Wonders will never cease. Last night's workshop/meeting was a poor example of municipal government in action. It is more like a 3 ring circus than a Council. Mayor Buccellato is telling everyone that the Borough is operating at a DEFICIT, a negative balance of $398,000. and yet the Council is still adding projects to the list of items they want to BOND. What is going to happen when year end rolls around and we are dealing with a larger deficit? Will our taxes rise again? It is becoming more and more obvious that this Council lacks the knowledge to budget properly and set priorities . Do they think we property owners are made of money? As was apparent by the residents from Oak Knoll Drive who came to the meeting to question the increase in their property taxes. Mayor Buccellato made arrangements for them to meet the following night with the real estate appraiser to discuss their revaluations. What will happen next year when all these BONDS have to be paid back coupled with the deficit which is increasing daily? If you think the property tax increase is high now wait till next year. There are more homes for sale in Matawan than ever before. If spending continues we just might be seeing more foreclosures. Ironically, certain factions of the press do not even report on the deficit. Perhaps a growing deficit of $398,000 isn't newsworthy.More to follow.....
14 comments:
40 years of Republican government in Matawan and "THEIR BONDING" Has put into the poor condition we are in Not the present COUNCIL!!!! You continue in DENIAL!!!
So you are saying let's not deal with the Borough deficit of $398,000+ but let's talk about the past. Our economy is in a recession (in case you haven't noticed) and THE CURRENT COUNCIL is not dealing with it. What are they waiting for....oh wait till Nov. when we might be laying people off to make up for the deficit. How do you expect to pay for the heating oil/air conditioning budget item which is close to exceeding their allotted amount? How do you expect to pay for the gasoline line item on the budget? How are you going to deal with the extra cost involved when the Police Dept. gets their raises? Add all the bonding the current Council wants to do and you tell us where the money is coming from?
Now tell me who is in denial?
Thanks for the same old story with no solution.
the: "It was like that when I got here" excuse is a total cop out by the council members.
do something for the betterment of the entire town - not just the rec committee. propose some solid cost-sutting ideas and force the mayor & the republicans to make tough decisions.
enough of small town petty democrats vs. small town petty republicans. over & over, like children fighting point the fingers at each other. ENOUGH!
either work together to solve our problems or get out of the way and force people who care about matawan work at it. right now there seems to be a lot of conflicted interests involved in our local gov't. i.e. Contracts going to companies connected to the mayor or council members. Smells fishy. politicians using their influence to determine what programs get funded for their buddies is only good for a few select people - not all of Matawan. Shame on you politicians who use our hard earned tax dollars for your personal agendas. Shame.
We should be discussing possible cost savings from merging Matawan and Aberdeen. We could eliminate some debt by selling some public properties in Matawan (such as the police station), reduce costs through greater efficiencies, and move forward faster on needed developments, such as Main St. and the Transit Village Project.
Matawan has the highest tax rate in Monmouth County. At some point, the residents need to say No Mas!
Merging services has been mentioned by Matawan a few years ago. As we recall Aberdeen wasn't interested. One of the problems with merging is the Police Dept. What would happen to the members of the Matawan Police Dept. What would the Police Union think about it?
Moving the Police Dept. to the Broad St location and selling the Main St building has been discussed. Cost is one issue of many.
According to what we have read in your Blog Aberdeener, Aberdeen has problems with its Mayor and Council members. Merging at this point would possibly play right into Scudiery's hands.
Matawan and Aberdeen need Council members(regardless of political affiliation) without their own personal agendas.
My understanding is that Aberdeen's leadership did propose merging the police departments some years ago but that Matawan's police union opposed the move.
No doubt Aberdeen has its problems with pay-to-play and cronyism but at least the town's finances are in order.
As for Scudiery, I think the Menna saga demonstrates he's firmly in control in Matawan as well.
At the very least, we should be discussing a merger. I honestly don't see the status quo as a healthy alternative.
Why when we talk about merging it is always the police department first? We could merge courts, fire officials, road department, recreation, dispatch, arbage collection, even office supplies to make financial improvements. Why don't they look into Matawan jumping on board with the insurance company that Aberdeen uses. It may bring down cost if you have 2 municipalities on one insurance policy.
Matawan and Aberdeen separately hired the same company to do the property revaluations. Requesting a joint bid would have been an obvious savings.
My guess is we could nearly save half a million dollars a year just in professional services and vendor contracts. We could definitely save over another half million by reducing the municipal workforce. That's over a million dollars in immediate annual savings, not to mention the properties.
On the school board, the majority is all Aberdeen. If the towns were merged, they'd have to pay attention to Matawan as well.
Aberdeener, As we recall, you are correct, last year the merging of the Police Dept was not addressed. It was Public Works.
At the last meeting changing Health Insurance was discussed. A presentation was given and it is being considered. To review Matawan's Health Ins. will cost nothing. Apparently, the current Broker did not release all of the necessary data (loss runs, etc.) in order for other Brokers to quote rates. Sounds unethical! No one on Council realized it. We do encourage the Council to change Brokers, as the current policy is costing Matawan big bucks. Our current medical deficit of $398,000+ is proof. We started out this year with a negative $125,000. Our current Chairman of Finance, Mike Cannon, is a better choice than the previous inexperienced Chairperson. One must ask themselves why wasn't the medical insurance previously handled properly? But as we have said before..that is the past. Let's deal with the present.
We agree merging services would help offset costs. However, Matawan needs help now. If Matawan's Council were more financially responsible, the Budget mess could be handled.
We need a Council that will implement all/part of the Beacon Study Report of Main St. We need a Council that will move forward with the Transit Village. We need a Council that will act to cut costs now, not spend more. We need a Council that will be proactive and prepare for future Budgets. We need a Council that will advise what the ramifications of their bonding will cost taxpayers.
We need residents to attend Borough Council meetings and let their voices be heard!
Thanks Aberdeener for your comments. We know you are truly interested in Matawan and Aberdeen'a growth.
Anonymous, We agree we'd like to see the Council work together for Matawan. Once they are elected on Council, politics should be put aside. Unfortunately, that is not the case in Matawan.
The Mayor cannot propose anything without the Council voting for/against it. As the majority Council has stated they have control. One example, Pat Menna, Esq.(a Democrat) was the choice of the Mayor,Councilwoman Clifton and many residents. The Democratic majority voted against their preference. Ask yourself, why? We submit it was not because Mr. Menna lacked experience in Municipal law. It is said that Mr. Menna and Mr. Scudiery (Monmouth County Democratic Chairman) had a falling out. In case you are not aware, Scudiery loaned the County Democratic party $125,000. and donated $8500. in an attempt to re-elect Mary Aufseeser as Mayor. See page 9, under Itemized expenditures made and incurred on Behalf of Candidates & Committees, of the ELEC report donation on 1/15/08 and 1/21/08. For Scudiery's loan see page 10 of ELEC report, under Debts & Obligations, showing an outstanding balance of $122,025. Copies will be provided on request.
Now ask yourself why would Scudiery, as Chairman of the Monmouth Democratic Party, give a small Borough like Matawan $8500. to re-elect an ineffective Democratic Mayor?
Anonymous, We agree we'd like to see the Council work together for Matawan. Once they are elected on Council, politics should be put aside. Unfortunately, that is not the case in Matawan.
The Mayor cannot propose anything without the Council voting for/against it. As the majority Council has stated they have control. One example, Pat Menna, Esq.(a Democrat) was the choice of the Mayor,Councilwoman Clifton and many residents. The Democratic majority voted against their preference. Ask yourself, why? We submit it was not because Mr. Menna lacked experience in Municipal law. It is said that Mr. Menna and Mr. Scudiery (Monmouth County Democratic Chairman) had a falling out. In case you are not aware, Scudiery loaned the County Democratic party $125,000. and donated $8500. in an attempt to re-elect Mary Aufseeser as Mayor. See page 9, under Itemized expenditures made and incurred on Behalf of Candidates & Committees, of the ELEC report donation on 1/15/08 and 1/21/08. For Scudiery's loan see page 10 of ELEC report, under Debts & Obligations, showing an outstanding balance of $122,025. Copies will be provided on request.
Now ask yourself why would Scudiery, as Chairman of the Monmouth Democratic Party, give a small Borough like Matawan $8500. to re-elect an ineffective Democratic Mayor?
Aberdeener, once again you are correct. We also agree on the School Board. These would be long range goals. We would like to see the County take over services to the Boroughs and Towns. The last we heard was from Councilman Cannon, Aberdeen wasn't interested in consolidating services with Matawan. That was the beginning of this year. Our guess is what is in it for Aberdeen? It would help Matawan. Big problem would be with the Transit Village. Don't think Matawan would benefit from a joint venture with Aberdeen. Think Matawan would be against merging with Aberdeen on the Transit Village as we still have a bad taste from all the litigation costs incurred due to false allegations by Silver Oaks, Aberdeen's Developer, etc. To date still don't know who will bear the cost of this litigation.
Thanks Aberdeener, as always you are a force to be reckoned with. We look forward to joining forces Election time to spread the word that what we want is good, ethical government.
From what I understand is the merger was held up because Matawan Borough would be considered a "section" after the merger. The Matawan Union turned it down because they did not want Matawan to be patroled by one officer. They felt it was not fair to the residence and the response time to calls would diminish. Also there was an issue with laying off officers. That is a no no in my book when it comes to public safety.
Thank you Main St. Manny for the info.
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