Allamuchy Town Council Workshop – May 13, 2020 (“Jinx!”)

(The agendas for all meetings and the approved minutes can be found here: http://allamuchynj.org/2020meetings)

Whenever I’m a participant in a meeting and someone says “This shouldn’t take too long” I tell them not to jinx it because, sure enough, the meeting will end up going over. You would think that I would take my own advice, but I saw the agenda for this meeting and said “It doesn’t look like there is much on the agenda so it should be a short meeting.” The meeting lasted two and a half hours. It probably could have been over at least a half hour earlier, if not for all of the bickering. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The meeting was once again held over teleconference. Based on who announced themselves and the number of beeps I heard, there were about 11 people on the call, with all but three being affiliated with the town in some regard (council, employee, professional services). Councilman Quinoa asked to know who was on the call, while Councilman Ochwat said there was no need for the public to identify themselves. I don’t know, if I were them, I would want to know who was on the phone. But, then again, they should behave in the same way regardless of who is listening.

The meeting was called to order at 6:34 pm. The mayor and all council members were present.

OPENING STATEMENT

The mayor’s opening statement was relatively short. He reiterated what has been stated at the county meeting with the mayors to continue and enforce social distancing as things are starting to open. There is also a request that anyone 65 and older continue to quarantine, as that is the “target market” for COVID-19. This will not go away for quite some time and he has been asked to stress to the elderly to take extraordinary precautions.

ENGINEER’S REPORT / ACTION LIST

Before allowing the engineer to start, Councilman Quinoa requested to put something on the record. He referenced an email that the mayor sent last week involving a matter where Councilman Quinoa and Councilwoman Tuohy had recused themselves [presumably because it involves PVPOA, and they are both on the Board]. Councilman Quinoa did not know if it was an oversight, but requested others not to send any correspondence to the two of them due to the recusal. The mayor responded that he will send the information anyway, and they can choose what to do with it. Councilman Quinoa believes it is the responsibility of everyone not to exchange documents with anyone that has recused themselves. Councilman Quinoa brought this up at this time because he wanted to advise Mr. Sterbenz not to include this subject in his report and to also make the mayor aware that he should not be sending anything to them. The mayor’s reasoning was that he feels they can recuse themselves from the vote, but if the town is going to be sued, why shouldn’t they have all of the information? They all agreed to go by the attorney’s guidance, which he agreed to provide in an email.

Councilman Ochwat got in on the discussion since he hadn’t gotten an answer to emails that he had sent, leading to an additional discussion about how they would need to hold an Executive Session, and how that would happen with the dial-in numbers, to answer those questions. 

Councilman Ochwat also questioned why the approval of previous meetings’ minutes was not on the agenda. This has been done at the action meetings, so the clerk was saving those for the next Regular meeting. The only minutes that had been sent out were those from the March 11^th meeting, so they decided to vote on them. Four approved, with Councilman Ochwat abstaining since he was not at that meeting.

Mr. Sterbenz, the engineer, was finally able to start on his report at 6:50 pm. He covered the following (see the minutes/recording for additional details not provided here):

• Traffic signal at Route 517 and Cat Swamp
• Water Storage Tank Feasibility Project
• Cat Swamp Road Improvement: Mr. Sterbenz highlighted some of the improvements being proposed. He also requested that a study, which was not part of the original plans, be done to determine the feasibility of changing the speed limit down to 30 m.p.h. from its current 35 m.p.h. The cost of the study would be $1500. The discussion at this point got out of control. The mayor believes that anyone who lives on Cat Swamp Road [that would be Councilman Ochwat] should recuse themselves from the discussion/vote because they would “be benefitting personally” from a slower speed limit. He also wanted to know why they are talking about spending $1500 when the employees aren’t getting raises. Councilman Cote questioned why the mayor was against doing something for the safety of the community, especially since he is on the fire department. The mayor told Councilman Cote (twice) that he was embarrassing himself. Councilman Ochwat took exception to the mayor saying he should recuse himself, especially because it was said during a public session and not discussed privately with the individual, as normally happens. The mayor responded saying that it was his opinion and there was no need to do it privately. “When you show me respect, I’ll show you respect.” [I was really trying to avoid the play-by-play, but there is no way to convey how inane this was without it.] Ultimately, a motion was made to do the study, with four council members voting “yes” and, as expected, the mayor voting “no.”
• DPW Roof Assessment Project
• 2020 Road Resurfacing Program
• Department of Transportation Local Aid Program for FY2021

After Mr. Sterbenz finished his report, Councilman Cote asked about the status of the backhoe on a property that was discussed at a prior meeting

ATTORNEY’S REPORT

The attorney started his report at 7:46 pm. He addressed two items:

• Lease with the school board for the school bus parking lot
• Cleanout of Lake Eagle Rock

Councilman Ochwat asked about the status of the cable contract. Sounds like the ordinances need to be prepared.

MAYOR’S REPORT: None

COUNCIL MEMBER’S REPORT

Before moving onto the reports, Councilman Ochwat had a couple of questions:

• Postponement of the Municipal and Solid Waste budget hearings. These were postponed due to issues with the advertisements. There was a lot of follow-on discussion about the number of times trash and recycling are picked up within Allamuchy and Panther Valley, along with bulk pickup provided to Panther Valley [Panther Valley has a separate garbage contract than greater Allamuchy, while the Recycling Contract is the same for everyone.]
• Personnel Committee. Someone was appointed but refused the appointment, and he was curious why there was no update from the mayor. The mayor responded that he appointed two people (later revealed to be Councilwoman Tuohy and Councilman Quinoa) and that they are on the committee as far as he is concerned and that what they choose to do is up to them. Councilman Quinoa had declined the offer but, according to the mayor it was “not an offer, it was an assignment.” He argued that Councilman Quinoa was “after him” for the last year and a half to be put on it, and now that he did, Councilman Quinoa doesn’t want it. Councilman Quinoa’s reasoning for declining is that the mayor has put him on the committee and then thrown him off twice previously because the mayor “never lets [the committees] finish their work.” Councilman Ochwat posed the question to the attorney that, if someone is appointed and they decline, what is the status? The attorney replied that he has never had this situation before [This seems to happen a lot with this governing body that they have created situations never before seen]. What it boiled down to was that Councilman Quinoa would accept his “assignment” if the mayor wasn’t going to throw him off. The mayor responded “thank you.” Councilman Ochwat took that as no response while Councilman Cote asked for confirmation that Councilman Quinoa will not be thrown off the committee again. The mayor responded that he had no intention to throw him off “at this time.” The mayor seemed to be playing word games to avoid answering the question and committing to anything.

Councilman Cote

Councilman Cote reviewed the recommendation he and Councilwoman Tuohy had made with regards to the makeup of the Vision Committee. They had documented the recommendation and sent it to the mayor and the attorney. The mayor wanted further changes and wanted to discuss with the full council before “spending money on the attorney to review.”

Councilman Cote and Councilwoman Tuohy made the recommendation of up to seven members from the Board of Education, Land Use Board, Recreation, up to three members of the general public with at least one from each the farming and business communities, plus the mayor. They also recommended that any Board/Commission not having members wishing to serve that position could be filled by another member of the general public. The thought behind this is that the mayor and/or council cannot force someone to serve on a committee given that the membership of most of these entities are volunteers. The mayor agreed with farming and business, but also wanted to add representation from Rutherfurd Hall and the Senior community. I think they came upon a general agreement as to the membership, but the big discussion was around how the members would be chosen from each of the boards/commissions. The mayor said that the commissions would make the recommendation; however, I gather that was not what happened when the mayor was recently looking to make appointments under the existing ordinance. It sounded like the mayor went out directly to individuals to ask them to serve. The mayor disagreed, saying that he went to the head of the commissions and asked to speak to a specific individual. Here, again, the mayor starts playing word games, which were pointed out numerous times. In one breath he said he had no problem going to the commissions and asking for recommendations, and in the other he said that he went to a commission to ask for a specific individual. These are not one in the same.

Councilwoman Tuohy

Councilwoman Tuohy addressed two items:

• Meeting with another township regarding a municipal court shared services agreement
• Possible shared services agreement with the school for grounds maintenance

Councilman Quinoa

Councilman Quinoa addressed the following:

• He asked if the town could consider increasing recycling to once/week (currently once/2 weeks).
• Recreation Commission
  • The Recreation Commission should have a recommendation of its new bylaws by its next meeting
  • Clarification now that parks are open that no sports are allowed, including practices for any teams. This would not, however, preclude a parent/child from playing ball with kids. The mayor reiterated that basketball and tennis courts are still closed. Parks are open per the governor’s guidelines
  • Dog Park: Discussion around whether Allamuchy can follow some of the guidelines that other municipalities are following. Unfortunately, Allamuchy does not have the resources for the monitoring that is necessary. The mayor discussed with the Office of Emergency Management and a decision was made to keep the dog park closed. The dog park is very social and will be opened when the playgrounds are opened.  The mayor also said that we have 4750 residents, with only 23 confirmed positives. “We are doing something right. We are not looking to inconvenience anyone; we are trying to save lives.”

Councilman Ochwat

Councilman Ochwat had a couple of minor items that are currently on hold:

• WWII plaque
• Lobby signs for primary election to show public about taxes

BOARD/COMMISSION REPORTS – None

MUNICIPAL CLERK’S REPORT – None (there are no raffles, no applications, no games of chance – everything is on hold)

PUBLIC SESSION – No one from the public spoke

ORDINANCES – FIRST READING

Capital Ordinance – Bear Creek Road Improvements – $112,500.00. Second Reading will be on 5/27

ORDINANCES – SECOND READING for 5/27 [These are available for review on the websites at http://allamuchynj.org/ordinances]

a. # 2020-02 – Personnel Committee Ordinance

b. # 2020-03 – Safety Committee Ordinance

RESOLUTIONS

Prostate Cancer Awareness (Carry Over from March Workshop Mtg). The attorney will draft a resolution for 5/27.

OTHER/NEW BUSINESS

Councilman Quinoa does not want to receive the same report from multiple people and asked if one person can be responsible for sending each report out.

OLD BUSINESS

No discussion on any of the items

EXECUTIVE SESSION

They were originally going to go into Executive Session so Councilman Ochwat could ask the attorney a question, but it was decided that the attorney would answer the question in an email.

ADJOURNMENT @ 8:59 pm

This meeting did me in. I was getting aural whiplash listening to the back and forth and the word games. As I said at the beginning, I think the meeting could have been at least a half hour shorter without what appears to be personal disputes being brought into the public realm. It is downright embarrassing to be a resident at times. You know it’s bad when the attorney has to say that something happened/a question was asked that he’s never had to deal with before (and this is not the first meeting that I’ve heard him say that). The mayor talked about having to be fiscally responsible multiple times during this meeting. How fiscally responsible is it to have to pay the attorney and engineer for the extra time because a meeting went longer than it should have? We need to hold our elected officials accountable to do the job that they were elected – and are paid – to do. Until more people attend the meetings to hold witness to the circus, the circus will continue.