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March 20, 2007 Aberdeen Town
Council meeting (2007-10-31)
For those of you who have not seen
this before, we have reposted our eyewitness account
of the Aberdeen Town Council meeting where a vote was
taken not to raise taxes this year. There is every indication
that what we don't pay as a tax increase this year will
certainly be included next year. Read below.
I arrived at the Municipal building on foot about 6:50 PM 2007-03-20.
Mr.
Drapkin was exiting his vehicle and making his way toward
the building; I
pointed out to him that the trees in front of the building
(to the right of
the parking lot entrance door) had been removed and there
is now a barren
landscape there.
At the 7 PM Workshop Meeting were Mayor Sobel, Deputy Mayor
Gumbs,
Councilmen Vinci, Drapkin, Minutolo and Raymond, Township
Manager Stuart
Brown, Township Attorney (the male one, the female one showed
up a little
later), the Township Auditor Thomas Fallon, Clerk Karen Ventura,
Mr. Shenton
Chair of the Planning Board, the three guys from the public
who are always
there, and another gentleman in a suit who looked like a
Devino (and I later
found out was Dennis Devino). Gumbs arrived late after the
meeting had
started and discussion of the first item, the budget, was
underway for about
10 minutes.
The budget was discussed for about 40 minutes or so with
both Stuart Brown
and Tom Fallon presenting and fielding questions from the
Council. Many
items were discussed, starting with the fact that the State
will impose a 4%
cap on tax rate hikes next year, which would mean 3.5 cents
for Aberdeen.
The bottom line on the budget was that there would be no
increase or
decrease in taxes this year, but the question was brought
up about whether
they should increase taxes anyway in anticipation of this
rate cap. There
were some expenditures coming up, not the least of which
was the police &
fire pensions funds going from 80% vestment to 100% vestment,
which would
cost about $200,000. The 100% vestment would be a permanent
rise of this
amount for all years following. The Council had given the
Township Manager a
mandate to "control costs" in lieu of raising taxes, and
to that end some
unanticipated and some creative sources of revenue were coming
forth: it was
stated the municipal court revenue had risen almost 30%,
mainly due to the
move of the court date to Wednesday and the new Judge. There
was also a
revenue stream from the new recycling program; whereas the
old program did
not cost the town, it also did not generate revenue; the
new program has
generated $2000 in two months and is expected to increase
as more people get
into the hang of it (they pay by weight). The ultimate goal
is to recycle as
much as possible to cut the trash stream - every bit of trash
costs money to
dispose of while every bit recycled generates revenue. Growth
in investment
income was another source of revenue. Places where money
is being lost
include fighting (and losing) tax assessment appeals, mainly
on commercial
properties.
Right about this time during the budget presentation, Drapkin
and Vinci
started yelling at each other, with Vinci firing at Drapkin "you
stabbed me
in the back", and Drapkin shouting back "you're acting like
a fool - take a
walk!" and Vinci retorting "YOU take a walk". This
escalated for awhile and
Sobel jumped in making it even more heated. I have no idea
what this fight
was about and nobody was saying.
After things calmed down, they went back to talking about
the budget and
Sobel asked whether it made sense for the town to file an "extraordinary
aid" request on principle that some aid may come. Stuart Brown
explained
that the "extraordinary aid" program was "broken" at
the State level,
rewarding towns that mismanage their funds, like Matawan
who has "spent all
their reserve" and is looking at an 11 cent tax increase. He
also explained
that "extraordinary aid" can only be used to offset tax
increases. With that
the Mayor took a straw poll and the Council decided not to
apply for
extraordinary aid by a vote of 4-2. Mr. Brown also talked about
the
upcoming "reval", or what we like to call a "re-assessment",
and Mr. Brown
explained that a "reval" does not increase the town's tax
revenue, but
rather changes who pays what. They did not talk about when
the "reval" was
to take place.
The budget will be presented in April for final approval.
Mr. Perry now walked in after all the budget talk had been
completed. He
asked for a quick rehash of the topic since they would vote
to hear it this
evening. During the rehash, Mr. Perry asked about a meeting
that took place
over the weekend between Mayor Sobel, Councilman Drapkin,
and auditor Thomas
Fallon. He asked "what is the role of the Finance Committee?" of
Sobel, and
asked why the Finance Committee was not informed of this
meeting before it
took place. With hostility, Sobel replied "What do you see your
role as?!"
Apparently the Finance Committee consists of Perry, Raymond,
and Minutolo.
The conversation again got heated, with Perry and Minutolo
versus Sobel,
Minutolo telling Sobel to "stop playing games, this isn't a courtroom" and
Sobel replying "I'm not a lawyer!" Sobel finally apologized
to everyone
saying "I will not violate any protocol in the future".
Sobel and Drapkin
both said the unannounced meeting with the auditor was "no big
deal" and
took place because of a phone call Drapkin placed to get
some questions
answered.
The second item on the agenda was Mr. Shenton introducing
a proposed
ordinance written by Richard Coppola (Township Planner) to
restrict the
height of housing in a manner that is not prone to violation.
This
"McMansion" bill is in response to some new construction around town
that is
out of character. Mr. Perry refered to an example, the houses
on Cambridge
Drive near the Lutheran Church, as "an embarrassment"; when
I talked with
Mr. Shenton after the meeting, he referred to them as "an abomination".
This
ordinance will be heard at the next meeting.
The third item on the agenda was to reclaim a garbage tax
that had been
assessed against the town in 2006, but would be refunded
due to the new
recycling program. Apparently the tax was levied in the first
place for not
meeting mandated recycling goals in 2006.
At about 8 PM the Council adjourned to the Courtroom for
the Council
Meeting. The Pledge was said and the first item was recognition
of Victoria
Devino, an eighth grader who won an essay contest called
Patriot Pen.
Apparently she was in a group of 21 winners out of 5800 entries.
The council approved all the motions discussed in the workshop,
as expected,
then adjourned to Executive Session. I know they were discussing
some
contractual issues regarding the South River Metals project,
and also some
unspecified COAH issue. They did say that action may be taken
after the
session, however I did not stick around.
Addendum:
Actions taken after the Executive Session
- A resolution bringing Ordinance 5-2007 back to the Planning
Board for their comments (the McMansion bill)
- A resolution Authorizing Mayor to sign Memorandum of Agreement
with PRC Group (South River Metals)
- A resolution to go to the Bonding Company for the completion of
Aspen Woods
- A resolution to terminate Mark Coren's contract as a consultant.
Paid for by Aberdeen Green Party,
109 Wilson Ave., Aberdeen, NJ 07747
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