May 6, 2013 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

This past Monday night the Middletown Township Committee came together once again for it's monthly workshop meeting,at this workshop meeting the Committee held a few public hearings for the introduction of the 2013 Municipal Budget, the 2013 Solid Waste Budget and on Bond Ordinance #2013-3087 which authorizes the borrowing of $1.5M for the construction of an artificial turf sports field on Middletown Township Board of Education property and other various sports field improvements around the district.

The meeting was held in the Court House of Town Hall as opposed to the cramped little conference room next to the Clerk's office as I had hoped the it would be and lasted a little over 90 minutes with the budget hearing taking up the first 50 minutes. Afterwards it was announced that a date for the adoption of the budget would scheduled for a future meeting.

After no one spoke regarding the Municipal Solid Waste Budget, a hearing was for Bond Ordinance #2013-8037 was conducted. As I posted earlier, Linda Baum asked if a cost analysis was done and if it available for see and it was stated by Mayor Osmosis (Gerry Scharfenberger) that their was nothing on paper, it was all done in their heads. The meeting quickly moved on from there with the other items on the agenda.

Committee Comments followed by comments from the public (my favorite part of these meetings) begins at the 1:05 mark of the video and as usual is somewhat enlightening and shouldn't be missed.





As always, you can download a copy of the meeting agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars

With Geniuses At Work, Cost Analyses Are Done In Their Heads And Not With A Calculator, Pen or Paper

Before I post the latest video of the Middletown Township Committee at work during this past Monday night's workshop meeting, I have to post this clip, it's a classic!

During the public hearing to discuss the $1.5M bond ordinance(#2013-3087) that will be used to finance the construction of 1 artificial turf sports field on the grounds of Thompson School and other field improvements at various schools around town, resident Linda Baum asked if a cost analysis was done to show revenue neutrality regarding the borrowing of the $1.5M to construct and improve these fields. The reason behind her asking was simple, at a previous meeting Committeeman Kevin Settembrino commented that the field project would be "revenue neutral" (his words) and the bond would be paid off by the money raised through increasing the user fees that various sports leagues around town pay to use the fields. To see if this was true and verify that revenue neutrality was indeed going to be achieved, she wanted to know if any documents existed to support Senttembrino's statement.

In typical fashion, acting mayor Gerry (I learned everything I needed to know about budgeting through osmosis) Scharfenberger told Ms. Baum that yes, there was a cost analysis done but there were no documents that could be OPRA'ed by her to verify the numbers because it was all done in in their (Township Committee/Administrator's) head.

OMG and LOL, I can't stop myself from laughing!  We really do have a bunch of geniuses working for us here in Middletown.