I think it would be fair to measure the performance of the Point Pleasant Borough Council using Coach Schiano's standard of T.B.A. My next three posts will focus on each one of the Schiano ingredients for success.
Trust
I think serving as an elected government official requires trust. What does that mean? Well, it means always placing the interests of the public ahead of all other interests, including self interest. Can we trust the elected Council in Point Pleasant Borough? You be the judge!
Let's take a brief look at the recent record...
- Aside from the state of NJ being flat broke, Point Pleasant Borough is also flat broke. How did it get that way? Apparently no one knows, or at least no one is accountable for the condition. The finances of the Borough were in such a state of disarray that it took months just to figure out where all the tax dollars were exactly. As a result, the Council proclaimed that they would have to impose employee furloughs and other severe cost cutting measures. Then, magically there appeared "uncounted" revenue that made the furloughs unnecessary. All that can be gathered from recent Council meetings is they are still trying to figure out the Borough's finances.
- An easy way to address the financial dilemma in Point is to use the taxing power of the Council. Would they do that in the middle of what President Obama has declared as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? The answer...Absolutely, and they did! The tax increase has covered up the terrible Borough financial condition at least enough to drive it off the last three agendas.
- The Council found out quite by accident that the percentage of taxes collected had fallen precipitously, from 97% to 88%. No warning, no reports...just a finding of the new auditor. What corrective action has been taken? Nobody knows...no public report has been given.
- The Council discovered that the water and sewer costs and billings were grossly underestimated. To correct the problem there would have to be a surcharge imposed for a year to correct the revenue shortfall. Nobody knows how this happened. It just did.
- Last year the Council approved union employee contracts (Police, etc.) after several years of labor negotiations. The settlement was for 11/2% in each of three years plus whatever eligible employees would receive as part of the longevity salary schedule. When asked about pay raises in a recessionary period when most Borough taxpayers were either being laid off or living with pay cuts (even Social Security recipients had received no cost of living adjustments for two full years), the response was that the Council was concerned that an arbitrator may have awarded even bigger pay increases. This response seemed to presuppose that arbitrators didn't know there was a recession was going on, and property values were plummeting like a stone in water.
Borough was flat broke with no excess funds, no reserves...literally broke. In other words, they spent
taxpayer money they did not have.
But, that is only part of the tragedy. Part of the concept of multiple year union contracts is to get
expensive, disruptive and time consuming negotiations "off the table" for a while. In addition, such
agreements are designed to relieve the angst of negotiations and promote employer-employee
tranquility and harmony. That is not to be in this Borough, as the Council and the employee groups
are right back in the throes of contract negotiations...no break in time or expense. Why is this so?
Because the last contract agreed to just last year was two years late. This condition is unacceptable.
The last set of candidates ran on a platform all of this would be corrected. Corrected how? Nobody knows, because not a word has been reported about any of these missteps at any of the last six Council meetings.
What has preoccupied the Council meetings over the last six months is trash. First, the Mayor suggested a "bundle" (no pun intended) of money could be saved by collecting trash using full time internal staff. After considering that would require hiring more staff, add another collective bargaining unit, and purchasing trucks and other equipment he had to admit the idea was a bad one. Then, several Council members came up with the idea of a shared service agreement with Brick. When asked if Brick had the excess capacity to collect Point's trash with existing personnel and equipment, the answer was "yes". When asked if an agreement would have to be multiple years, thus encumbering the Borough, the answer was "no". When asked if there were any yearly escalators in the proposal, the answer was "no". In the meantime, the Democratic majority at the time went ahead with plans for a bond issue to raise about $850,000 for robocans (remember the Borough is broke). You see, in order to partner with Brick, Point would have to buy robocans, as the Brick collection process is automated. The Republican minority objected on the grounds that bidding for trash collection was still in progress, and the least expensive means to collect trash was still undetermined. Undaunted by the criticism, the Council went forward with the bond vote on first reading. At the very next meeting the bond vote was set. Meanwhile the bids had still not been received. Regardless, the Mayor put the bond up for a vote. The Council deadlocked at three to three along party lines. What the Mayor had not counted on was the fact he could not vote to break a tie on a bond issue. A week later the bids were opened, and the least expensive proposal was from the current trash collection company. Furthermore, it turned out that Brick did not have the capacity to collect Point's trash with existing personnel and they would have to buy used trucks from Rumson. Accordingly, Brick proposed a three year agreement with yearly escalators of 3%. Everything that had been explained to taxpayers was absolutely wrong.
The outcome? Trash will be collected by the current contractor, except services will be reduced. The Council has decided to experiment with single weekly trash collection during the summer months (it used to be twice each week). Lots of political bickering, misinformation, and deception to what end?...Same old, same old! In fact, the Council is still arguing among themselves as to just who should get the credit for reducing the cost of trash collection.
Even to the most casual observer, it appears that the Democrats were wedded to the notion of robocans to such a degree, they were willing to short circuit the bidding process by moving forward with the bonding process without knowing what the bids would be. If a Democrat had been elected in November, Point would undoubtedly have robocans and trash would be collected by Brick. Why were the Democrats so wedded to robocans? No one really knows, because so much information was withheld until the last moment, and up until then, the information given to taxpayers was wrong.
The Republicans on the Council managed to forestall the trash collection change, but not without considerable consternation. Political barbs went back and forth. Is there little wonder that when the Republicans captured the majority, the first thing they did was reject all the proposed political appointments of the Democratic Mayor.
In terms of trust the Council image has been badly damaged. There appears to be considerable in-fighting, a series of very, very serious mistakes, miscues, and even negligence. The Council seems immune to these truths. When challenged, the Council members are defensive, arrogant and even impudent. Some among them apparently see themselves as blameless for all the mistakes and miscues, and do not even feel obliged to share the plans for a "way out". It appears that the Council is less interested in representing what is best for the taxpayers, and more concerned about power and control.
Does the council deserve the trust of the Point Pleasant Borough taxpayers? This writer thinks that public trust is something this Council is lacking, and the Council needs to focus a lot of attention on rebuilding it, literally from scratch. What do you think?
