TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, WARREN COUNTY

                                                                                 Regular Minutes
                                                                                 August 21, 2007

The regular meeting of the Township Committee was held this date at the Municipal/Police Building located on Little Philadelphia Road.  The meeting was called to order at 7:35 p.m.  by Mayor John Horensky.

SUNSHINE LAW COMPLIANCE - The Mayor noted that this meeting was being held in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Law of 1975 in as much as a notice had been published in the Star Gazette and transmitted to the Express Times,  posted at the Municipal Building and a copy is in the Clerk’s Office

ROLL CALL: Dempski, present; Elbassiouny, present; Kovacs, present; Mueller, present.  Horensky, present.  Michael Lavery, Township Attorney, Mary Ann O’Neil, Township Clerk, Peter de Boer, Public Works Manager and Chief Mc Donald were also present.

SALUTE TO FLAG

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Mueller made a motion to approve the Regular Minutes from July 17, 2007, Elbassiouny seconded.   All were in favor.

Kovacs made a motion to approve the Executive Minutes from July 17, 2007, Elbassiouny seconded.  All were in favor.

RESOLUTION
Kovacs made a motion to approve Resolution 07-91, Resolution of the Township of Washington, County of Warren, State of New Jersey, Authorizing the Sale of Municipal Personal Property no longer needed for a Public Purpose, Pursuant to N JSA 40A:11-36, Dempski seconded.
Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

The Mayor said high bidders on the vehicles were: Vito Magnotti on the 1996 Ford F250 in the amount of $2632, Jersey One Auto Sales on the 1997 Ford Expedition in the amount of $1248 and Air Compressor in the amount of $111; Andrew Hart on the 1968 Ford 3500 Tractor in the amount of $1725 and DeVino Used Truck Parts for a 1968 Army Truck in the amount of $777.00.

ORDINANCES
Elbassiouny made a motion to open Ordinance 07-12 Ordinance of the Township of Washington, County of Warren, State of New Jersey Amending and Supplementing Section 123–36 “Certificates of Occupancy” of the Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Washington, Warren County, New Jersey, Dempski seconded. All were in favor. Nobody from the audience wished to be heard. Mueller made a motion to close the public hearing, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Horensky, yes.
Elbassiouny made a motion to approve Ordinance 07-12, after public hearing and second reading, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Elbassiouny, yes; Dempski, yes; Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Kovacs made a motion to open Ordinance 07-14 Ordinance to Amend an Ordinance Fixing the Salaries of the Officers & Employees of the Township of Washington, County of Warren and State of New Jersey,  (Litter Patrol), to the public, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.
Nobody from the audience wished to be heard. Kovacs made a motion to close the public hearing. All were in favor.
Mueller made a motion to adopt Ordinance 07-14, after public hearing and second reading, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Horensky yes.

Dempski made a motion to open Ordinance 07-15 Ordinance of the Township of Washington to Amend, Revise and Supplement Chapter 89 “Noise”, Section 2, “Enumeration of Loud Disturbing and Unnecessary Noises,” of the Code of the Township of Washington to Reference the Noise Section of the Nuisance Ordinance, to the public, Elbassiouny seconded.  All were in favor.  Nobody from the audience wished to be heard.  Mueller made a motion to close the public hearing, Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.  Kovacs made a motion to adopt Ordinance 07-15, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Elbassiouny made a motion to open 07-16 Ordinance of the Township of Washington to Amend, Revise, and Supplement Chapter 90, “Nuisances” Section 4, “Nuisances Enumerated,” of the Code of the Township of Washington to Clarify the Subsection on Noise to the public, Dempski seconded. All were in favor.  Nobody from the audience wished to be heard.  Kovacs made a motion to close the public hearing, Mueller seconded. All were in favor. Mueller made a motion to adopt Ordinance 07-16, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Horensky, yes.

Elbassiouny made a motion to open Ordinance 07-17 Bond Ordinance to Appropriate an additional sum of $1,000,000 for various building improvements in, by and for the Township of Washington, County of Warren, New Jersey, to make a down payment, to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such additional appropriation and to provide for the issuance of Bond Anticipation Notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds, Dempski seconded. All were in favor.

Richard Strunk, 116 Brass Castle Road, said with this added $1 million dollars of additional debt, the Committee will have $8 million dollars of borrowed money that is not paid off, which simply means that when they float a permanent bond next year that the average taxpayer will have an additional $400 to $500 of additional property tax increase over the next 20 years because of this money. Instead of borrowing the money to pay for this project that we cannot afford, we should be looking into conserving and cutting back on the project. Many of us have given constructive ways to do so from the beginning.  It was $ 1.5 million to buy the property,  another $2.4 million in loans, plus another $1 million dollars added up to $4.9 million dollars.  Washington Township will have the most expensive used new municipal building in the area.  There are no firm bids or quotes for this additional $1 million dollars from any contractors, just numbers from professionals, the same professionals that told the Township the building would cost $1.8 million dollars to renovate and the bid came in at $2.3 million dollars.

Strunk said, by the way, they need an additional $1 million dollars that wasn’t included, because, as quoted from Horensky, “We didn’t want to tell the contractors how much money they had to spend.” Strunk continues to state that the taxpayers are not being told the truth in this issue by misleading information and closed door sessions.  They now see numbers for alternatives for $275,500, which includes cherry paneling, save $270,000. There is additional money for septic work which will run between $50,000 and $70,000  A new septic was put in this building in 2001 and he had provided additional information to the Committee demonstrating that this is 200% bigger than is presently needed. You could save $70,000.  On site work, $257,121.60, what is there is adequate, save $250,000. Construction Management, $ 47,000, more money to the architect.  Engineering Costs - $16,000 to $20,000 for septic and site work, this work is done, save that money. Security and card swipes, one of the most important issues and there are no estimates. Furniture and moving, $30,000 to $40,000, the place was bought furnished, save $30,000.   How did the Township get to such a bad place? A past committee, with good intentions, developed a conservative plan to renovate a 12,000 square foot structure, giving the taxpayers better service and the employees good working conditions, not the best, but it was affordable. 

Then, in 2006, Kovacs took over the Building and Grounds, and practically for a whole year did nothing with the past architect, Ed Gagne, to move the project forward or give him direction, even though repeatedly Gagne asked for his help. 

The Township finally ended up with an approved plan by the State Building Code Department and a bid came in at $1.5 million, which the Township had to reject, because they did not have enough money. Then in October 2006, Kovacs said they needed a new architect, one with more building experience.  He brought in an architect, whose resume has one building. In his interview he tells the Committee they need to build a legacy for the Township Committee.  Some of us realize the truth in this legacy statement.  Kovacs, in December 2006 stated that they would be in the building by the end of 2007, so much for the truth in that statement.  The architect develops a grandiose plan with raised vaulted ceilings, cherry veneers, roman columns at the front entrance. When Horensky is asked by the public what will this cost the tax payers, he comments “We cannot tell you, because we don’t want to let the contractors know how much money we have to spend.”

Strunk said he went to the pre-bid meeting and when the contractors asked the architects representative how much money was budgeted for this project, they were immediately told, around $1.8 million dollars. Then, the bids came in for $2.3 million dollars, so much for hiding things from the contractor.  The architect also puts air conditioning on the roof, which is too heavy now for the roof to support.  So now, they have to rip the roof off and put new trusses on at about an added expense of $200,000.

The original plan developed by Mr. Gagne had doubled the new space in the new building for the police , still leaving about 40% of the downstairs unused for future expansion. He went with police representatives to many of the buildings in the County to see what was good and bad about other police designs.  The space provided to the police department was the most generous in the County, with about 4000 square feet for a department with two men on patrol duty at one time.  They now have a police design with occupying about 6000 square feet downstairs, with only two patrolman on duty. The design is redundant and excessive and poorly laid out and poor infrastructure is spread all over the spaces where it should be concentrated in one central area to save money. The police space could be cut by 40% and would still give the officers great working spaces and saving the tax payers money. 
 
In the beginning of 2007, Horensky announced that he and Kovacs would be spearheading this project.  Horensky recommends and votes for a new engineer, who by the middle of 2007 has gone through the entire Township Engineering budget and now there are bills in excess of $9000 for the engineer and no money to pay them.  Additionally, the engineer does work in January and February on the building and does not submit these invoices until late June, after the bid had been awarded for the Brown and Brown Building. This, along with executive closed door decisions on May 29, 2007, to  not go forward to put a roof on the Police/Municipal Building , even though it leaks, is a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act. Kovacs said it was decided not to put a roof on the building, because they would not have enough money to award the Brown and Brown Project - I guess we just let the roof leak.

In early 2007 Kovacs made a lone decision, without approval of the Committee, to gut the building, eliminating any chance to scale back the cost of the project and now giving the tax payers a building worth less than what they had paid for it.  This lone decision by Kovacs cost the taxpayers about $800,000, which is the difference between the original bid of $1.5 million and the $2.3 million they presently have.   On April 16, Kovacs stated that they would be starting on the building around June.  The bid was awarded on May 29th, but almost three months later, the contract still remains unsigned - so much for going forward with the project.

The reality of this is that the Township cannot afford this Taj Mahal scheme and it is time to cut back. They have a  building that is completely gutted, so they have no fall back condition to try to conserve money and it calls for alternative plans. Strunk suggested the following: remove the air conditioner from the roof and save between $200,000 and $300,000, revamp the police section, eliminate the redundancy and concentrate on infrastructure and cut the space by approximately 40%, still giving the police 100% more space than they presently have and saving the tax payer money, bid the project in two parts - upstairs and downstairs, installing all infrastructure, finish the administration portion first, then move in - sell the present administration on Brass Castle for $950,000 and reduce some of the debt. Then see if there is enough money for phase two and if any additional bond monies are needed, make sure they are for specific amounts, with hard estimates. So, because of the poor manner that Kovacs and Horensky have spearheaded this, they now have no fall back position and require drastic positive steps to go forward.  He continues to state that if the contract with Coopersmith Brothers is signed for $2,286,162, that leaves $3,656.01 of bond money left.. The outstanding engineering bills are now in excess of $9000, with $4943 of that money specifically directed to the Brown and Brown structure, which means if the Township goes forward and signs this contract, they will be in violation of the law by knowingly signing a contract they don’t have enough money for, this continues to be a time to seek ways to save money and finding ways not to spend more. He has given good constructive ways to save money and go forward.

Al Ivany, 1010 Butlers Park Road, said that he wanted to say that he is completely opposed to spending any more tax payers money on the Brown and Brown Building. The millions of dollars authorized so far should have been more than adequate to complete this project and in fact, more than enough to build a completely new building.  Secondly, he wanted to express his dismay, once again, the way the entire process has been handled. Not only have the cost escalated way out of control, but the process itself, has also been one veiled in secrecy.  He, as well as most people were, was under the impression that the bonding was complete, after the $1.6 million bond was approved and that the renovations to the Brown and Brown Building would be completed.   Then, comes this proposal for another $1 million dollars, no intimation that they would need more funding, just an out of the blue for more tax payer money.  This kind of behavior on behalf of the Township Committee is unacceptable.  As elected officials it is incumbent upon you to represent us, your constituents with integrity and in the most ethical manner and make the process with which you represent us one that is transparent and one of inclusion. Proceeding in  the manner you have chosen creates a situation in which the tax payers of this community cannot help but be suspect of the motives of this committee. If this project cannot be completed with the millions of dollars already authorized, then it should be dropped and a new direction should be taken. Thank you.

Richard Lewis, 16 Elizabeth Avenue, said his concern is the additional money that is needed for the building. Over the last four years his taxes have increased 18%. He just got a $500 increase in the mail for this year. He asked that the Committee practice financial responsibility and some type of fiscal restraint regarding this building.  Thank you.

Claire Tondreau, 61 New Hampton Road, asked if there was a limit to any of this? She had been away and just got back.  She is staggered and the only word that she can come up with is “preposterous.” She said she hoped at some point they understand that a building like that in a township like this is astonishing at a cost that keeps escalating.  It is unconscionable and asked they please reconsider.

Kathy Enz 18 Spring Lane, said she was flabbergasted.  She had been to a number of the meetings where they voted on the appropriations for this project.  She was there the night they voted between $2 million and $1.6 million dollars. At those meetings, there was a contractor who gave excellent advice and he knew that from  professional experience that Mr. Strunk has just pointed out a number of things that could be reduced or eliminated or totally forgotten about in getting this done.  She said, what you are discussing tonight is adding
 
the $1 million dollars that you voted not to add in April or May.  She doesn’t see how they think they can keep going on this. She said she read on the ordinance that the cost of this will be added to the tax payers bill ad valorem. She didn’t know what this meant, but it should have been nauseam.  This is absurd and they must reconsider what they are building and it does not need to be a legacy, it just needs to be adequate.

Charles Shields 311 Route 31 North, said that he cannot add anything to what Strunk said, he has all kinds of background.  He asked if it was too late to sell the building and start over.  The Committee has been led down some wrong paths, from the architect, engineer, from day one.  It just sounds like the costs are not going to stop. Its $1 million now and six months it could be another $500,000.  Enough is Enough.

Tracy Lea, 5 Bridle Lane, said she would like to know if some of the things that Strunk had said regarding the elaborate design of the building is true and if the public could see plans for the building, to see what it would look like.  The Mayor said there were a number of things that Strunk said that were correct and some were half truths and some were  just issues that were missed completely.  He was going to give a summary of the project, because he noticed a lot of faces in the room that he had not seen before, that have not been present since day one on the project and doesn’t understand how this has evolved from day one. He didn’t want to take up the public time in terms of public hearing to ask questions and was going to give a statement afterward on how the Committee got to where they are at this point.   Lea said this will hit their taxes they have no say in this.  It does not sound too appealing to her and she is not experienced in this field, but lets call a spade a spade and say you are gong to charge this much money.  It should not be more elaborate than needed or fancy. We all work in buildings and corporate American is changing to cubes, no matter what level you are at in office.  The public officials and public servants should serve in the same type of environment and not have the shiniest place in town.  The taxes are becoming as high as any other place in New Jersey and would rather see her money going for school than a building.

Ted Smith. 14 Hartmans Trail said he has never heard of a feasability study. He had worked at the Bowers Schumman and Welch Building ( Brown and Brown Building)  for 17 to 20 years doing the phone work, so he knows the structure of the building is pretty sound. He started reading all the things that have to be done to it.  It seems that Kovacs has the hand to make decisions without the Committee approving.  What is the credentials on all this building?  Kovacs said Strunk had mentioned gutting the building. About two months prior to that the Committee had made the decision to gut the building and go out to bid. The Township ended up saving $40,000 by having Road Department do it, but the decision was not made by him, it was made by the Township Committee. Smith asked what they are trying to do to the people in the Township that cannot afford the taxes, what is the Committee trying to do to them?  The Mayor said, in terms of this building, the Committee is looking to move into a new building that will be designed to last the community 40 years, so that they will not have to come back and build another building 5 years from now, or repair the building in 5 years or replace things.  They are putting together a building that will sustain the Community for the next 40 years.   They are building a building that will anticipate growth in the Township and modifications as to how they have to work.  If you took a look at your tax bill, you will see that the Township portion of your tax bill is on .13 on the dollar.  For .13 you get all the bonding that has been done, you get the parks, you get the police department, road department, emergency services the Township contributes to, recreation commission, supported school program in the summer, plus the Administration Work that has to be done, as required by the State of New Jersey.   Smith said this .13 has always mystified him, it isn’t just the .13 that goes up, its hundreds and thousands of dollars. The Mayor said the municipality has to collect taxes for the County, County Tax Board, Library Commission and Public School System, both the regional system and the municipal system. All the tax bills come out under the Township’s signature out of tax office. He said, by State Law, the Township has to collect everybody else’s tax dollars. They are the agent to collect taxes for everybody that taxes the residents.

Kathy Enz said he was talking about a 40 year old building and on page 13 of the information put out, it says that the useful life would be 15 years. Where did you get 40 years?  Lavery said it has to be a minimum of 15 years in order to bond.  Enz said it better be 40 years plus and felt the building should be scaled down.

Al Ivany said he had another comment,  saying .13 now, but none of this debt has come through yet. Sometime down the road, the residents are looking at a lot of money that is becoming due and a lot of bond and principles being paid, of which he was fairly confident is not being paid on at this time.  So, it may be .l3 now, what is it going to be 5 or 10 years down the road when the residents start paying.   The Mayor said some of the debt will be retired as well, so will the activities that have been taken in the Township to consolidate services and work to make the government more efficient and reduce costs in future.

The Mayor said all costs are going up, you cannot have the same budget this year as last year. Employee costs go up, insurance costs go up, electric costs go up, fuel costs up, just as everybody’s costs go up. Ivany said he realized costs go up, but he didn’t understand justifying putting all the eggs in one basket with the new municipal building.  It is his understanding that millions of dollars will be needed to fix the road in the Township and bonding may have to be done for that.  Ivany said the Township is spending millions of dollars on the municipal building, when other buildings are being built new in Warren County for $1 million or $2 million dollars.  He also does think it justifies spending this much money on extravagancies, so to speak, if there are ways to cut back as Strunk as said.  He didn’t think you had to build a building for 40 years, but rather a 20 or 15 year old plan would be good. There should be scaling back done, there is no shame in scaling back. 

Kovacs made a motion to close the public hearing, Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.

The Mayor said there are certain things of interest to the individuals in the audience that have not been to all the meetings.  He gave a history as to how this project developed, some general time frames, some ideas that they did and how the project was developed from day one.  He said he will be mentioning Committees and when he uses the terminology “ Current Committee” means individuals at this meeting and “Prior Committee” will mean everyone of this Committee, with the exception of Elbassiouny, but R. J Strunk, who was on the Committee at the time.  At that time, David Dempski was mayor. 

He said in 2004, a determination was made that the Committee would go forward to replace the Administration Building on the corner of Route 57 and Brass Castle Road.  The facility is an old house that is really not in the conducive manner to support public facilities. It is a facility that does not meet code for ADA compliance and modifying the building, and what could be done there, was determined to be, by prior committee to be inappropriate, they would look for a new location. At that time, the Brown and Brown Building was on the market in 2004. At that time, prior to entering into a contract with Brown and Brown, the prior committee selected individuals to go out and negotiate and have conversations with Brown and Brown, to see if the building was what was needed. He said he was on that committee and Strunk was on that Committee and they talked with Brown and Brown. They went through the building.  Strunk, because of his expertise in housing development and ownership was asked to look at the building. Strunk indicated to the Committee, although he did not agree with the price that was out there, he felt the building was sound and a good investment for the Committee to move into. They went forward with the project.

In December of 2004, he signed the papers that purchased the building. That building sits on three lots, the lot the building sits on, behind the building is a huge storage shed and two approved commercial approved building lots to the north.  On those two lots, it has always been the determination of the Committees that they could be sold at a later date for money the Township could use for future projects. 

In 2005, it was determined that he and Strunk would be the individuals that would be running the project.  Strunk came before the Committee and brought an architect, an architect that he had confidence in and felt could do a good job on designing the building.  At that time, it was not a unanimous choice, but they went forward with that individual.  The individual went forward and developed plans for a new municipal building.   It contemplated an upstairs for administrative offices and downstairs for police offices. As the project started to go forward they ran into a number of snags.  The architect had a very difficult time discussing items with DCA, particularity around two issues, one the issues of whether or not it needed an elevator and what do you do with the stairwell on the inside of the building.  This issue extended well over a year.

When they were looking at the inside of the building, the direction given to the architect and by then, Strunk had taken the lead on this project and was in constant contact with the architect. At that point, the decision was made that they were not going to really do anything with the inside of the building, except redesign an area where they could have a meeting room.  All the existing paneling, which was about 20 years old, was to stay where it was and left in the design that it was. The decision was to keep the old floor tiles, carpet floor tiles, squared that were in the building for over 20 years. If they were going to move walls, the idea was to cut up the floor tiles and patch the hole in floor with the old floor tile. The idea was also to take the drop leaf ceiling that were in place, again 20 year old tiles, leave them there.  There was no effort to move the bathrooms, which has been discovered since then, had asbestos in them.  The plan was moved forward and taken to DCA a number of times and they were not approved. A very enlightening thing happened to him one day when they were talking with the architect about the security system they would have to put in.  He asked the architect to provide copies of the plans he had drawn to the consultant that they were contemplating hiring to provide input on security system.  He was asked to e-mail or fax over the files.   The architect said he could not, because he does not use computers to do any design work, he does everything by hand. The drawings were beautiful, but the set put together, which he said would cost $300,000 to renovate the building, based upon what he had designed.   When they went out to bid with his design plans, the bids came in at $1.5 million dollars.

At that time, they had not budgeted that much money, so the bid was not awarded. Instead, they went back to the drawing board and the prior committee, which Strunk was on, decided to change the architect, the plans that had been drawn really were not suiting their needs.  As Strunk mentioned, they went out and hired another architect, which came and gave a presentation.   This time, they had a subcommittee that interviewed architects that had designed municipal buildings. It also came to light, during the process with the prior architect, that he had never designed any municipal building at all.  He had no experience building a municipal building, so the Committee went down the path, they went down the wrong path.
 
An architect was hired in the  spring of 2006  and brought on board in 2006.  As Strunk mentioned, he and Kovacs took over the project.  The architect came in and spoke to everyone that worked in the Township and found out what their needs were. He had conversations with the committee to see what they thought the needs would be, where they would grow. He also informed the Committee that the building did not pass code for a municipal building, there were standards that had to be met with regard to the seismic integrity of the building.  Those standards were questioned by the prior committee members and in fact, asked for proof, which was provided by the architect. This was the standard of the State of New Jersey. That was unknown to the committee when they first did the inspection or through the architect.   So the building had to be stiffened up to make sure it worked.

The second thing the new architect informed the committee was that the low bearing capacity of the floor could not stay the same, because a public building has to be designed so that when people meet in a large room, for their safety, the floor has to be 1.5 times stronger than anywhere else in the building. That information had never been given to the committee in the first go around with the first architect.

The second architect also looked at the roof and advised that the roof will be shot within five years. A decision was made by the prior committee, do they go forward with a new roof now or do they wait five years, build the building and don’t appropriate the cost of the roof and then tear it off in five years, after they have already occupied the building. It made no sense to put a new roof on the building five years from now.

You have heard comments regarding air conditioning units and why would they put it on the roof.  He asked the people to look around, at any commercial building of the size of the building they are talking about, where do you see the units - they are on the roof.  If you have a building that is 13,000 square feet, he would represent that the square footage of an enclosed heated building is much more valuable than the square footage on the roof of the building.  The information given, that it would cost over $200,000 for a new roof, because of the supports, was totally incorrect. The support structure for the roof is only in the tens of thousands dollars.

You have heard comments on the redesign of the police department downstairs. He said he represented to the audience that the entire police department is not using the whole 6000 square feet downstairs. There is a record storage area for the records the Township has to keep.  There is an Office of Emergency Management downstairs, which has to be occupied in case of emergencies in the Township.   You can sit here and say, well there has never been one, but there was never flooding in one point in time in the boroughs of Manville and Bound Brook and Somerset County or the municipalities along the Delaware River, but it happened. There was never a Columbine before, but it happened. They need an Emergency Management Office and be able staff it. This is where everyone would come to resolve any problems. Right now, the office is a closet in the bottom of the municipal building.

There is a training room downstairs that could be used to train CERT Volunteers that are being trained as volunteers that assist the community.  The training room is available for their use, it is available for the Office of Emergency Management and if there would be disasters that room would be used.  To him, this was a much better use of the square footage than to put air conditioning units down there and they do belong on the roof. The police department has been mentioned as being overly designed. It is anticipated that someday there may be a female officer in the Township. The position that this committee has taken has always been, “Lets do it right the first time and not come back and come back.” One of the concerns that has been expressed to this Committee tonight is when are these costs going to stop? They are trying to put the costs right now up front and put on the door and close it, now we don’t have to worry about coming back to you for thousands of dollars at a later date to put a new roof on the building. 

There were representations that the fact they did not incorporate anything with regard to security in the building.  This is an absolutely true statement, it was never included in any building, even the very first design of the building.  They never anticipated those costs. They always felt it was somebody they should bring in that was an expert in security to be their consultant to help scope out what it was going to cost. They never put costs in the original architect’s plans or first set of plans or set they have right now.

In the very first set of plans, there were no plans at all on the outside of the building. There was nothing on a parking lot, shrub, blade of grass or light. They were never included in the original plan. They came forward with the second plan and contemplating a $2.6 million dollar bond and they cut it down to $1.6 million dollars. However, part of that $2.6 million dollar bond included the landscaping, parking lot, lights, signs, grass and shrubs to be planted.  They were taken off the table and see if there is another way to do it.  
 
He just wanted to mention, that although you may have heard some of the facts and hearing a lot of facts in the newspaper and a lot of people have been saying stories, some of it is true and some of it is not true. Some of it has been skewed and some has not been skewed.  He wanted to tell you how the schedule of this project had developed. He will have plans here at the end of this meeting to look at, then you can compare the original plans and present plans.

He wanted to end with the statement on the word Taj Mahal that has been used in the past.  When he thinks of Taj Mahal he sees the picture of the castle in India, that is his version of Taj Mahal.  They are not building a Taj Mahal. The building does not have granite counter top in it, it does not have marble floors in the bathroom or on the floors in the foyer. This does not have wood floors, nor does it have the paneling. There is no paneling in the building at all. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are not building a Taj Mahal, they are building a building that represents what this Township is and what it wants to be.  It is their job that whatever they build in the Township is a structure that is built to last a long time and a structure that shows pride in Washington Township.  Thank you.

The Mayor said there is an ordinance on the table and the public portion has been closed. He asked for a motion to approve Ordinance 07-17, there was none. He asked again if there was a motion.  Hearing none, the ordinance failed for lack of a motion and second.

Kovacs made a motion to approve Ordinance 07-18, Ordinance of the Township of Washington, County of Warren, State of New Jersey, Amending and Supplementing Chapter 76 Entitled “Games of Chance, Bingo and Raffles” to create a new section 76-6 Designating the Clerk as the Issuing Authority, on first reading, Mueller seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Horensky, yes.
Public Hearing and Second Reading will be September 18, 2007.

Elbassiouny made a motion to approve Ordinance 07-19, Ordinance of the Township of Washington, County of Warren, State of New Jersey, Authorizing the Township’s Participation in the Acquisition of Certain Real Property in the Form of Development Easement by Negotiation pursuant to NJSA 40A:12-1, et, seq, on first reading, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Elbassiouny, yes; Dempski, yes; Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.
Public Hearing and Second Reading will be September 18, 2007.

Kovacs made a motion to approve Ordinance 07-20, Ordinance of the Township of Washington, County of Warren, State of New Jersey, to Amend, Revise and Supplement Chapter 123 of the Code of the Township of Washington Entitled “Zoning” Article IV “Supplementary District Regulations “Subsection Section 24-B.2(b) “Political Signs” of the Code of the Township of Washington, on first reading, Mueller seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Horensky, yes.
Public Hearing and Second Reading will be September 18,2007.

RESOLUTIONS
Dempski made a motion to approve Resolution 07-92, Resolution of the Township of Washington, urging the State of New Jersey to take Financial Responsibility for the Cost of a Statewide Gypsy Moth Control Program, Kovacs seconded.
ROLL CALL: Dempski, yes; Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Mueller made a motion to approve Resolution 07-93, Resolution to Authorize and Approve Salaries and Wages for Certain Employees, (Don Beisel), Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Mueller, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Horensky, yes.

Kovacs made a motion to approve Resolution 07-94, Release of Washington Township Land Use Board Escrow, CRC Communities, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

REPORTS FROM STAFF AND PROFESSIONALS
Peter de Boer, Certified Public Works Manager, said he would like to send Jeff Cooper to a Certified Playground Safety Inspectors Course, with an Exam. Dempski made a motion to approve Jeff Cooper attending the course, Kovacs seconded.
ROLL CALL: Dempski, yes; Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS (8:40 p.m.)
Kathy Enz, 18 Spring Lane, said if the Township has two building lots by the new municipal building and you have already bought this property, why have they not been sold to take care of this extra $1 million dollars.
 
The Mayor said, in his opinion, the market is not right at this point in time. Elbassiouny said the lots will be worth a lot more when the municipal building is complete.    Enz said the voting on the $1 million dollars was just raised and it  was as if the Committee had decided before the meeting that they were not going to approve it.  Elbassiouny said this wasn’t the case, they listened to the people and they want to go back and look at the numbers. They had been going conservative, but a hard number is necessary, with maybe a 10% contingency, instead of just a number they were going by.

Claire Tondreau, 61 New Hampton Road, said before she had been concerned, but now she was just angry.  She didn’t know how  they know that a municipal building is going to draw a higher price on the lots, speculation at best she would guess. They simply did not know.  She was glad they did not vote on it, but needed to take issue with a few things. First of all, her home was built 170 years ago.  She appreciated they did not vote and hoped that this will be in fact, a time when they go back to the drawing board and instead of debating what happened with prior committee or taking issue with the numbers they start with a new sheet of paper and a clean plan.

Ted Smith, 14 Hartmans Trail, said in regards to the air conditioning on top of buildings, the statement was made, this is what you see.  The reason for that is that most places that put them on top of the buildings is they don’t have the ground space to put them next to it.  In his experience throughout the northern part of this state, he knows 3 buildings who put their air conditioning on top of the building and after they were operating  they had to turn around and move the people off the top floor or move the air conditioning.  If there is ground, it would be the cheaper way to do it.  The vibration off the air conditioner on the big tonnage air conditions will require big units and will cost more for the construction of the ceiling.  If you put on ground you will not have the vibration problems.

R J. Strunk 116 Brass Castle Road asked to speak on a different subject. Last month the Committee made a decision to hire an employee of Mr. Elbassiouny for a construction secretary.  He said he thinks they should revisit that decision and go to the  normal candidate interview process where people are interviewed and use the normal process that is done to hire people.  This type of practice smacks of patronage, which is one thing good government should try and get away from.  He found it ironic that Mr. Elbassiouny found it necessary to bring to the Committee’s attention when somebody took cookies down to the Construction Office to welcome them to the community and I was the person that did it.  I do it all the time in the community, but he had no problem in recommending hiring an employee without an interview process, then voting on it as well, a different twist in values.   The Committee should go back, thank the person for their time, because it is no reflection on them, they were not the person involved, it was a Committee decision and that should be withdrawn and the normal process used to interview people and hire them that way.  Thank you.

Kovacs said the interviewing process was not held because of the time constraints, they had to get somebody in the office very quickly, or they would have done the interviewing. Elbassiouny’s  first choice was someone else outside the municipality, it was not the person that was hired.  The Committee preferred to hire someone local and the person hired was a Washington Township Resident. They did not have the time to interview, so Elbassiouny was asked if he was familiar with anyone on the list and he said he knew the one girl, who was hired. It was not a recommendation, a couple of names were given. The fact that he knew her and worked with her before and knew she was qualified, that is why the Committee hired her. 

Elbassiouny said the approval was done by Committee, he made a mistake, he is a rookie and he takes the blame for it, he should have abstained.  He was the last person to vote on it and he didn’t know what else to say. Its not a permanent position, she gets maybe $300 to $350 a week temporarily to cover and make sure the Code and Construction Office stays open when the secretary goes on vacation. Elbassiouny said he felt it was a low blow that this issue became such an issue and made into a big thing. He is disappointed and he has taken a lot of garbage over this and he was only trying to help. He should not have voted on it and should have abstained.

Lavery said, as the attorney, everybody on the Committee knows that when this discussion was held for 20 minutes, Elbassiouny said that it is not my call, because he knew one of the people, the Committee makes the decision on this.  Elbassiouny went to great length that he was not going to vote on this, it is the Committee’s call.  He said he takes the fall if anybody does, because when the paper called him, his recollection was that he had not voted on it.   Lavery said that Elbassiouny made it very clear that he didn’t want to be involved in the hiring, because he knew the person.  Lavery said it was not Elbassiouny’s fault, it was his.

Al Ivany, 1010 Butler Road, said he is seeing a Committee that has taken great pains to justify a potentially unethical behavior.  Elbassiouny, maybe you should not have voted on it, but Ethics Rules and Ethic Laws, when you take the oath of office, anything that appears to be unethical should not be done. That person should not have been hired unless it was  absolute necessity and nobody else wanted the job or nobody else was qualified for the job. He also takes a lot of dismay at the Township Attorney for trying to justify this as well, because you need to have a higher ethical standard set in the Township.  He is seeing too many justifications of improper behavior.   
 
Lavery said he would like to address this, the fact of the matter is, you ask any Committee Member, Elbassiouny sat for 20 minutes and said I don’t want to be involved in this decision.  I know one of these people involved and the Committee took part in the discussion. It was late in the evening when the vote was taken and I should have advised him to abstain on the vote. 
 
Ivany said he should have abstained. He said when Elbassiouny was talking previously about the back and forth that is costing the money in the Township, it comes across as a condescending statement to him.  The back and forth is called the Democratic Process and how dare you sit here and accuse us of costing the Township money, when we as constituents and citizenry are doing what they should be doing and being here and holding the Township Committee accountable for the actions they are taking.  They are trying to make sure there will be a new municipal building at a reasonable cost, trying to make sure there is money in the future for the roads and preserve open space.

A break was taken from 8:55 p.m. until 9:11 p.m.

OLD BUSINESS
1COAH Administration Discussion - The Mayor said the Committee was made aware of the fact that the State was not happy with the fact that the Township had not submitted the documentation on time to COAH. There were extenuating circumstances.  The Township Attorney went down to see them last month. One of the things the Committee has to do is to have a local individual on staff to answer local questions, which has been done. There should also be a COAH Administrator, individual that is actually responsible for putting together the reports and checking to make sure all contracts are done with developers, fees are collected, etc. They had received some resumes received from professions to do the COAH Administrator work.   There was also the question as to whether there was money to pay for this at this time.

The Township does collect fees, which should be used to support the program, which would involve the Administrator. The Mayor said, if the Township collects the fees under COAH, then they must spend the fees collected under COAH to comply with all regulations.

Lavery said they gave the Committee two weeks to get the Trust Fund Monitoring Report in, which must be done.  He said the Township Planner should be doing them. He did send a letter to the State with the numbers that showed how much was collected in the Trust Fund and there has been no disbursements.  The spending plan was never approved, so the Township was not able to spend trust monies. They have the information, but they want it on their form.  Dempski said the work is extremely frustrating and he did not have the time to do it any more.  Dempski said the Township needs to have an Affordable Housing Officer, who could provide web sites, locations in Township and familiar with COAH. It could be a full time employee or  part time employee. Piazza is already doing much of the work.  Dempski said there is no third round plan approved.  They are making the Township do a 2007 Round Survey, which cannot be done, because they have not offered the Affordable Housing Plan or Spending Plan.  Dempski said, bottom line is you can take 20% of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and hire somebody with a stronger COAH background than the planner to do the yearly report.  The second round is over for five years, the Township cannot build anything or authorize anything until COAH supports the Township. 

Dempski will try to do the Funds Report, which must be sent within two weeks, because he doesn’t want to see the money get seized by the State. Dempski said he would be willing to help any professional they would bring on board, because he has the information that would be needed and knows the history  of what has happened.

PUBLIC CONCERNS  (9:30 p.m.)
David Williams, Local Contractor,  said the Committee went into a break and he never had an opportunity to express his concerns.  Elbassiouny said Williams and other contractors had a concern they wanted to bring before the Committee.  Williams said he was not a resident of the Township, he was a local contractor. The costs of the permits in the Township are astronomical and for a part time staff, he is paying $49/1000 and for a full time staff in Phillipsburg it is $40/1000.  Lopatcong, full time, is $43/1000.  Part Time Staff, which would be Hope, White, Liberty, Knowlton and Blairstown would be a $75 flat fee. Mansfield is $26/1000 and $1.35 DCA fee for each one of these. How can this be justified? 

The Mayor said when the Township went forward with this office they created a brand new office and indicated the fees were struck upon what was needed to keep the office going.  They have given themselves time to shake down the department and find out what the fees actually would cost.  By State Requirement, they are not allowed to make a profit on this.  The Mayor said, once they find out what the true operating costs would be, then the permits will come down.  Williams asked if there will be refunds made, if in fact, the Township was over on fees. 
 
Elbassiouny said, basically what they did, they actually adopted Mansfield’s Fee Structure on the Township Fee Schedule.  Williams said the Mansfield Fees are lower and is $26/1000. Elbassiouny said they adopted Mansfield’s Fee Structure, then the new Code and Construction Office, updated the fees, which have been approved by DCA. Elbassiouny said he is having a meeting with the staff at the Code and Construction Office next week. He did not feel they were out of line on this, but they did originally adopt the Mansfield Fee Structure.  Williams said he just talked with the Code and Construction Office on fees.  Elbassiouny said he thought Mansfield and Washington had the same fee and will look into this matter. Ended 9:35 p.m.

NEW BUSINESS
1. Dempski made a motion to approve the request from the Township Clerk to attend the Master Municipal Clerk Academy on September 11, 2007 in New Brunswick, Elbassiouny seconded.  All were in favor.

2. Mueller made a motion to approve the Deputy Clerk attending a Registrars Class on November 13 in Atlantic City, Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.

3. Dempski made a motion to approve the Service Order from the Board of Health for high grass/weeds at 41 Lock Street, Block 40, Lot 74, Mueller seconded. All were in favor.

4. Dempski made a motion to delete the vouchers from the Apgar Escrow Account  on Bruce Apgar and it would  be paid out of the Township Budget and not Land Use Board Budget, Mueller seconded.
ROLL CALL: Dempski, yes; Mueller, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Horensky, yes.

5. Elbassiouny made a motion to approve Carolyn Quinn, Code and Construction Secretary, to attend a Class on COAH for certification, Dempski seconded. All were in favor.

6. Mueller made a motion to approve the Raffle Request from DARC for October 22 at the Hawk Pointe Golf Club, Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.

7. Elbassiouny made a motion to approve the Tricky Tray  Application and Raffle Application for Abilities for October 19, Kovacs seconded. All were in favor.

8. Elbassiouny made a motion to approve the Raffle Application for American Red Cross on October 1 at Hawk Pointe Golf Club, Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.

9. Dempski made a motion to approve Option 2, wait until November 1 to transfer into the Engineering O/E Account to pay Hatch Mott Mac Donald,  Kovacs seconded.
ROLL CALL: Dempski, yes; Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller. Yes; Horensky, yes.

REPORTS FROM OFFICIALS
Barry Mueller said at the Warren Morris July Meeting they had a very interesting program presented by the Deputy Director of the D CA, which was on the grants they make available for feasability studies and shared services.  He gave a handout to the Committee on some of the ways to share services with other municipalities and asked for ideas on what the Township might be interested in doing. This council moves around with the meetings and he would like to host one before the end of the year.

David Dempski said he had a request from the Clean Community Grant from Kim Sigmund, teacher at Brass Castle and submitted an application  for $1500 to do a Project Wet Water Festival, an educational program on watersheds.  Dempski made a motion to approve the request for the Project Wet Water Festival in the amount of $1500, Elbassiouny seconded.
ROLL CALL: Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Kovacs, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

Samir Elbassiouny said the Township currently pays the County $460,000 a year in library tax.  He spoke with David Higgins from Washington Boro, who gave him some numbers. Their cost of $362,000 in taxes, could be rounded off to $400,000. Elbassiouny said the Boro Council Members were very responsive and thought it would be a great idea and would love to join services for the library with the Township. Elbassiouny said the only down side is, if the Township goes with the Boro, the Township Residents would have to pay the County for their service. The Mayor suggested that before the Township makes a decision on this, that the Committee finds out what percentage of the residents are using the County Library and whether they would be interested in going in with the Boro on a library.  Mueller suggested a feasability study be done and there would be grant money available to do it.  The Mayor agreed the Township should explore all options with shared services.  Kovacs said they should also find out what percentages would be, because the Boro already has a library.  Elbassiouny said he had spoken with them and they will do a 50/50 deal with Township.
 
Elbassiouny said there is a drainage issue on St. Andrew Drive and he would like to see a letter go the School Board.   The Mayor said he had indicated to the residents that he would be in touch with Mr. Merluzzi to see if something can be set up. Dempski said they have to stop the mulching and put gravel down in it.   Elbassiouny said de Boer will put it on his maintenance calendar and do at least twice a year. If they hear of a bad storm coming, he would send a man down to make sure it is in decent shape. Kovacs said the responsibility is Warren Hills and he does not want to get to a point where it is stated that Washington Township has been maintaining it.  Kovacs said the Township will not assume the responsibility for this.  Lavery was to do a title search and see who owns the property.

Michael A Kovacs said there was a delay in getting the tax bills out, but they are gone. They will be due the 20th of the month instead of the 1st.

Mayor John A Horensky said he had gone to an Eagle Scout Ceremony, which recognized the young men in the community.   He said the program builds character in the young men, which is seen less and less in todays society.

He attended a ribbon cutting at the Good Shepherd Pre School Ceremony.

Cef Garcia, Emergency Management Coordinator, has gotten $4075.52 from FEMA. The funds were submitted by paperwork provided by de Boer.  The Mayor suggested putting money into deBoer’s Account, because it was money that he had spent out of his budget.  de Boer will check with Finance to see if this can be done.

The Mayor will be invited to attend  a Regional Planning Commission for Mayors on September 5,6 and 7. There will be five Mayors from the Highlands Area. They wanted to come in and meet with professional planners to discuss Highlands Roles and Planning Issues. 

The National Night Out was well attended and very successful.

The Police Report was distributed to the Committee.

PAYMENT OF BILLS
Kovacs made a motion to approve the bills, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs said he would abstain on the big packet of bills, but will vote yes on the two Nextel bills which he signed: Dempski, yes on the bills he signed; Elbassiouny abstained; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

EXECUTIVE SESSION
The Mayor said the Committee would be going into Executive Session on pending litigation, litigation and a contract.  Kovacs made a motion to go into Executive Session at 10:04 p.m., Dempski seconded.  All were in favor.

The doors were opened. Dempski made a motion to come out of Executive Session at 11:04 p.m., Mueller seconded.  All were in favor.

Lavery said the Committee emerged from Executive Session at 11:04 p.m. where they discussed three matters, the Coopersmith Contract for the former Brown and Brown Building, potential litigation regarding a letter received from an individual attorney with regard to the Police Chief and the Unity Bank Contract.  No official action was taken.  Copies of these minutes will be available at such time as the Committee determines that there is no harm to the public interest.

There being nothing to come before the Committee, Kovacs made a motion to adjourn at 11:08 p.m., Elbassiouny seconded. All were in favor.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Ann O’Neil RMC/CMC
Township Clerk