- Who's pinching pennies in Matawan, but spending dollars? At the December 18, 2007 Borough Council meeting, Resolution 07-12-30 for Emergency Appropriation Hospitalization in the amount of $125,000 was introduced and passed. After a resident questioned this resolution Councilman Cannon stated that the funding would be coming from the 2007 budget. Another Councilman questioned that statement and indicated that the money was to be provided in full from the 2008 Budget with the hope that monies from the 2007 budget could be applied to the appropriation.This means to me, a layperson, that a $125,000 expense from the 2007 budget is being place on the shoulders of the 2008 budget. Why? It sounds to me like no one was minding the store? Where was the Borough Administrator (obviously writing his new contract)? Where was the Finance Committee? Where was Councilman Cannon, who constantly cries that we are pinching pennies? Where was Counclwoman Meghan Mullaney, the Finance Chairperson, until she resigned from the Council right after the election in November? I guess resigning was better than the alternative?
Borough Administrator - In another "financial faux paux" the Borough Administrator, Fred Carr, the same Administrator who lost the Beacon Survey Report of Main Street which cost the taxpayers money, the same Administrator who lost the Borough grant money and the same Administrator who has not filed for a current grant, was given a nice "fat" new contract? Yes, boys and girls screw up your job in Matawan and get rewarded. Only in Matawan! He was not only given an increase in salary, family health, dental and prescription coverage with premiums FULLY PAID FOR BY MATAWAN BOROUGH (for those that don't know...that is you and me), vision benefit for only himself(how considerate.) I would guess his family doesn't need glasses. Paid holidays same as other Borough employees. Fifteen (15) vacation days, five (5) personal days, the same number of sick days per year and sick leave, as enjoyed by other municipal workers. Wait it gets better, he will get time off and reimbursement for expenses for professional development and/or attendance at conferences. A maximum of 10 days off for attending ICMA, NJMMA etc. conferences with authorized reimbursement not to exceed $3,000. Now here is a break for you, he will not have a Borough vehicle but he will receive $200. per month paid on a quarterly basis. By the time he is finished we'd have to figure out how many days he will actually be working. No wonder we keep losing grants!!!!
All this based on a 35 hour week, Mon thru Fri. including evening Council meetings. He also must be available at all times and on call.
Objections - Could we not have a part time Borough Administrator, thereby providing a savings to the Borough. We have had part timers before without any problems so why not now. Why are we providing medical benefits for Mr. Carr when he has military health benefits, why are we paying him expenses for his vehicle, does he travel that much, if so, then shouldn't it be on an "as needed" basis with a capped amount? Now for the final objection, as we have not had anything going on regarding Redevelopment and trusting that next years Council will get moving on it, Does Mr. Carr have any experience with Redevelopment? Will Mr. Carr be learning all about Redevelopment at Matawan's expense?
All of this for a Borough Administrator who has misplaced valuable Reports, lost the Borough grants and has not gotten the Borough any new grants. Yeah, working for the Municipal government is a piece of cake! I'm just sick and tired of it being my cake! In the private sector this type of worker wouldn't last.......Only in Matawan....
The only NO vote for this contract came from Councilman Paul Buccellato.
Is anyone else outraged at the free spending attitude of the current Administration? Let's hear from you.
19 comments:
Was the 125,000 appropriated before the contract or after. That probably has something to do with the benefits he was just given.
I must say that the FULL Benefits is very interesting. The current employees in the borough constantly come to the negotiation table and the first thing the borough is demanding back is money toward health benefits. These are the people that actually work for a living, not sit behind a desk and takes orders from the Mullaney family. Not to mention forgets everything and never completes a thing. We will see what happens in 2008 when the police contract ends and negotiations begin around September. Public Works is usually right around the same time. I am sure the town will demand money from their benefits. Why not start with the big boy before stepping on the peeons (As all the borough workers are considered by this administration)
In this day and age, and in Matawan's current situation, it's completely unreasonable to expect any borough employees, including administrative, police, public works, etc. to have FREE benefits. They need to be kicking in an appropriate amount. Many private sector workers pay nearly all or indeed sometimes all of their own benefits, it's time we asked the Matawan employees to pay their fair share. Stop free-riding at the taxpayers expense, especially, ESPECIALLY, when so many of them don't live in our town and don't even share our tax burden. There should be an ordinance stating that to work for the borough you have to live i nthe borough. If it's good enough for New York City, it should be good enough for our little burg.
As for the Borough Administrator's supposed incompetence, there are far worse borough employees who actively hamper progress in town and cause willful and/or neglectful harm, and they have instead been granted tenure. If you don't know where to look, start with the clerk and go from there...
Lastly, the only truly asinine statement MA has made in this otherwise mostly fair assessment was that "we have had part-time administrators before and we've never had a problem". Really? REALLY? We've never had a problem?!?!? LOOK AT OUR TOWN!!! It's a joke and a travesty. We enjoy THE HIGHEST TAX RATE IN MONMOUTH COUNTY! We have many, many, many, many problems. The slew of part-time administrators the previous majority council subjected us to while they were pile-driving our borough into oblivion was just one more sign that they had (and continue to have) no clue how to run a town. Had there been a firm leading hand in place for the last decade, perhaps things would never have gotten as bad as they did. We'll never know. They were too buys hiring, firing, and defending lawsuits from the part-time administrators they thought would save the town money. How did that work out? Oh, it was just "no problem!"
Isn't this the same guy who once said "Anyone can be a borough administrator..." Makes you wonder what other magic tricks he does for his "salary".
Truth in Matawan, Apparently you are not living up to your blog name! The truth is, if memory serves me correctly Matawan had a part time Borough Administrator ONLY in 2005. 2005 was the last year Matawan had a tax increase in single digits that being $0.04. Please don't tell me and the readers of this blog that in one year our Borough was thrown into the current condition! Obviously, you are living in a fantasy land.
As to the current Borough Administrator, I reiterate, Carr, lost Matawan an $85,000. grant, lost an important TAXPAYER paid Study and has not gotten Matawan one grant! In light of that Matawan's Fire Department went out on their own and got a Grant. As volunteers they managed to get what a PAID Administrator couldn't get, a grant! Pretty sad commentary for the Borough. Nice going to the Fire Department.
Employees of the Borough cannot afford to live in Matawan. A person with a young family would have most of their income eaten away by property taxes. Senior citizens on a limited income are and continue to move out of Matawan because of the property taxes. Apparently, you are not really knowledgeable about NY taxes. It is cheaper to live there, where garbage, police, fire and emergency services are paid for by property taxes and sales tax. The answer is not to have residents move out of Matawan, but to provide an environment for young and old to live in harmony.
Now I do agree that Borough employees should contribute to their benefits. How do we get that across to the majority party on the Borough Council. They are not making progress with bringing Matawan up to the current benefit allowances. They have given employees increases of 4%, when the government only gave Social Security benefits in the amount of 2.3%. Fixed income recipients only receive 2.3% while Matawan gives 4%
This all falls under the infamous category of ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
I must say I agree with the statement that the employees with young families can not afford to live in Matawan. I did not say that employees should or should not pay into benefits. What was said was why wouldnt you start with the administrator. This town has many problems. The employee's are under paid compared to other municipal workers in towns similar to Matawan in size and population (and the population count in Matawan is off by at least 2,000 people). How much money is the borough paying into the pension plan for the VOLUNTEER Fire and First aid. They are the best around but what happened to "volunteer"? Is that lady in the old train station still making around $50,000.00 a year doing nothing?
Anonymous, Municipal workers know what they are getting into when they accept the job. Everything is subject to change in the private sector. The same should apply to Municipalities. As I have heard many times said about the Police Force, if you don't like it chose another job. We don't want to push them to leave, BUT, starting with a small share, perhaps a deductible on their prescriptions, can't hurt. If in fact they received a 4% increase, a small deductible wouldn't eat the whole increase up. I agree, a good place to start would have been with the Administrator. Reasonable increases, yes, free benefits, no.
What "lady" are you talking about in the old train station?
From what I have been told there are already deductibles in all of the plans. The woman that supposedly keeps track of the train parking. The one that does not leave the heated and air conditioned building(paid for by the borough which is on 24-7 365)to collect the moneys from the commuters pay box (Another job keeping the police off the streets). I believe she has another title. (She may have ties to an ex mayor). I am also going to post a statement I made in the past directly behind this about the state of the police department.
As for the police department you are correct nobody is there after 4pm on weekdays. No one is there at all on weekends and holidays. There was a plan that was developed by the council and administration of the police department after the useless clan they called dispatchers were layed off. The new majority came into power and the police department was forgotten again. Same old story "we will get them a new building the old building is a disgrace". Large amounts of money are put out for consoltation with no feedback. Residents think that something special was done when the town hired 3 new police officers. The only thing this council did was bring the man power back up to the ealy 1990's plus one more. The administration is still in the negative by one ranking officer. Lets not forget the personal vendetta that the Mullaneys have with the police officers due to the unapproved relationship of his daughter with an unnamed officer. (who may live in Aberdeen). If the town is not going to give the Police Department (THE FIRST RESPONDERS) what it needs to serve the community, fight crime, and keep their moral up then they should just merge them with Aberdeen Twp. or Keyport Borough. The residents should keep that Red Bank shooting last week in the back of their minds. Take a good look at the apartment complexes in town. Alot of section 8 moving into town and as documented several times a whole lot of illegal immigrants. Matawan Police have only 2 officers patroling your town alone most of the time. Hope they can get to you when you need them.
December 9, 2007 9:53 AM
Anonymous, Glad to repeat your comment. We should be asking the Police Dept. if they want to stay where they are(with necessary upgrades and violations removed) or if they want to be relocated to the Community Center Building. Where I might add all the politics of the Borough go on. You are right the P.D. deserve better than they are getting from the majority in the Borough Council. Councilman Malley is a waste when it comes to fighting for the Police & Fire Departments.
I agree sir. The problem is not only the building and when votes are needed that is all that is brought up. I think the last 2 elections and still nothing.
Why don't they just move them into the Community Center and demolish the old building? The town can then sell the property, put the money towards reducing our taxes, AND get a new tax-payer on the books as well.
First there is the YMCA issue. The kids next to a police station is either illegal or frowned upon. Seconde is the building there is very small. You would probably need to take the wing where the YMCA is now along with the Church St. side. New building would need new jail cells (very expensive) and a sally port (the garage witch by law you must have to remove prisoners in and out of the patrol cars. Believe me no matter what you do the bill is going to be at least 3 million. Like I have said before look into things that are being wasted to save (ie. VOLUNTEER pension and unneeded positions in town "train lady" or "assistant borough clerk". If you have a clerk that cant do the job. BYE BYE!
And if we want to start talking about properties to consolidate or use for tax relief lets talk about the fire and first aid buildings. Is it really necessary to have 5 buildings with 6 departments (First aid, ME Haley, Washington, Freneau, Midway, and the Hook). Answer? Sure, ditch J. Hourihan Field (witch I know he will not care) and build a state of the art Emergency Services Building (Police, Fire, First Aid). Sell off all of the other buildings to cut down the cost of the new building. If the departments dont want to give up there buildings, take there trucks (owned by the borough) and pull there liquor license. Also stop paying there utility bills. They will reconsider. Believe me if they dont want to sacrifice like everyone else there are plenty of VOLUNTEERS in neighboring towns that would love to be involved.
The vacant Church Street side of the Community Center isn't bigger than the existing precinct? The current precinct seems downright tiny!
As for the fire buildings, good call, they should sell off 4 of the 5 immediately, keep one open while they build a new building, and when it's done sell the 5th one off as well. Coupled with the existing precinct, they'll have sold off a total of 6 buildings, which should pay for any new building, add more money to the tax relief pot, and increase the tax rolls with six new tax-paying property owners. They can even buy a new fire truck if they need one. Win win win all around.
Dont forget the building is undersized already. When building a department (not only police) you need to leave room to grow. You never know what may happen in the future. New types of computers, the hiring of new officers (to bring the department into the 2000's) and so on. Do it right! Don't just throw them in a building just to say you did it. What happened to the 2 representatives from the police department that went to Florida for the seminar on emergency service buildings and how to get the funds to build them? This council does not have the knowledge nor "guts" to move forward on something that may not be a win win in the taxpayers eyes. That has been the problem for years. Every election has been a deciding election for years and the right thing is never done in this community because its all about votes.
Anonymous, The lady from the Train Station is fighting cancer and has retired.
I am sorry to hear that.
Wow. Just found this site, and its great to hear some comments. Have many of you been to the police station? I had to go there to be fingerprinted. It looks horrible. I cant believe these guys are not out picketing on the condition of the building. Thank god for the Fire Dept. I am aware that the Mullaney's did not want to do the Santa runs. My kids alway look forward toward it. Did Mr. Mullaney want his helicopter santa as a replacement? Man who paid that? us? What a waste. I was not there, but heard from a few people that there were like 7 kids there. Maybe he should stick to his own business and not make Matawans worse than it is.
Happy new year to all!!
Post a Comment