In his commentary Mr. Mercantante lambastes all the "Monday morning quarterbacking going on" that has been surrounding the controversial decision of the no-bid contracts that were awarded to AshBritt Inc., for Hurricane Sandy related debris removal.
I think Mr. Mercantante protests to much. After all, if he and the Township Committee did their due diligence as other towns had done instead of jumping on Chris Christie's bandwagon once again, the town could have saved nearly half of the $14M it spent on debris removal!
Saying that there was no time to shop around for a better price is nonsense when you're dealing with taxpayers dollars. The rush to have debris removed from the streets didn't get people back into their homes any faster than if they would have waited a week or so for a better price from a local hauler as opposed to giving AshBritt millions to do the job.
It's funny how the sleight of hand in Middletown works, Gerry Scharfenberger has repeatedly stated that the town couldn't go out and hire small contractors to pick up the storm debris but yet the township committee passed numerous resolutions in the days following Hurricane Sandy to do just that, after giving the main no-bid contract for debris removal to AshBritt.
- 12-247 - Emergency Contract With Ashbritt, Inc For Storm Debris Removal Services
- 12-248 - Emergency Contract With Arcadis-US, Inc For Storm Debris Management Monitoring & Technical Assistance Services
- 12-249 - Emergency Contract With Bennett Property & Design Works For Curbside Collection & Trucking of Storm Debris
- 12-251 - Emergency Contract With Sutton Trucking LLC FOr Curbside Collection & Trucking Of Storm Debris
- 12-252 - Emergency Contract With Montecalvo Disposal Services For Loading & Trucking Of Storm Debris.
- 12-268 - Ratifying Remaining Emergency Contracts In Relation to Superstorm Sandy.
5 comments:
You forget that the Mayor Scharfenberger's middle name -- thanks to his own actions the last time he ran for office -- is 'Mendacity'. As a reminder he was called-out in the Asbury Press in an article and in an editorial specifically for withholding the facts/truths when directly asked regarding his salaried position with NJ State governemnt; being present at a meeting with Senator Kyrillos and others regarding Shadow Lake (captured in an audio recording) and for stating that he hadn't been taking his annual stipend as a Township Committee member. He is just warming-up for the upcoming election season. Merchantante is his unofficial point-man who is trying to deflect what should be a front and center campaign issue. If properly used $7,000,000 could go a long way in the 2013 $66 million township budget.
The Press article sbout Scharfenberger was titled "Tongue Tied for a Reason" and his middle name should be mediocrity ! Self centered,self serving,integrity challenged character, Settembrind not much better and Merchantante is interested in job security so maybe that explains him.
Just read Mercantante's piece. Thanks for pointing it out as I missed it in the paper. if Ashbritt had a State Contract in place before the storm, Mercantante is on solid ground? So, ask him to prove it ---provide the State Contract number. Simple.
What prevented Charles Rogers, Middletown Emergency Coordinator, from having a preapproved list of contractors ready and available for the clean-up efforts, just like Public Works has for snow removal?
Again, just a little bit of long to medium range planning would have presented the opportunity to choose less expensive contractors. Unless this was more about Republican political payback.
Merchantante and elected offficials should have been better prepared and they weren't. By-the-way, Emergency Coordinator, Charles Rogers, is a Republican Party official and enjoys the patronage provide by being appointed to the Middletown Sewerage Authority.
The corruptive political atmosphere and the lousy republican politicians make the decent people in this town want to puke !
Post a Comment