Lots Of Recent Big-Ticket Items

At its Monday Nov. 27, meeting, Tabernacle’s committee is expected to approve two new bonds:

• $8 million bond for “Phase 1” of the new municipal building

• $725,000 bond for a second new fire engine

These new bonds are in addition to three other big-ticket items that the committee recently approved. These are:

• $54,426 for a Fire Command Vehicle (March 28, 2022; Resolution 2022-56)

• $1 million bond to acquire the property for the new municipal building.  (April 25, 2022; Ordinance 2022-04)

• $924,681 to purchase the first new fire truck (April 25, 2022: Resolution 2022-66)

The five items total almost $11,000,000 in the last 18 months.

CFO Rodney Haines is expected to dodge questions about how much the new bonds might increase taxes. I don’t expect him to predict exactly what the terms of the new bonds will be. But he is a Certified Financial Officer, and he should have a ballpark idea of what it costs for townships to borrow money and how much taxes will have to rise to service those loans. 

I expect he’s already shared that estimate with committee members. I doubt he’ll share that information with taxpayers. He’s not big on transparency.

The Costly Municipal Building Decision

With the vote to bond $8 million  for “Phase 1” of the new municipal building, Tabernacle is borrowing  $9,000,000 on the new municipal building so far. That doesn’t include any professional fees that we’ve already paid directly to the architects, engineers, municipal attorneys, etc.. It also doesn’t include costs for Phase 2, whatever that is. The committee has never explained it’s phasing. It also doesn’t include all of the change orders that are likely to come.

Add to this the costs to repair and relocate old town hall, which are unknown.

When all is said and done, taxpayers may well be paying somewhere between $12,000,000 and $15,000,000 to fix its municipal building issues.  

This committee didn’t seriously consider any other alternatives besides the one they chose. It always seemed that they only wanted to build a new building tucked away on the Carranza Road flag lot.

Without question, the committee should have purchased the Sequioa School to meet all of its municipal building needs. It was sold to others for $850,000. It was originally offered to the township for $650,000.

Committee members Sammy Moore, Kim Brown and Joe Barton voted not to buy Sequoia. They made a knee-jerk decision with little thought or inquiry. Surely this vote won’t be inscribed on the bronze plaque that will, no doubt, commemorate the new municipal complex. But residents shouldn’t forget it.

Lost Revenue At The Fire Station

At the October 30, meeting, the committee was asked how much money we got for letting a contractor use the fire house lot for a storage yard for about six months. A neighbor to the site said he was offered $1,100 per month by the equipment owner.  Over six months that would generate about $66,000, which is about a penny on the property tax rate. It also would have completely paid for the fire command car that taxpayers bought in 2022. In fact, we would’ve had more than $10,000 left over to use for some other purpose.

The committee refused to say how much Tabernacle got.  Administrator Brown knew because she had the records. She didn’t answer either.

For lack of an answer, Stuart Brooks submitted an OPRA request for the records. It turns out that Tabernacle got a mere $2,500. It also didn’t get any stone to repair the parking lot, which Fire Chief Zane wanted.

Public Non-Information Officer

At the October 30, meeting, longtime resident Jim Jones commented that he tried to get information from Tabernacle’s Public Information Officer (aka Township Attorney William Burns) but couldn’t.

That’s no surprise. Over the past year, Stuart Brooks tried multiple times to get information from PIO Burns. Burns wouldn’t respond to him either. So Stuart submitted an OPRA request for the PIO’s job description and copies of any information that he’s ever given out.

It turns out that there’s no job description for our PIO and he doesn’t give out information.  

When residents ask multiple times about what the PIO does, it would make sense for the committee to explain the PIO’s duties. Unfortunately, the committee never established a role for the PIO and is always disinclined to explain anything to the public.

Silent People At Work

At the last meeting, Mayor Sammy Moore gaveled residents down immediately after the expiration of their allotted two minutes for public comment. People throughout the audience expressed displeasure at his quick gavel. The mayor got upset.  “Quiet, let us finish our work.”

The irony of his remark is that the committee hardly does any “work” at their meetings. They rarely have any discussions; they hardly ever ask questions; they rarely answer questions or address comments. Their “work” is little more than saying ”aye” when the clerk calls their name to cast a vote. It’s most likely that they discuss their work (the public’s business) in private meetings. That’s illegal.

Bad Communication

Over this past Summer, Tabernacle’s Fire Chief Keith Zane has had a rough time keeping in touch with Tabernacle’s Administrator, Maryalice Brown. She’s had a rough time keeping in touch with him, too.

The net result is about $60,000 of lost revenue for the unauthorized use of the fire station parking lot and the wasting of precious time to replace a failing pumper that can’t travel to fires without breaking down, but is vital to fire safety.

Committee member William Sprague had critical comments about the Fire Department’s six-month delay in raising the pumper’s problems to the committee.

But the committee had nothing to say about why the Fire Department and the Administrator hadn’t talked with each other as these problems arose.

During that six-month period when they weren’t talking, the Fire Department was taking the pumper to seven different shops to get the problems diagnosed. In the Administrator’s office, apparently, no one oversees the Fire Department much. Invoices for the shop visits and failure notices for the pumper weren’t seen. 

Coming on the heels of the troubles caused by the unauthorized use of the fire station parking lot, the six-month delay in talking about the pumper’s problems shouldn’t be ignored. No organization can perform well if critical departments don’t work together.

But when the committee was asked what they were doing about the repeated bad communications between the Fire Department and the Administrator, committee members were silent.

Ten years after the dissolution of the fire district, whose sole mission was to be on top of fire safety, it‘s clear that the Tabernacle committee still hasn’t created an effective management structure. That’s really bad.