A Late 2023 Budget Resolution and No Budget Discussion

The committee remained largely unwilling to discuss next year’s budget. Though the State required municipal introduction and approval of the annual budget by March 31, 2023, Tabernacle finally introduced its budget at the July 3, 2023 meeting. Approval of the budget is expected at the July 31, 2023 meeting. Tabernacle hasn’t been able to adopt its annual budget on time for the last five to ten years.

Committee members haven’t yet discussed their ideas on taxing or spending. The only discussion was an impromptu presentation by CFO Rodney Haines at the last meeting. I commented how irresponsible it was to not have any preliminary budget discussions. In response, Committeewoman Kim Brown asked CFO Haines for a quickie budget overview. 

The rest of the committee sat silent. Their silence makes me think that they don’t understand the budget process and/or have nothing to say about it.  Unfortunately, their silence and lack of thoughtfulness plays out on so many big ticket items, like the new fire truck and the new municipal complex.

Because of the committee’s limited involvement in policy and implementation, they rely largely on their unelected professionals to run Tabernacle.

In his quickie overview, CFO Haines explained that the amount to be raised by taxation is $5,846,053.16. This would require a tax increase of $02. The amount to be raised by taxation in 2022 was $3,213,275.80; a difference of $2,632,777.36.

The increase, Haines said, was largely due to debt servicing on the new one million dollar fire engine. That’s the fire truck that the committee bought in 2021. The purchase was recommended by the new Fire Chief, Keith Zane. The committee accepted his recommendation without any questions or discussion.  

Most neighboring townships have already adopted their budgets by now. Most have had multiple discussions over many months to hash out where to spend, what to trim, and where to set the tax levy. Typically, residents weigh in on the budget as these discussions develop. Not in Tabernacle.

Rather than publishing a proposed budget and making it easy for the public to comment, Administrator Brown and Mayor Moore placed the budget resolution on a “consent agenda.” According to the Clerk’s Desk Reference manual, only routine matters that don’t require discussion should be placed on a consent agenda. The annual budget is not a routine matter and should be discussed extensively.  

Township Clerk Mary Alice Brown said that residents can comment at the hearing at July 31, 2023 township meeting. Does she handle the Woodland annual budget this way? Don’t think so.

By introducing the budget by reference, the actual budget will remain hidden until a week before the budget hearing. This budget is now available at town hall and online.

The public hearing will be the only chance for the public to ask their own questions. But the committee doesn’t answer public questions. I would expect that the committee will rubber stamp CFO Haines’s proposal and move on.

Public comment is typically limited to two minutes. That’s not enough time to digest a budget. The two minute limit was started by current Deputy Mayor Mark Hartman. He justified the limit by explaining that members of the public don’t have anything to say and repeat themselves after two minutes.

In Medford, the committee had multiple meetings on the budget. Tabernacle is poised to have only one. That will be the public hearing scheduled at the July 31, meeting.

Free Rent To A Private Contractor

Also at the meeting, a resident commented that a contractor was currently storing equipment and material on the township fire house parking lot. He added that the same contractor had offered him $1,100 per month to store the items on his own property, but backed out of deal when the township property became available. He asked how much Tabernacle was getting.

Administrator Brown replied that the township wasn’t getting any rent; nothing, zero zilch, nada. She explained that Chief Zane let the contractor use the property for free in exchange for a promise of a future, unspecified donation. 

What’s wrong with that transaction?

1. Giving away public resources to a private business is definitely wrong. It’s outrageous.

At the last meeting, the committee directed Attorney Burns to send a demand letter to the contractor for $1,500 per month, including back rent. Assuming that the contractor has been there for six months, the lost revenue has been $9,000. We’ll see how successful the demand letter is. The letter also would demand that the contractor vacate by September because fire company activities will require that space.

2. No one noticed. No township official noticed that the contractor was using township property, even though his equipment and supplies have been in plain view to everyone who visited or passed the fire house.  

Administrator-Clerk Mary Alice Brown said she didn’t see the equipment or the supplies because she doesn’t drive by the fire house. That’s nonsensical. An administrator should know what’s going on around town, especially at an important and centralized location like the fire house. That’s why we pay her $132,000 annually.

The truth is that Administrator Mary Alice Brown routinely drives by the fire house. She has gone there regularly since March 2023. That’s when the committee started meeting at the fire house in person Covid.

The contractor’s supplies and material remain outside the fire station door. She’s paid to notice, but she just didn’t. An Administrator’s job includes husbanding Tabernacle’s financial and physical resources on behalf of the residents. 

No elected official or professional questioned the equipment either. Everyone could see that the fire station property was being used by a private contractor. All of these people, because of their positions, should have known enough to ask if Tabernacle was getting a fair deal.  

3. The fire chief was way out of line. Before the township created its own fire company, fire protection was provided by an independent fire company. These independents knew that township approval was needed to rent out the fire station and a form was created for that purpose.   

Now that the township’s policy is to not rent out the fire station for events. It should be even clearer that the chain of command for non-operational matters goes through the township administrator and to the committee. 

The Chief’s decision to allow the contractor to use the fire station for free, in exchange for the promise of a donation to the fire company, suggests that the new municipal fire department still sees itself as independent. The independent fire companies always solicited donations. 

How would the Tabernacle fire department even receive private donations? Does the fire department have its own account? 

What’s Happening With The New Municipal Building?

Committeeman Sprague stepped down from the podium at the July 3, 2023 meeting to make public comments as a citizen. Ironically, his comments were cut short by the two-minute ’Hartman Rule’.  Citizen Sprague’s comments wouldn’t have been limited if he had made them as a committee member during the Committee Reports segment of the agenda.

Had Mr. Sprague made his comments as an elected official, rather than as a citizen, he could’ve demanded answers to his questions. He also might have been able to persuade other committee members that action was needed. Those are powers that come with elected office.

By appearing as a citizen, Mr. Sprague forfeited that power. He allowed himself to be ignored like every other citizen. He temporarily reduced the committee from five officials to four. 

One of his comments was right on point. He said that the committee hasn’t issued reports on the status of the new municipal building, as it said it would. Citizen Sprague said that he didn’t know what was going on. 

Just a year or so ago, Committeewoman Nancy McGinnis also said that she was kept out of the loop and didn’t know what was going on.  

When committee members say they’re not getting reports and don’t know what’s going on, it shows serious disfunction. It shows that decisions are being made by a few people and then presented to the committee as a whole for rubber stamp ratification. That’s one explanation for why Tabernacle’s committee has so few discussions about items on their agenda. 

Do we even need to say that elected officials shouldn’t be left out of the loop and left uninformed? This episode is another reason why the committee’s salary increase from $5,000 to $7,500 should be rescinded in this year’s budget. 

Hopefully Committeeman Sprague will followup on his comments during committee reports at Monday’s meeting and get answers for township residents.