MIDDLETOWN NEEDS TO REIGN IN DEVELOPMENT

On October 29th, Middletown Committeeman Tony Fiore wrote a lengthy Facebook post responding to residents concerns over the Board of Education's proposed plan to rezone the school district due to too much development in Middletown. As usual, whenever Fiore tries to "mansplain" anything, he relies on half-truths and authoritative sounding comments designed to deflect any culpability in things that adversely effects the township, for his own political well being and that of his fellow committee members.
   
With that in mind, it was refreshing to see Facebook user Michael DiCicco respond to Fiore's comments about how the township has opposed virtually all new development in Middletown over the past decade. He does a good job of setting him straight:

In commenting on the school redistricting report prepared by T&M Associates and answering why Middletown allows development, Tony Fiore wrote “the Township Committee has opposed almost all development over the past decade.” That statement is not true.

In documents filed with the Monmouth County Superior Court describing the Township’s commitment to development, the Township Committee told the Court:

1.​“On July 20, 2009, the Township adopted Ordinance Number 2009-2979, rezoning highly developable properties commonly known as the Meadowview, Mountain Hill and Four Ponds sites, specifically to facilitate inclusionary development,” that is, low and moderate income housing.

2.​“On September 8, 2009, implementing Ordinance Number 2009-2979, the Township adopted Resolution Number 09-219 authorizing the execution of a Developer’s Agreement with Mountain Hill LLC to provide for the development of 80 low and moderate income family rental units, with at least 50% of the units being reserved as low income rentals.”

3.​“On November 16, 2009, the Township adopted Ordinance Number 2009-2991 conveying property for the development of affordable housing to Housing and United Services.”

4.​“On November 16, 2009, the Township adopted Ordinance Number 2009-2992 further rezoning various properties throughout the Township, commonly known as Laurel Avenue, Steiner, Atlantic Pier, and Taylor’s Lane Sites specifically for the purpose of facilitating inclusionary development,” that is, low and moderate income housing.

5.​“On March 3, 2010, the Township’s Planning Board approved the application for Meadowview LLC for the development of 38 condominiums, including 9 affordable units for low to moderate income households.”

6.​“On May 7, 2014, the Township’s Planning Board approved the application of the Atlantic Pier Company, Inc. for the development of 40 units, including 10 affordable family rental units.”

7.​“On December 3, 2014, the Township’s Planning Board approved the application of Bayshore Village LLC for the development of 110 affordable senior rental units.”

8.​“On March 4, 2015, the Township’s Planning Board approved the application of American Properties at Middletown, LLC for the development of 195 townhomes, plus 49 affordable for sale units.”

9.​“On July 1, 2015, the Township’s Planning Board approved the General Development Plan for Village 35 LP for Toll Brothers as contract purchasers of the Mountain Hill site to include up to 350 residential units including 70 affordable rental units.”

​These pro-development actions recited by the Township Committee in its court filing are reproduced here verbatim. The actions speak much louder than Mr. Fiore’s words. The Township Committee has not opposed development over the last decade. Rather, its liberal, pro-development policies are at the root of many problems that are now surfacing in Middletown which include overcrowding, traffic, infrastructure deterioration, potential loss of school choice, and loss of open space.

BOE Voting Meeting - December 13, 2016: Legal Fees Controversy

I finished watching the latest recording of the Middeltown Board of Education meeting late Monday afternoon and needed some time to post it to the blog, so that I could process what I had finished watching. And it's good that I did. The Asbury Park Press posted two articles about what transpired during the meeting which saves me a lot of time trying to explain it myself:

Posted online Monday was, "7 highlights from Middletown schools' audit", which pointed out some very good news for the district:

Revenues

• $206,501,974: This figure includes all the money that flows into the district, most of which is property taxes. In 2015, total revenues were $192.8 million.

Property taxes

• $137,004,630: The township schools are the single-biggest contributor to the bottom line on your property tax bill. The district collected about $4 million more from homeowners in 2016, an increase of 3 percent from the previous year. Local taxes make up 76 percent of the public money that fund Middletown schools.

Expenses

• 206,168,208: Transportation was one area that shot up. Getting students to and from school cost $10.8 million, or $866,000 more than in 2015.

Teacher compensation

• $75,592,658: The cost of instruction increased by less than 1 percent from 2015. The $570,000 in new money went to negotiated salary increases and a handful of new positions. The certified teaching staff was counted at 922.

Enrollment

• 9,698: For some perspective, 10 years ago the district had 427 more students in class on an average day. There are 12.6 pupils for every teacher. The national average is about 16 to 1, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Cost per pupil

• $16,510: This represents the highest amount the district has ever spent, but it's still relatively low. The average district in New Jersey was paying close to $20,000 for each student in the 2014-2015 school year, according to the Taxpayers Guide to Education Spending.

Debt

• $68,920,000: That's down $3.8 million from the previous year. The district's bond rating remains at "AA", which is the second-highest rating that Standard & Poor's assigns. Generally speaking, the higher the rating, the less it costs to borrow money. About 4 percent of district spending goes to paying down debt and interest.

I would like to see some of that savings "banked" for a rainy day because I know theater are things coming down the line that will cost the district big time over the next couple of years.

The other article posted yesterday, "Middletown school board hires outside lawyers for ethics dispute", however is what gave me pause and the need to think before posting about what I had experienced after watching the BOE video. During a 20 minute discussion (triad really) beginning at 1:12:00 mark of the video, Middletown Board of Education disfunction once again raised it's ugly head.

In essence, a last minute item was added to the night's Agenda that many Board members weren't fully aware of.  That item was for the approval of the hiring of the law firm of Giordano, Halleran & Cielsa, PC as special counsel to represent 5 Board members in connection with the several ethic complaints they filed against fellow member Joan Minnuies, some of which has been dismissed, while some others have been bumped up to OAL litigation.

For this representation, the school district will be paying any legal bills associated with the litigation of the 5 individual Board members, Vinnie Brand, Bob Banta, Ernest Donnelly, Michael Donlon and BOE president Jim Cody  at the rate of $250/hour for litigation counsel and $100/hour for paralegal/legal assistant time with NO cap on the fees!

When the items was being introduced, Board member Sue Griffin made a motion to table the item until the following meeting, when the new BOE could discuss it further and decide whether it was appropriate or not to continue. After a heated argument between Griffin, Brand and Cody erupted about due diligence of board members still sitting on the Board and what was actually stated in the legal agreement that was to be voted on, the board went into executive session to discuss the item further.

Again you can watch the whole exchange staying at the 1:12:00 minute mark of the video.

In my opinion, this is outrageous and utter waste of tax payers money. If the School Ethics Board dropped some other charges against Joan Minnuies but couldn't decide on others and referred them for OAL litigation to pass the buck so to speak, then the charges aren't worth pursuing if it means that it could cost the district tens of thousands of dollars! And that's not easy for me to say, I'm not a big Joan Minnuies fan.  All this comes down to now is a very expensive, personal vendetta against Minnuies by her fellow board members - two of which, Brand and Banta, will no longer be members of the board, when legal action will proceed and representation will be needed sometime next year.

If action does move forward on this now frivolous legal action, than I think Vinnie Brand and Bob Banta should have to pay for their own legal expenses since they will no longer be members of the Board of Education.

There has also been outrage expressed by some Middletown residents HERE and HERE on Facebook over this.

But, as Board president Jim Cody stated during the video, there's nothing really to worry about.  No money from the school budget will be allocated for legal fees. The cost of legal fees will come out of the BOE's Legal Services budget.  HA-HA, ain't that great! It's all one and the same to me.

I would expect that once the new Board takes control next month this issue will be looked at once again and the correct decision will be made to kill this nonsense once and for all.