(Repost) June 10 Town Council meeting

Council approved funding another $163,152 in successful property tax appeals, while a majority voted to extend the contracts for the town attorney and assistant town attorney as well as to approve two resolutions to enable the town’s funding of a $60,000 bleacher project at the high school baseball field at its June 10, 2014, meeting.

The meeting agendas and related materials are here.

Council approved funding $162,152 in successful property tax appeals, including $120,539 for the office building at 395 Pleasant Valley Way for the years 2008 to 2013. The resolution brings the 2014 year-to-date total payouts to more than $1.2 million. The town funded $3.35 million in successful tax appeals in 2013, and the town chief financial officer is projecting a similar amount for 2014.

A council majority approved 4-1 the administration’s request to extend the contracts for the town attorney, Richard Trenk, and Ken Kayser, assistant town attorney, through the end of this year. Mr. Trenk is paid $42,500 annually, and his law firm does substantial legal work for the town. Mr. Kayser is paid $31,500 annually. The salaries are for general legal matters, but litigation is billed separately. The town paid the Trenk law firm $156,122 in 2011, $112,561 in 2012, $149,225 in 2013, and $41,413 so far this year. I voted against the resolution because I believe, given some of the past advice from the attorneys, that the town would benefit from new legal representation.

A council majority approved 4-1 the administration’s request to approve a shared services agreement for the town’s $60,000 project to improve the bleachers and sight line on the third base side of the high school baseball field. State law requires the agreement when two municipal entities share the use of an asset. The town’s funding of the project sidesteps the state requirement for voter referendum for most school district bonding. The town has funded millions of dollars of improvements of the high school athletic facilities over the last decade in this way.

Administration officials brushed off my concerns that the resolution and shared services agreement do not appear factually correct. The documents cite a determination by the township and school board “that new bleachers are required at various fields of the Athletic Complex, because the existing seating is outdated and antiquated,” when this project is only for the third-base bleachers that date to 2006.

Chief Financial Officer John Gross said many people would consider the age of the existing bleachers to be outdated. Business Administrator Jack Sayers said some people had complained to the mayor about the sight line, so the mayor decided to ask council approval for the project. I voted against the resolution as an unnecessary and inappropriate use of town money and bonding authority.

A council majority also approved 4-1 a $10,800 no-bid contract to Paulus Sokolowski and Sartor (PS&S) of Warren to perform survey, site plan and construction specifications for the project. According to a letter to council from the town engineer, he solicited the firm for this contract, citing its previous experience as a contractor for the original baseball field project. It’s unclear to me why the town would want the same firm that designed the very bleachers and sight line that is now proposed for replacement. The project will require extensive site work, including construction of a retaining wall to enlarge the footprint of the bleachers that are situated close to a sharply declining slope down to the nearby tennis courts. I voted against the award because the project is unnecessary and the town didn’t solicit competing proposals for the vendor.

Council approved other legislation of interest including:

- A proposed interagency services agreement to work with the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission and the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program for two unspecified pilot projects to protect water quality. Representatives of the agencies gave a presentation. The town would agree to fund the projects, but the legislation doesn’t have project descriptions or costs. I voted for the resolution because the specific projects will have to come before the council and can be quite modest in cost.

- An executive session to discuss litigation between the town and West Orange First Aid Squad (WOFAS), which had asked and was denied a court order to delay the administration’s search for an emergency medical services provider. This competitive-proposal bid process could result in the end of WOFAS after 50 years of service to the community. The issue was also discussed in a limited way during the Public Comment portion of the meeting. Four members of the public, including former Mayor Sam Spina, a WOFAS trustee, spoke in support of the squad. To see the 35-minute video excerpt, please click here.

- Renewal of a shared services agreement to provide Roseland with animal control services. West Orange would receive a 4% increase to $11,843 in the first year of the contract, which would then rise another 4% to $12,316 in the second year of the contract.

- Approval of a no-bid $5,000 contract to provide public health testing services this year by Garden State Laboratories of Hillside.

- Adding $293,795 in grant revenue and offsetting expenditures to the 2014 municipal budget, including a $224,000 New Jersey Department of Transportation grant and a $64,795 Clean Communities grant.

Two proposed ordinances were approved on first reading:

- Expanding the definition of a parking meter to include a central pay station similar to the one used at the Valley Road parking lot near Northfield Avenue.

- Adding handicapped parking zones at 8 Shepard Terrace and 20 Llewellyn Avenue.

If you’d like to contact the council with your thoughts on any of these issues, please send an e-mail to council@westorange.org or call 973.325.4155 to leave a message.

I’m a West Orange Township councilman since 2010, reachable at jkrakoviak@westorange.org. I'm a business communications consultant in my spare time.