January 22, 2019 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

Before tonight's monthly workshop meeting of the Middletown Township Committee, I need to post the monthly business meeting from January 22nd. The meeting that night lasted less than a half hour, which makes watching the video a breeze ... Haha

Here are the few highlights:

This was the first business meeting of the year and began at the new time of 7pm, as it was announced in Resolution 19-52 Annual Meeting Notice. All Township Committee meetings for this year will begin at 7pm.

The Management Salary Ordinance was introduced with a vote scheduled to take place at the February 4 workshop meeting. This ordinance defines the salaries for non-contractual officers and employees, statutory employees and elected officials.

A group of Pickle Ball enthusiasts came in to advocate for courts to play Pickle Ball. They were assured that courts would be drawn on existing tennis courts at Normandy Park initially. After the tennis courts are repaved at Tindal Park, courts would be drawn there. Eventually, they were told that courts would be drawn at Kunkle Park in Leonardo as they requested.



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.

December 3, 2018 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

This past Monday night the Middletown Township Committee got together for it's monthly Workshop meeting. It was a typical December workshop meaning very little was discussed, however, an ordinance was adopted that will provide death benefits for EMS volunteers and another ordinance was adopted that would exempt veterans that are 100% disabled from paying property taxes.

Most of the runtime of the video below can be attributed to Public Comments, which I recommend watching. It's always good to hear what's on the minds of residents that motivates them to attend a Township Committee meeting. Comments being a little after the 25 minute timestamp on the video.





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.

December 18, 2017 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

The last scheduled Township Committee meeting of the year was held this past Monday, December 18th, if you couldn't be there here is the video. Below are a few of the highlight from the meeting:

Corporal Mark Ward was promoted to Sergeant

Certificate of Recognition's were presented to:

• Grace Barker - Retiring as a Crossing Guard
• Tom Garretson - Outstanding Community Service
• HS South Girls Cross Country Team
• HS South Girls Soccer Team

A Proclamation was presented to Patrolman Ekne Montalvo for his service in Puerto Rico.

An ordinance was passed to set fees for additional garbage and recycling carts.

Resolutions that were adopted included:

• Designating the Village 35 area as an area in need of redevelopment.
• A change order for various drainage improvements. 
• Increasing the amount paid towards plumbing and maintenance contracts and the electrical repair and maintenance contracts.

Other items of discussion included:

• A townhouse on Ironwood Court, that the Township has owned for some time, was sold.
• A few members of the public questioned the Village 35 project and the process that will begin now that the Committee has declared the area in need of redevelopment.

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.

December 5, 2016 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

At the December 5th meeting of the Middletown Township Committee, TOMSA and the Middletown Housing Authority made a presentation which included each bodies accomplishments of the past year and what they have planned for the coming year.

During Public Comments information on the new Township Municipal complex was discussed.



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.

Letter: Without Independent Verification Of Election Results County Clerk's Retirement Pension Should Be Held

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:

Dear Editor,

Monmouth County Clerk Claire French (R), should not receive her state pension after she retires this spring, pending an independent investigation into problems with the 2014 General Election results.

While French has claimed the problems that caused vote tallies not to appear on the county clerk election website and required cartridges to be counted by hand, leading to a Republican victory over the Democratic challengers in a hotly contested county freeholder race, were caused by a “technical glitch”, without independent verification we cannot trust the fox to guard the hen house.

County IT director, Gregory Putnam was placed on leave as a result of the incident and has since been reassigned to work at the infamously troubled Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, which was accused by the FBI of leaking information to corrupt Republican officials during Operation Bid Rig. Could this simply be a diversion to enable the real perpetrators to avoid responsibility?

The hiring of Putnam at the Prosecutor's Office also reeks of political nepotism. Based on the election problems, he is either incompetent or corrupt and either way he is not a qualified employee.

Until we get some real answers from credible and independent investigators, we should not allow French to quietly slide away with taxpayer dollars, when it is possible she may have violated her oath of office.

Eric Hafner
Toms River

Letter: Brookdale Cannot Be Saved Due To Politics And Corruption, Should Be Merged With Ocean C.C.

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:

Dear Editor,

Convicted Felon Peter F. Burnham, the former President of Brookdale Community College (Monmouth County) has now been released to serve out the remainder of his five-year sentence for felony official misconduct and theft by deception, for stealing college funds, under parole supervision.

Regardless of where Burnham is now, the county college has been faced with some pretty serious financial problems that likely would not be there had Burnham managed the public monies entrusted to his oversight properly, as he was well paid to do. The college is now facing a massive restructuring that would result in 210 employee positions being slashed.

Former Brookdale Board of Trustees Chairman, Howard Birdsall, who served 20 years on the Brookdale Board, is currently awaiting trial on criminal charges for violating the state’s pay-to-play laws in his role as CEO of Birdsall Engineering, a firm with major public contracts all over New Jersey.

The college’s building Larrison Hall is named after a Monmouth County Freeholder who died under indictment for taking bribes.

Brookdale suspiciously had a campus in Guayaquil, Ecuador during the 1980s and 1990s. Ecaudor is a country with a U.S. dollar banking system that has little anti-money laundering oversight and a massive amount of cocaine trafficking taking place within it's borders. Why a county-funded New Jersey Community College would seek to locate a campus there is highly suspect.

Brookdale is currently facing massive faculty and staff layoffs. The students and educators are the real victims of Burnham-Birdsall mismanagement that is typical New Jersey fraud and corruption.

Brookdale cannot be saved. Brookdale's executive staff should be fired and the institution merged into Ocean County College.

Eric Hafner
Toms River NJ,

November 18, 2013 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

I've really been lax the past few months when it has come to posting the videos from the monthly Township Committee meetings. I promise I'll do better in the future.

Here are the highlights from the most recent video of our Township Committee in action that took place on November 18th:

The meeting opened by giving recognition to Breast Intentions for their effort during October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

A new CFO was named and will begin work in December.

Residents from North Middletown came to continue in the effort of eliminating the need to purchase flood insurance because they live within a flood protected area.

An inquiry was also made to see if the Township was receptive in vacating Beacon Hill Rd.

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.

Out of the Ordinary, Middletown Budget Hearing Scheduled For May 6th Workshop Meeting

This coming Monday night, May 6th, the Middletown Township Committee will be holding a hearing on its proposed 2013 FY budget (after it had been introduced back in March). This year's budget hearing is a little out of the ordinary, in the sense that the Committee will be holding this hearing on a night scheduled for a workshop meeting as opposed to during a normal monthly business meeting. Why is that?

Workshop meetings are generally held in the small conference room next to the Clerks office. This room is cramped, has limited seating and very often fewer than a dozen people attend this meeting.  It should really be held during the monthly business meeting which is on the 3rd Monday of each month. It's as if the Township Committee is trying to hide something and doesn't want the public to know about it. As of today, there is still no notice of the hearing on the Township's website and nobody bothered to mention it at the last two Township Committee meetings on April 1st & 15th, which is strange seeing how public notices were sent out prior to the April 15th meeting (but you'd have to do a bit of research at this point to find them).

While the attitude may be who cares? And this isn't any big deal, it really is.

People do have a right to know about this meeting and trying to keep it quiet to discourage public participation is wrong. Very few people today look at the public notice section of the newspaper anymore, making a public announcement at a meeting in this instance, is more than warranted and is just common courtesy. After all, public announcements by the Township Committee are made all the time when a public hearing needs to be held on a new township ordinance or resolution. You would think that something that affects residents tax dollars such as a hearing on a proposed budget would be given the same treatment.

Evidently not.

(TRT Public Notice Middletown FY 2013 Budget Hearing)

Don't let Gov. Christie sneak school vouchers into the budget

From the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey:

If at first you don't succeed, slip your plan into a budget bill when you think no one's looking. That's exactly what Gov. Chris Christie has done by stuffing a $2 million private school voucher program into the budget.

The only way to remove a proposal slipped into the budget is if our legislators take it out. Email your lawmakers in Trenton: Tell them that shoehorning vouchers into the budget is unconstitutional.

This $2 million plan for private school vouchers violates the New Jersey Constitution in three ways:

• The state Constitution forbids officials from using the budget process to create substantive new policies, but that's exactly what's happening with vouchers. It's one thing to consider legislation through an open process with public input; it's another to sneak an unpopular, controversial, constitutionally questionable program in the state budget.
• NJ's Constitution calls for a "thorough and efficient" education, and it spells out how: through a "system of free public schools." It explicitly states that money for that system of free public schools should be used only for that purpose and nothing else.
• Private school vouchers use government money to support religious organizations. "Private schools" range widely, but the most affordable ones, where the majority of tuition can be covered by the vouchers, tend to be parochial schools. (More than half of private schools nationwide are religiously affiliated.) That means private school vouchers encourage enrollment in religious schools, and when state money goes to a parochial school, it violates the state Constitution's ban on public money supporting religious institutions . What's more troubling is that legislators have said publicly they hope vouchers will support religious schools with financial struggles. That is not why we pay taxes.

When school vouchers are discussed in the public arena, they're not popular – and for good reason. They divert public education funding to private and religious schools where civil rights laws, transparency regulations, and state standards don't always apply.

When a reporter asked the Christie administration about potential legal action challenging the constitutionality of Christie's actions, his spokesman replied: Bring it on.

Well, right now you can bring it on – by bringing your voice to your legislators.

Our hard-earned dollars should be spent on educating our children, not diverting money into unaccountable, secretive schools that have no imperative to respect students' or employees' civil rights.

ACLU of New Jersey
www.aclu-nj.org

To Those Who Need It

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:

“Banker,” “revolutionary,” and “visionary” are not words often associated with each other. Yet all apply to Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who this week was honored with our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, under legislation that I wrote and helped pass with help from many New Jerseyans.

Born and educated in what is today Bangladesh, Dr. Yunus discovered that impoverished people could not get ahead because of the predatory lending practices of money-lenders. Starting with just $27 of his own money, Dr. Yunus showed that, contrary to the old, cynical saying than bankers “loan money only to people who don’t need it,” it could be profitable to loan money to poor people who had not shown marketable skills or facility in handling money. In the face of skepticism and opposition, he built a microcredit banking business that thrived, lifted millions of people out of poverty, and provided a model for similar work around the world.


In 2006, New Jerseyans who were inspired by Dr. Yunus’s work – organized through RESULTS NJ – urged me to help honor his contributions and raise awareness of microcredit by working to award him a Congressional Gold Medal. Awarding the medal was not easy; we had to work for four years and talk one by one to hundreds of lawmakers. I feel certain that the effort has generated awareness and durable support in Congress for anti-poverty microfinance programs.

Now Dr. Yunus is developing his model for eliminating poverty – not simply alleviating poverty, but eliminating poverty. Does this sound preposterously idealistic? To many it does. However, we would do well to listen to someone who has such a clear, remarkable record of exploding long-cherished myths about business, money, and poverty.

A Receipt for Your Taxes

As you know, Monday was the deadline to file your 2012 income taxes with the Internal Revenue Service. I encourage you to take a few moments to visit the White House’s 2012 Federal Taxpayer Receipt, which will show you how your tax dollars are being spent.

You may be surprised to learn, for instance, that the clear majority of tax dollars go to support just three programs: Social Security, Medicare, and the Department of Defense. As the economist and Central New Jersey resident Paul Krugman has often commented, the United States government is, from a budgetary perspective, “an insurance company with an army” – an insight that we would all do well to bear in mind when considering the anti-government rhetoric so prevalent in Washington today and when considering possible changes in the federal budget.

“Precious – Almost Sacred”

The history of American elections is a story of an expanding right to vote. The franchise was once extended only to land-owning whites, but over centuries, America has expanded it far more broadly: to non-landowners, to women, and to minorities. Over the years, through various laws we have made it more difficult to exclude people from registering and voting.

One of the heroes in that long story is my friend John Lewis, the Georgia congressman who suffered grave injuries during his nonviolent protests that helped inspire the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This week he joined me and other New Jersey officials to call on Gov. Christie to take the next step in expanding the franchise: bringing early voting to New Jersey.

The flaws of a one-day-only voting system were all too obvious last November. Many voters across the nation had to wait in long lines on Election Day, and many New Jersey voters affected by Hurricane Sandy could not make it to the polls at all.

The rational, simple solution to this problem – already embraced by more than 30 states – is to allow voters to cast their ballots any time during a period of days or weeks leading up to Election Day. The state legislature has already passed a bill to give New Jerseyans 15 days to vote early. Now, we just need Gov. Christie to sign it into law.

As Rep. Lewis said, “The vote is precious – almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool that we have in a democratic society to bring about change. It is my hope that the governor of the state of New Jersey will do what is right, what is fair and what is just, and sign this piece of legislation.”

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Middletown Twp Committee Approves Lucrative Board Compensation

by Linda Baum


While every other board and commission in Middletown is 100% volunteer, the Sewerage Authority (TOMSA) board members are highly compensated – they receive salary, pension credit, and health benefits. The board meets once a month for less than an hour.

When the Sewerage Authority was formed back in the 1960s, the board met between 3 and 5 times a week during the period when the sewer system was being designed. Today, the board’s effort is no greater than that of any other board in town, all the rest of whom volunteer their time.

Further, in the beginning TOMSA board members received only an annual stipend of $1000. They did not receive pension or medical benefits, which are in violation of the Township’s own ordinances that state that TOMSA board members shall receive no compensation other than salary.

There are 5 regular members and 2 alternates on the TOMSA board. Today, the annual salaries are $2,150 for the chairperson and $1,750 for other members. Health and pension benefits are worth tens of thousands more.

In 2009, in response to a new state law, the Township Committee passed Ordinance No. 2009-2967, which states “the Township Committee of the Township of Middletown believes it is the best interest of the taxpayers of the Township to eliminate the receipt of pension and/or health benefits by part-time elected and appointed officials”.

That ordinance stripped pension and health benefits for new board appointees but allowed for the continuation of benefits for any board member currently receiving them.

Thus, the Township Committee can save taxpayers a great deal of money by not re-appointing TOMSA board members as terms expire. Yet the re-appointments continue.

At Middletown’s annual organization meeting on Jan 6th, the Township Committee re-appointed to 5-year terms three members of the Sewerage Authority board whose current terms expire on Feb. 1st.

One of the re-appointees, Thomas Stokes, has been on the TOMSA board 25 years next month and has lived out-of-state half the year since 2010. With his re-appointment to the board, Mr. Stokes was changed from a regular member to an alternate, no doubt to save him the trouble of attending meetings while he continues to collect salary and benefits through Feb. 2018.

The patronage needs to end. Residents should demand that the Township Committee pass an ordinance eliminating all compensation – salary and benefits – for all board members.

Eliminating TOMSA board perks would save Middletown property owners over $100,000 a year.

Middletown Library In Dire Financial Straights, Its Future Is In Jeopardy

A number of people over the past year, have been expressed their concerns about the future of Middletown's library, chief among them have been Randell Gabrielan and Linda Baum, who have warned repeatedly of the consequences that are now shaping up to take place, due to the Township's meddling in the affairs of the library and the raiding of it's funds. Library hours and services will soon be cut back, branches will be closed and possible employee lay offs could be starting next month or very early in the new year.

Consider how important our library has been to our community and all the good it has done for Middletown, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it's a damn shame what's been happening to it and the fate that awaits it, starting tonight, at the monthly Board of Trustees meeting.  Tonight, the Board of Trustees will be discussing the budget for next year and thus the fate of its ongoing operations.

 According to the latest blog post by Library Director, Susan O'Neal (posted on the library's website yesterday) -  Library Working on 2013 Budget - the situation seems dire:

 ...Some very hard decisions lie ahead, and the Board of Trustees will be discussing this budget, starting tomorrow night. The details are not available yet, but we're prepping for a budget with these facts at hand.

1. The budget from the Township, called the municipal appropriation, will be reduced by 3.84% to $3,470,977, or $139,407 less than the 2012 appropriation. The cumulative decrease is 20% in 4 years.

2.Of this, $1,333,493 is expected to be chargebacks to be paid back to the Township for payroll, health care and retirement contributions and insurance costs. That's 40% of the municipal appropriation for the library, and we haven't even written out what we need to spend for books. These chargebacks are $300,000 more than was requested in 2011.

3. The net change in the financial picture since July of this year is -MINUS $477,407. Some of you predicted this last year when the library transfered nearly $500,000 in reserve funds to the Township.

What is there that can be done by library supporters/patrons to try and head off potential service cuts or branch closures? Ms. O'Neal states in her blog post:

"...The budget discussion will take place in open session, of course, and, hearing your priorities will be helpful to us as it is decided what stays and what goes....

You can come to the meeting or send me your comments. All signed comments will be shared with the Trustees of the Library." 

If you can't make it to tonight's meeting, you can send your comments to the Library Director via her email - soneal@mtpl.org 

The Middletown Library system has often been described as the "Jewel" of our community, I hope that residents make themselves heard loud and clear, in order to head off or lessen the severity of potential budget and/or service cuts that seem imminent. The jewel has lost a lot of  it's shine over the past 20 months, to allow it to be tarnish and grow dim any further would be wrong.  

NJPP Monday Minute 5/10/10: Christie Budget Diverts Federal Funds Away from Human Needs

Even though New Jersey receives only 57 cents back for every dollar in taxes sent to Washington, federal funds still provide important support to services in the state. Many believe the federal government determines how federal funds are used. The reality is that the state often has considerable discretion in the amount of federal funds the state gets and how those funds are used.

In addition to the $28.3 billion in state funds Gov. Christie proposes to spend in Fiscal Year 2011, another $12.5 billion in federal funds likely will be available for state programs. Approximately $7.7 billion of these funds (62 percent) would be spent in FY 2011 through the Department of Human Services, another $1.2 billion through the Transportation Trust Fund and just under $1 billion through the Department of Education. Within the Department of Human Services, the largest federal program by far is Medicaid ($4.6 billion).

It is important to understand how federal funds interact with state funds in order to maximize their effectiveness because state funds often generate federal funds. The state budget is ineffective in the way it explains federal funds, so it is not apparent what the total impact is on the budget, economy or the people receiving services. Those federal funds are often bundled in larger budget categories, but in some cases they are not accounted for at all.

For example, the state FY 2011 budget shows state "savings" of $43 million from three programs in the Department of Human Services: $14 million by reducing payments to workers providing personal assistance to people with developmental disabilities; $25 million by denying health coverage to 39,000 low-income parents in FamilyCare; and $4 million by eliminating orthodontic services to the poorest children in the state. What the budget does not show is that those cuts in state funds will result in an additional loss of $74 million in federal funds in those programs: $22 million, $48 million, and $4 million respectively. That is because each state appropriation to those programs is matched to some degree by federal dollars. To make matter worse, this results in an actual loss of $117 million in benefits to the vulnerable people served by those programs.

Because the state budget is not much help when it comes to understanding the impact of federal funds on the state, it's important to understand how federal funds work to figure this out. There are basically two types of federal grants: categorical and entitlements. Categorical grants are the most common source of federal aid to state and local governments and can only be used for narrowly defined purposes like the Mental Health Block Grant. Categorical grants are subject to the annual federal appropriations process which takes place after New Jersey passes its own state budget by June 30th of each year. Because of this timing issue, states do not know for certain how much federal money they will receive until the federal appropriations process is complete at the end of September.

Entitlement grants are generally larger than categorical grants, are not subject to the appropriations process and sometimes require state matching funds. Unless Congress changes the law authorizing the entitlement, the federal government must make the funds available to those "entitled" to receive the assistance.

There are two types of entitlement grants: open-ended entitlements to the individual or entitlements to the state. Medicaid is an entitlement to the individual. Anyone who meets the state's eligibility criteria is eligible for assistance. No matter what the cost, the federal government will reimburse the state 50 percent of total expenditures to eligible individuals. Similarly, the state must make the state funds available to serve all eligible residents who apply.

The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) grant (which New Jersey calls WorkFirst New Jersey) is an entitlement to the state. The state is guaranteed to receive $404 million every year, but can close enrollment to families applying for cash assistance if funds run out.

States have discretion in entitlement program benefits and eligibility levels. This has consequences for the state budget when significant amounts of new federal funds become available. For example, the additional federal funds provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helped states avoid cutbacks in essential services. Big increases in federal matching funds can free up state matching funds that can then be used for any purpose.

Often a state must adhere to a "maintenance of effort" requirement as a condition for receiving additional federal funds. Generally this means a state must maintain its state funding for the program and use the additional federal funds to avoid cutbacks in services. Funding for Medicaid, for example, was increased by about $2 billion in the last two years. Most of these freed-up funds were used to reduce New Jersey's budget shortfall because the state maintained its state funding from the previous year, but a small portion of them was also used to eliminate premiums for low-income children in FamilyCare.

New Jersey expects to receive another major increase in federal funds in FY 2011 as a result of the new health reform law and a partial extension of economic stimulus funds. Gov. Christie plans to use the $1 billion the state expects to receive in Medicaid stimulus money to balance the state budget. At the same time he plans to reduce coverage in Medicaid and deny health coverage to about 50,000 parents in FamilyCare.

Similarly, the FY 2011 budget estimates the receipt of about $90 million in new federal funds to reduce the state cost for medical assistance to individuals receiving General Assistance. Although these new federal funds are available, the governor proposes to save a net of $27 million by eliminating the monthly cash assistance of $140 to about 35,000 unemployed individuals. Rather than support the state's most needy, the governor will use the funds to balance the budget.

New Jersey also expects to receive a windfall in federal funds next year for the Pharmaceutical Assistance for the Aged and Disabled (PAAD) program as a result of national health reform. These funds were not obligated in the governor's budget because they were not anticipated when it was prepared. The Legislature therefore could use those funds to eliminate the $310 annual deductible to PAAD recipients and the co-pay increases proposed in the Governor's budget.

Just as with state funds, how federal funds are used is a matter of choices and priorities.