Some questions you may want to ask;
1. How much was paid for the Township Employees to work at the Community Day, Sunday, June 14th including comp time?
2. How much did the township budget for the 2008 Memorial Day parade? How much did the township spend in 2008 on the Memorial Day parade?
3. How much is the township budgeting for the 2009 NJ League of Municipalities Convention for township employees and elected officials to attend (include any expenditures for education)?
4. How much did the township spend in 2008 on the NJ League of Municipalities Convention (include budget amounts listed as education)?
5. What is the total amount owed for all outstanding municipal bonds and municipal bond anticipation notes since 2003? How can we get a list of the terms of those bonds and notes?
6. How much was the 2003 Municipal Bond handled by the Burlington County Bridge Commission? What was the term and interest rate of that bond?
7. How much has the local purpose tax (municipal tax) increased since 2003? How much will it increase in 2009?
8. When can we see each line item by accounting code, including all sub items by accounting code, in the 2009 budget and how it compares to the 2006, 2007 and 2008 budgets with what was actually spent in those budget years?
9. Has the township passed a Salary Resolution and Salary Ordinance for 2009? Where are they posted and are copies available?
10. How much did the township spend to re-do the old Sewer Authority Office in 2008?
11. How much in rent did the township receive in rent from the Sewer Authority in 2006, 2007 and 2008?
12. Can the public see a total of all wages, sick time accrued (value in dollars), longevity, education and bonuses that each township employee will receive in 2009 and received in 2008?
13. Why has the 2009 budget only been discussed publicly at fewer than five public meetings?
14. If the 2009 budget was discussed in closed sessions, when will the minutes from those meetings be made available to the public?
If you intend to ask any or all of the questions that I listed or ask your own, I suggest that you write them down and submit them to the Township Committee during the public comment portion of this Budget Meeting. This way there is a record of your questions and they can't be ignored or overlooked.
If you do not receive an answer from the Committee or Township Clerk, then you can make the same request via an OPRA request form that is available at the Townships Web Site as a downloadable pdf file.
Also John Paff, paff@pobox.com would be very interested in any problems you may have in getting this information. John is a public advocate for openness in government and has successfully won many cases against municipalities that fail to adhere to the NJ Open Public Meetings law as well as the NJ Sunshine Laws.
The Edgewater Park Reporter
16 comments:
They will ignore your questions at the meeting anyway. They are not obligated to respond. If you put in an OPRA request they are required to supply the documents requested if they fit the OPRA rules. So skip the meeting questions and just put in the OPRA request.
Would you want us to ask those questions if republicans were in office?
These questions should be asked no matter who is in office. This committe seems to march to their own drum
To 6/23 5:02 p.m. Anonymous,
Yes I would, but if you check the Municipal Tax increase record of the Republicans when they had control of the Municipal Government, you will find that they never increased by anywhere near the amount that the current group of Democrats have. Try and look at the record going back to 1980 and you will see that this is the truth if you can face it. I must exclude the Democrats who served on Committee in the 1990s because they were fiscally responsible also.
I find your responce interesting Mr Reporter. But if you're so worried about what's going with the committee on why were you sitting at your computer instead of being at the meeting? Guess you can't stir up trouble in person would be my guess.
Gee Anonymous, what makes you think I wasn't one of the three people at the meeting tonight.I just love how any meeting that may require the Committee or the Administrator to answer for their actions, the meeting always gets scheduled at the last min and at dinner time.
Good night KH
The township had no copies of the purposed 09 budget for the public at the meeting last night. When asked the public was told to request a copy from the township clerk. This shows the openness of governance practiced by our township committee and administration. I thought copies were to be available to the public at the meeting.
Also former mayor Hall abstained on the vote to introduce the 2009 budget with no comment. That should tell you what she thinks of the budget and she is not running for re-election this year.
i just heard the other day that everyone over at town hall got a raise. some more than others. why is it that we can not afford a parade, but we can afford raises for the township office workers. i mean even us seniors are NOT getting a cost of living raise in 2010, so why should they??? how about a wage freeze until they figure out where the township is going???
I heard that some even got expensive buyouts to retire.
Well reporter, if the raise and buy outs true. If any one can, I know you will get to the botten of the raises.
PSSSST I just heard KH post things as anonymous to look like people are interested in his comment follies. I think he is off his meds.
In case you idiots don't know (one in particular) All that information should be available to the public, that I don't disagree with. But if you think it's the peoples job at the municipality to get it all together for you, you are much, much more stupid that I had originally thought. You want all that information you have to get it yourself. No one is going to get it together for you. So here's a suggestion mr. reporter. Why don't you use the infinite time you have to get it together for us! Now that would be a public service. If you can do that maybe you are good for something besides just asking stupid questions, complaining, and whining how you don't like the way things are handled. Of coarse it would do no good to see all that information anyway. It won't show us anything we don't already know.
How about that move by Judy Hall? Boy, she's almost like a real politician now!
Pssst----"much smarter then you" why if you are so smart, why then did the resident who asked for the budget copy at the June 23 meeting not get it? Could it be that the elected and public officials in Edgewater Park, make it very difficult for the public to see public information that may expose their poor handling of our municipal operations and taxes. I guess your right, because you are sooooooooo smart and sooooooooo insightful and the EP Reporter and the readers of this blog are sooooooo dumb, why don't you run for municipal office and attend meetings to show us your superior intellect then maybe the EP Reporter would have nothing to write about and we could all be happy and content like the articles in the Bee portray. I feel soooooo humbled by your astute observations and comments "Mr Much Smarter Than You", that I can't wait to see what new intellectual pontifications you bless us with.
Na ya all got it wrong. Much smarter then you is a former committeeman who got a great deal in this new budget.
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