Caucus Meeting 4/21

I was not able to attend but Tom C sent me his information.

At tonight’s meeting George Tagmeyer [don’t know spelling], was promoted and sworn in as a  Captain in the police force.  A number of officers and his family and friends attended.  After the swearing in, the room emptied out to about 8 residents.

At the next Commission meeting they will be introducing the Township and BID Budgets. 

The engineer’s report including the receipt of bids for the restoration of the Briarwood Standpipe which was budgeted for approximately $350,000.  The low bid came in at $281,000, as a result of the economy.  There were a plethora of grants that were also discussed which could benefit the town. 

Jim Stevenson said that the annual hydrant flushing would be commencing shortly.

The commissioners passed a resolution to fill the two seats which were vacated when Larry Gasparone and Fran Tedesco resigned from the Housing Authority.  They appointed the head of our water/swer superintentent Jim Stevenson and Fran Russo to the seats. The mayor stated that they need to make the appointments prior to tomorrow night’s board meeting.   When asked during the public portion by me the circumstances surrounding the resignations, the mayor stated he did not know the reason.  I asked him if that was the truth, and he stated “the whole truth”. He clearly was reserving his words.   Commissioner Dougherty verbally attacked me saying that I accused the mayor of lying. 
There will be a number of resolutions at the next meeting including:

Promoting the part time water sewer clerk to full time.
Purchased of new records management software for the police department.
Establishment of the Audubon Park interlocal agreement for police services
Designating the Walters group as the redeveloper of the Russell Cast Stone Site.
Several contractual amendments

There was extensive discussion on the property revaluation process. The town has received only one bid and will be going back to the county for another one year extension on doing the revaluation.  They do not know if the county will allow this.  If it does, the new valuations would not be effective until 2012, after the next municipal election. 

The commissioners went into executive session at the end of the public meeting, even though it was not on the agenda.  They passed the resolution after the public portion of the meeting. 

There was no update on the theatre or the Dydee site.  I brought up the fact that visually, Haddon Avenue at the Dydee site should be better maintained and the mayor said he would look into it. 

This was the longest meeting a quite a while and unlike prior meetings, the commissioners seemed more engaged in openly discussing the issues.  It ended at 7:50.