As the economy recovers, interest rates will rise to combat inflation. Many underwater homeowners will put their homes on the market at their first opportunity to cover their mortgages. Meanwhile, high taxes will continue to depress prices and push more seniors to sell.
Most New Development Will Be Residential
It is an absolute disgrace that public education has become so expensive that it makes financial sense to deter families from moving to the neighborhood. But that’s the reality. Developers, however, prefer residential because they’re easier to finance and sell and often have higher profit margins. The town could easily encourage commercial development through zoning laws and PILOT programs but don’t expect it. The town council wants the tax/PILOT money, not to mention all the behind-the-scenes hand greasing that enriches their handlers, and care little about the burden new development imposes on the school district or the rest of the township.
Corruption Will Continue Unabated
People mistakenly believe corruption necessarily involves criminal activity. That’s not the case at all. Political corruption is the use of office for anything other than the public good. For example, taking tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions from CME Engineering and then awarding it millions of dollars in no-bid contracts is corrupt because there’s an assumption CME is not being awarded the business based solely upon price, service, and community benefit. Furthermore, when people and corporations are legitimately concerned over retribution if they don’t contribute to political campaigns, that is corruption. When people and corporations are able to use their political connections to “un-level” the playing field or seek business from third parties, that’s corruption.
Again and again, we hear about how there’s been no proof of corruption but that’s a lie. The free land given to Councilman Vinci, and how that land was kept off the tax rolls, is public record. Vinci being paid “consulting fees” to work on his own reelection campaign is public record. The county spending $400,000 to divert traffic from Vinci’s home on a dead end street is public record.
CME’s contributions and millions of dollars in no-bid contracts are public record.
Fire commissioners, who should be working for free, awarding themselves a 36.5% pay increase during a steep recession is public record.
Any suggestion that “corruption” only applies to criminal activity is morally repugnant and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the people who write the laws know how to avoid them.
The Teachers Union Will Continue Being Anti-Community
It’s astounding how teachers, the very people who have chosen to dedicate their lives to teaching and with whom we’ve entrusted our children, would repeatedly support anti-community agendas but that’s the reality.
When faced with a pay freeze or scores of colleagues losing their jobs, the teachers kicked their coworkers to the curb and then launched a fear-mongering campaign insisting the community’s children would be in jeopardy unless we raised taxes to save jobs.
Now, the union is doing the same to the bus drivers, the secretaries, and everyone else who could be outsourced.
When the school board offered to help three custodians save their lifetime health benefits, the union offered nothing to offset the costs.
Again and again, the union protects teachers who can’t teach, bars the district from enacting changes that would help students and save money, and prevents the district from rewarding outstanding teachers.
I hear the district used to recognize “Teachers of the Month” and give them prized parking spots and other tokens of thanks and recognition that cost nothing to the district. However, the practice had to stop after the union objected to the district “singling out teachers” for recognition when “all” teachers deserved recognition.
That sense of “we’re all wonderful and entitled” appears to be have become contagious as Christmas Friday Fever has swept through the district. Christmas Friday Fever is the infectious disease that hits about a quarter of our teachers every year on the last Friday before Christmas break, forcing them to call in sick and get some therapeutic shopping at the malls.
Local Blogging Will Decline
Normally, success attracts competition. Not in this case. Despite the widespread popularity of Aberdeener.com (many would say infamy), the only other local blog is AberdeenNJlife, which doesn’t do investigative reporting. Researching issues is very time consuming and won’t win you many friends. However, for those considering blogging, the experience can be quite rewarding and you truly have the power to make positive changes within your community.
As for this blog, I’m hoping someone will volunteer to manage it but, so far, no takers. However, the forces of darkness shouldn’t relax just yet. There’s still some life in this blog. >>> Read more!
Nearly nine months into the fiscal year, Aberdeen Township passed a budget. Woo hoo! Mayor Tagliarini spoke proudly over the township’s ability to deliver a double-digit tax increase, the largest tax increase in Aberdeen Township’s history, “without furloughs and without layoffs”. The same mayor who damned the school district for requesting a 1% tax increase has now levied an 11.4% tax increase on top of the sewer fee increase. And, contrary to the school district cutting expenses, spending has increased 2.6%.
According to the article, the township partly blames the budget increase on a decrease in state aid. Either that’s a typo or another sign of the fiscal insanity that has plagued Aberdeen.
Pensions jumped, naturally, after a one-shot payment deferral last year that Mayor Tagliarini characterized as a “decrease in spending”. As expected, debt payments rose by $118,000 – gotta pay for that missed pension payment, not to mention all the debt from our vaunted road program.
About that road program, “the governing body did not want to discontinue its road program, a move very important to Deputy Mayor Vincent Vinci.” Looks like CME Associates has a champion on the town council. Guess they’ll keep getting their million dollar-plus service fees each year. Maybe that’s why CME, along with our town attorney and Anchor Glass developer, have cosponsored Aberdeen Day. Such generosity, such gratitude, who cares if they plunder our town a little? Unless, of course, you happen to be a homeowner.
Sadly, it looks like the good times may be coming to an end. As shown in the chart below, the township is quickly burning through our reserves. At this rate, we’ve only got one more year before we’ve completely exhausted our surplus. We hit asset depletion in five years. At some point, our bond rating will drop and financing our CME-approved roads will become a whole lot more expensive.
Values are in millions
20052006200720082009
Assets 7.606.345.064.38
Year-End Surplus 1.571.491.360.720.40
However, our councilmen aren’t concerned. They figure if we’re ever in trouble, we’ll just mug the library, again.
Unfortunately, even the budget numbers are suspect. Each budget publishes the prior year’s “Surplus Balance – December 31st”. Since the budget is published months later, it should be an easy thing to know how much money is in our bank accounts at the end of the prior year. But we don’t. As the next chart shows, each year’s end-year surplus is revised; 2007’s surplus was revised by a whopping $300,000.
Values are in thousands
200620072008
Original Surplus 1,4971,064744
Revised Surplus 1,4901,365720
Discrepancy 730124
Our town council has retained a lawyer who blatantly lied to the council and the public stating COAH would immediately withdraw Aberdeen’s certification. (Further proof of the lie can be seen from Marlboro’s loss of COAH certification. Marlboro’s de-certification was on COAH’s agenda whereas no such decision was ever scheduled for Aberdeen.)
Our town council has retained another lawyer who threatened local residents with police force after the townspeople objected to his denying their right to speak at a public meeting.
Our town council has recently re-appointed a felon convicted of attempting to bribe an IRS auditor to be our lead developer on the transit village.
Our town council claimed we had no choice but to accept a massive low-income housing development on County Road only to see the developers voluntarily work with the Cliffwood Housing Association to scale-down the project.
At some point, you begin to question the council’s competence. If only they were as good at running our township as they are at getting themselves elected. At the very least, they should earn their council salaries.
On a final note – Kudos to the township employees for accepting a wage freeze. I wish other public employees had done the same. >>> Read more!
At the May 18th Aberdeen Town Council meeting, the council members knew they would be challenged for failing to provide the statutory 48 hours public notice prior to the school budget vote. They knew this blog highlighted how one of the biggest votes of the year was glaringly absent from the agenda. They knew the agenda was amended to include the school budget vote on the very day of the meeting. So, how did they do with all this foreknowledge? Not so good.
As expected, former vice president of the school board, Ken Aitken, objected to the council voting on the school budget without proper public notice.
First to respond was township attorney, Diane Dabulas. “The resolution was not done and that was one major reason why it was not posted. The requirement is that the agenda, which is not even required to be on the website, states to the extent known.”
So, our legal eagle for hire believes that the statutory language requiring advance public notice of the meeting agenda “to the extent known” means you don’t have to publicize any upcoming resolution until that resolution is “done”. Well, as a school board member who’s received legal counsel on this very topic, I can confidently state that’s poppycock. “To the extent known” means exactly that. If you know you’re going to vote on something, it has to be included in the agenda, even if you haven’t finalized the language of the resolution. Otherwise, what’s the point of having the 48-hour notice requirement if the administrative body could always claim it was still working on “final language”.
Dabulas, feeling a wee bit overconfident, dug a bit deeper. ”We did not know whether or not if we were going to have a special meeting.“
The agenda was posted on Friday, May 14th. The meeting was scheduled for the night of Tuesday, May 18th. The statutory deadline for the vote was normal business hours on Wednesday, May 19th. When was this fictional “special meeting” going to take place? The following morning over crumpets and tea?
Town Manager Joe Criscuolo then made the mistake of jumping into the deep end. “Council can also choose not to have a resolution and do nothing.”
The budget was roundly defeated at the polls. The school district offered to cut the proposed tax increase by half. The council wanted further cuts. Yet, two business days prior to the meeting, the town council still didn’t know if it was going to vote or let the original budget stand?
Then freshman Councilman Cannon joined the fray. “The agenda must only be posted to the fullest extent known. The agenda was not fully known until about 9:30 a.m.” See the word play? Cannon acknowledges the law requires advance public notice of the agenda to the “fullest extent known” but argues the agenda was not "fully known” until that morning.
Well, an agenda doesn’t need to be “fully known” in order to give the public proper notice to the “fullest extent known”.
Missing the irony, Mr. Cannon suggested the township had actually gone above and beyond the law by granting public notice on the day of the vote. “There is no requirement to post resolutions within 48 hours . . . It was posted at 11:44 a.m. As soon as it was reviewed by our attorney and past onto the Municipal Clerk.”
So, according to our beloved township, there’s no requirement to give the public any advance notice of any vote unless the administrative body is absolutely certain to vote on a particular resolution where the wording has been finalized and undergone legal review at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled vote.
Even if the town council was legally correct, which it wasn’t, the great tragedy is the council members’ inability to distinguish between what’s legal and what’s the right thing to do. It’s a difference that makes all the difference. >>> Read more!
