Pine Barrens Tribune February 18, 2023 - February 24, 2023

SOLICITOR SHOWDOWN AND COMPENSATION CLASHES

‘Interlocal Services Agreement’ Formalizes Arrangement for EMS Between Tabernacle, Lumberton and Allocation of Insurance Costs

Unofficial ‘Band-Aid’ Was in Place Since Last Year for Providing EMS Service to Tabernacle, Shamong

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

TABERNACLE—After unconfirmed reports were highlighted by the Pine Barrens Tribune late last year that the Lumberton Emergency Squad (LES) was unofficially assisting the Tabernacle Rescue Squad (TRS) to provide EMS services to both Tabernacle and Shamong townships (Shamong EMS had previously folded with Tabernacle having taken over in May 2021), on Feb. 9, during a 4:30 p.m. special meeting

See EMS/ Page 6

Legislation to Include Free Weekly Papers in Legal Ad Mandate Clears First Hurdle

Senate Committee ‘Releases’ Proposal to Change State Law Despite Opposition

By D ouglas D. M elegari

Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—Recent remarks by members of Pemberton Township Council that the township’s new mayor needs to “get some experience” before being entitled to the maximum of the new salary range for the post, and the township’s nonunionized employees and department heads should have any wage increases based on “performance reviews,” as well

as others such as “employees should be hired in the township based on what they know, rather than who they know” and “there are a lot of people who work for this township who need to learn the difference between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ in the way that they spend other people’s money” have led to members of the public from both sides of the aisle – including one person who is friends with some of the Republican and Democratic members comprising council

– to say that what they listened to recently was “unacceptable,” “uncalled for” and “disappointing.”

“This fighting and bickering is unacceptable,” declared resident Sheri Lowery, also member of the local school board who was particularly put out by members of council publicly discussing the certifications (or allegations of lack thereof) held by the township’s veteran

See TOWNSHIP/ Page 8

By Bill B onvie Staff Writer

TRENTON—A proposed change in state law that would allow government entities to satisfy the statutory requirement of publishing legal notices in at least two newspapers by adding free weeklies (such as the Pine Barrens Tribune, for instance) to the options available to them has cleared its initial hurdle in the New Jersey Legislature. The measure, Senate Bill S3466, which

See MANDATE/ Page 7

File Photos

Attorneys Andrew “Andy” Bayer (left) and Jerry Dasti (right).

Double-sided Flag Banners Used to Draw Attention to New Armory in Pemberton Borough’s Historic District Leads to Tense Exchanges

Former Councilman Spars with Mayor as to Whether ‘Signs’ Are Permitted; Topic Leads to Other Calls for Action to Address Two ‘Eyesores’ in Borough

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—The use of two angled double-sided flag banners to draw visibility to a new business on Pemberton Borough’s main drag, Big Igloo Armory, led to a few tense moments Jan. 17 in which the mayor declared he was not going to allow the governing body meeting to “get out of order” so long as he chairs the Pemberton Borough Council meetings. Particularly fired up about the appearance of the banners in the borough’s “historic district,” which this newspaper later observed are placed in front of the retail outlet, was former Councilman Robert Brock, who at times shouted from his seat.

The exchange was set in motion when nearby Hearthstone at Woodfield retirement community resident Mary Marino charged that the “signs for guns and ammo on the main drag are a little upsetting,” pointing out that they have appeared in what is known as the borough’s “historic district.”

“It really didn’t bother me until I read some of the information here,” said Marino, in pointing to the borough’s ordinance on permanent signage, which would prohibit such things. “Was a waiver issued for those signs to be posted? People should be able to find the store by searching an address.”

“I discussed this with code enforcement, and there is no violation,” responded Mayor Harold Griffin. “He and I have had arguments over this. And I voted against the whole thing coming to town from the beginning.”

Marino, however, retorted that the ordinance she reviewed said that “no freestanding signs” are allowed to be posted in the borough’s historic district.

Council President Terry Jerome explained to Marino that the flag banners don’t fall under the ordinance she is referring because they are considered “temporary signage” and

the “ordinance speaks to permanent signs.”

“The owner takes them in every night,” added Councilwoman Diane Fanucci, which led Griffin to quip, “Excuse me Diane, let me chair the meeting!”

“I want to assure you that I have discussed this thoroughly with the code enforcement officer,” Griffin asserted. “And I want to assure you there is no ordinance we have to remove that sign.”

That is when Brock, who left council on Dec. 31 and has been a longtime ally of Griffin, shouted from his seat, “Yes, there is!”, which caused the mayor to tell the former councilman, “You are out of line!”

After comments could be heard being uttered by the audience and Brock persisted in making his point while Marino still had the floor, Griffin declared, “I am not going to let this meeting get out of order – not when I am up here!”

“Do you want me to bring him (the code enforcement officer) into a meeting and have him explain it to you?” Griffin asked. “I will have him do that.”

One resident surmised that if the banners are on the public sidewalk, perhaps that alone could allow for the municipality to order their removal, but Fanucci pointed out that they are on the grass strip in front of the storefront (which borough officials –though there was some past disagreement – had previously concluded belonged to the adjacent property owner, and therefore is to be maintained by them).

Yet again, there were some tense exchanges that led Griffin to declare, “I am not going to let this meeting get out of hand!”

Marino insisted the banners “are not very historic,” while Brock, who still serves on the borough’s Planning and Zoning Board, maintained “those two flag signs do not meet our ordinance.”

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

One of the double-sided flag banners for Big Igloo Armory in Pemberton Borough.

New Engineer for Pemberton Boro. Vows to ‘Not Reinvent the Wheel’ But Explains Changes Are Needed to Commence Long-awaited Projects

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—After the Borough of Pemberton’s mayor went on the record last month to acknowledge that the municipality’s relationship with its prior engineer, Abbington Engineering, had purportedly soured last year, a representative with the borough’s new engineering firm, Pennoni Associates, advised Pemberton Borough Council at its latest session that it is “not going to reinvent the wheel” and will “use all the plans to the extent that we can.”

But that representative indicated that there will be some changes to the prior plans that are necessary in order to stay within budget and get the projects off the ground.

One point of contention borough officials had with Abbington, this newspaper previously reported, is that scheduled improvements for Jane and Egberts streets have still not yet commenced, reportedly some two years now since the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) had awarded a grant to the borough for the purposes of the project.

James “Jim” Mullan, the Pennoni Associates representative attending the Jan. 17 Pemberton Borough Council session, said that his firm would seek an “extension” from the NJDOT as the grant for Jane Street was awarded back in February 2021 and “you are supposed to make an award within two years.”

Previously, it had been decided to merge both the Jane and Egbert street projects together.

According to Mullan, instead of the “combined effort for Jane and Egbert,” the firm will be “pulling” and “splitting apart” the improvements for Jane Street.

“We will be revising them (the bid specs) and preparing them for resubmission and readvertisement,” the new engineer reported.

As for Egbert Street, Mullan revealed that the firm will be “scaling down” the project, revealing that the NJDOT had awarded $235,000 for the improvements to the street, but that the bids for both Jane and Egbert streets, when combined, “came in around $400,000.”

“We are scaling that down so that we can utilize the award,” the new engineer maintained. “We should have a revised bid package prepared by the end of February.”

While he noted the council “could break that down” however they wanted, or dictate how to reduce the scope of work, Mullan revealed that “we are down three blocks at this point” because “we have to fit it within budget.”

Previously, Mayor Harold Griffin told residents that when a borough-maintained street gets repaved, the adjacent sidewalks get done too.

Councilwoman Diane Fanucci asked how reducing the scope of work would impact sidewalk repairs, noting “the sidewalk is worse than the street here,” with council chambers at 50 Egbert Street.

“We will look at all of it,” the Pennoni engineer replied.

Another project that was to commence as soon as possible is one to address several sinkholes on Davis Street, with both Fanucci and Councilman Steven Fenster, neighbors and close friends, previously demanding repairs to the sinkholes, observing them as residents who live on the dead-end street.

According to the new borough engineer, the NJDOT awarded a $264,000 grant to the town to address the sinkholes, which reportedly are the result of faulty piping underneath the asphalt that had not been fully addressed the last time the street was resurfaced.

But after “looking through the files” for “input,” the Pennoni engineer contended “all we have is a proposal and do not know exactly what the drainage problems were.”

“We will prepare a proposal, but I just need to know what we are looking at, the scope of the problem and how we are going to remedy it,” Mullan declared.

Fenster, in response, explained that when Davis Street had been previously resurfaced, only “two small sections” of piping had been replaced, “and one sinkhole is at the one point where the repair stopped” with there being “at least three or four different sinkholes” on the street.

“The concern is how many more will develop,” declared Fenster of what could happen in the years to come if the situation is not addressed.

But one street that the council has heard repeatedly is in need of repair is Hearthstone Boulevard, or the main entranceway for Hearthstone at Woodfield, a retirement community in the borough.

Dozens of residents of the community have attended borough council meetings here since the fall to display that they are actively involved and paying attention, as was pointed out in the latest council session by one of the community’s residents.

Abbington had agreed last year to apply for a NJDOT grant to begin repairs to the thoroughfare. According to the Pennoni engineer, the borough has since received a $181,000 grant to repair the boulevard.

“We are currently gathering information on that project,” the new engineer reported. “I will have more to report next time.”

Griffin, in response to the new engineer’s report, declared he is “still worried about Jane and Egbert” because “that was about two years ago” that the state awarded funding for the street improvements, as well as what implications it could have for the other projects that come after it as he “wants to do Hearthstone this year.”

“I agree with you, the clock is running,” responded the new engineer, to which Griffin, nearing the age of 90, quipped, “My clock is running too.”

Pemberton Borough Hall Returns to Opening Five Days a Week

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—The F. Lyman Simpkins Municipal Building, or Pemberton Borough Hall, has returned to a five-day a week schedule after years of residents (including some who are now councilmembers) publicly objecting to it only being open four days a week following a schedule change that occurred amid a budget crunch.

The official date that the latest scheduling change took effect was Jan. 18. However, the new hours, this newspaper has learned, unofficially commenced shortly after Donna Mull retired as borough administrator and clerk in the beginning of November.

Several municipal employees came to council in late December to report that they were now working 40 hours or more a week as a result of the municipal building now being open five days a week, but that their salary had not changed to account for the additional hours worked.

One of the individuals who came forward was Rachael Wall, the borough’s new administrative assistant, who explained that when she was hired, she was working

36 hours a week, but that after the schedule change took place, she was putting in as much 42.5 hours of work per week.

Kim Johnson, the borough’s new deputy township clerk, who followed Wall, declared that she “loved her job,” but that it was only after she had accepted the position that she was informed the hours of borough hall were “increasing,” adding that she had been provided with “no written notice” of the change.

The borough’s deputy clerk contended that the circumstances had presented her with a predicament to either “continue” with her position or “resign,” but that she “did not want to resign.”

“In the future, could the borough decide to cut salary without written notice?” the borough deputy clerk asked.

The allegations that the municipal employees were not provided with written notice of the change, and were working more hours for the same salary, appeared to startle the council, and particularly Mayor Harold Griffin.

Borough Solicitor David Serlin at the time told the two women that “these negotiations

Tunnel to Towers Foundation Honors the Late Kevin Foder with Legacy Award for his Role as a 9/11 First Responder

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

BASS RIVER—A tribute to Kevin C.

Foder, Sr., a retired police officer, paramedic and veteran firefighter who died unexpectedly last July 11 at the age of 56, has been paid by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a Staten Island-based nonprofit that provides support to families of fallen first responders and wounded veterans.

Foder, who had been a wellknown member of the Bass River Township community, has been honored with a “legacy award” for his role as a first responder in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on lower Manhattan’s Twin Towers while he was a member of the Somers Point Fire Department, his widow, Barbara, told the Pine Barrens Tribune

A monetary award that accompanied the tribute will help her with expenses, inasmuch as her husband had no life insurance when he passed away following a minor medical procedure, she said.

“Dear Barbara,” read an accompanying hand-written letter, “It is our honor to grant a one-time Legacy Award in recognition

and gratitude for your husband Kevin’s life of service. Please use this award for any immediate needs you may have. We hope it also serves to let you know we care.”

The letter closes with the words, “God Bless” over the signature of “the Siller family” (the foundation having been created in the memory of Stephen Siller, a Brooklyn firefighter who died responding to the attack on the Twin Towers).

The tribute, she said, was well-deserved, her husband having “belonged to so many fire departments’ since he was 16 years of age, most recently including the New Gretna and West Tuckerton squads.

“He really cared for the community and his family, and the fire service was his life,” she maintained.

Kevin Foder’s involvement with the local community also included serving as a member and vice president of the Bass River Township Board of Education and membership in Great Bay Regional EMS Squad 85. At the time of his death, he was operating the Firehouse Deli, which he had recently opened in New Gretna, and which has since had to close as a result.

Medford-based Tennis Club Begins Offering Tennis Tournaments for High School Players That Feature Both Singles and Doubles

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD—Arrowhead Tennis Club,

a tennis club at 6 Nelson Drive that has been a Medford Township landmark since 1973, has begun hosting high school tennis tournaments, with another scheduled for this upcoming President’s Day holiday weekend that club officials hope will generate the “same interest, if not more” than the first one held last month.

The first such tournament, which was “great for South Jersey tennis,” declared Jim Baker, a retired tennis coach for Medfordbased Shawnee High School who first proposed the idea in working with the local tennis club, kicked off during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend last month.

“The next thing I knew, we had over 40 kids come on Martin Luther King Day,” said Baker of the tournament far exceeding expectations.

Participants, he noted, represented Seneca, Cherokee, Shawnee, Haddonfield, Clearview, Millville, Mainland, Arthur P. Schalick, Northern Burlington, Paul IV and Lindenwold high schools.

“This didn’t happen without Jeff Holman, the glue of South Jersey tennis and the head of the Coaches’ Association,” said Baker of Holman’s efforts to disseminate word of the tournament to area high school tennis athletes and their coaches, with Holman,

according to an online profile, having played tennis at Haddonfield Memorial High School and Princeton University before becoming Haddonfield’s head coach. “He has coached for well over 30 years in Haddonfield. Nothing happens in South Jersey tennis without him having some part in it.

Baker, facilitator of the tournament, described that there were both a girls’ and boys’ bracket, as well as a singles and doubles bracket.

The girls’ singles winner is Sophia Kaufer, of Shawnee, while the winners of the girls’ doubles included Sarah Crawford, from Clearview, as well as Tori Von Hamann (the latter who is actually only in the 7th grade).

The boys’ singles winner is current Shawnee tennis player, Sean Sipera, and while he defeated a fellow Shawnee player, Alex Michalk (who wound up getting secondplace singles), Baker described them as “good friends” who then went on to team up for doubles and won doubles together by challenging two athletes from Cherokee.

“Some kids wound up playing singles and then wound up playing doubles, which is unusual, because in a high school match, you wouldn’t do that,” Baker maintained. “There was a lot of local interest, as well as from schools outside of the area.”

Several participating tournament athletes, Baker said, train at Arrowhead, owned by Venku Mandalap.

“A lot of credit has to go Venku for opening

See TENNIS/ Page 10

Foder

See BOROUGH/ Page 10

Tennis players Sean Sipera (white shirt) and Alex Michaluk (blue shirt), from Shawnee High School in Medford, who won boys’ doubles in a high school tennis tournament at Arrowhead Tennis Club.

Photos Provided

Girls’ champions Tori VonHamann and Sarah Crawford.

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—Piles of garbage may become a thing of the past in Pemberton Borough, if a local councilwoman has her way.

Councilwoman Melissa Tettemer, who is also involved with the borough’s Beautification Committee, said that while she was assisting in the take down of the municipality’s Christmas decorations a couple weeks ago, she noticed on “garbage day” that “bags and bags of garbage were piled in front of people’s houses.”

“I thought it looked awful,” she declared. “… I think all garbage should be placed in a can with a lid.”

Mayor Harold Griffin suggested “enforcement,” but Tettemer said she reviewed the borough ordinance on solid waste and found it to be contradictory.

“It says in one place that ‘garbage must be packed into a container,’ and then in the next sentence it says, ‘Where it cannot be, it should be securely tied and bundled into packages and to not make the bags exceed 50 pounds.’ It is just my opinion, but bags should not be put out at all.”

This newspaper, on the afternoon of Feb. 14, observed piles of garbage bags sandwiched in-between cars parked alongside Hanover Street, with the borough’s trash hauler using

a collection truck that was not automatic, but rather had men placed on its backside.

“I know when I first moved here 15 years ago, we had two collections a week,” Tettemer said. “I don’t know (if reducing it to one collection day a week) contributed to this.”

Tettemer asserted the situation has led her to “talk about rewording the ordinance somehow,” pointing out that she has previously seen animals in her father’s neighborhood “having a feast” when garbage bags are left exposed to the elements, with the animals then leaving behind “garbage all over the place.”

Councilwoman Diane Fanucci, in responding to the idea, said that it “looks fine on the surface,” however, “when people are cleaning things out, they technically probably have only one or two bins.”

“And to expect them to go out and buy 10 bins just for the one day is just not practical,” Fanucci said. “So, we need to have some kind of caveat if we do that.”

Tettemer also reported her observation to council that “when people move out, they load the curb up” with bulk trash and “that is not allowed either.” Fanucci noted that she has also seen locals putting out their trash as early as Friday or Saturday or “too early,” which draws things such as “vultures.”

“We will give your ideas to our attorney,” Griffin said.

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—A revelation

by a Pemberton Borough resident –immediately confirmed by Pemberton Borough officials – that a backup transfer/ interconnection switch between two substations that supply power to the municipality has been sitting “disconnected” since work commenced on the Hanover Street Bridge in 2019, and a second disclosure from Mayor Harold Griffin that one of the substations experiences a “tremendous amount” of load in the summertime to the point it “gets very, very hot,” leaving the top official “worried,” roiled an already tense and topic heavy Jan. 17 Pemberton Borough Council meeting.

Following the revelations, which appeared to particularly concern residents of a local retirement community that would be impacted by any substation failure, and that has a number of vulnerable populations, Council President Terry Jerome, who oversees the borough’s Electric Department, tried to “alleviate fears” that officials are “not talking about things in general that would be catastrophic” and are “not talking about something that would explode at any given point,” but compared the substation of concern to a “machine” that could “fail,” and in the event that it does, “can be repaired.”

John Stinger, who made the initial revelation about the switch, did so by first recounting that a “few years ago” the borough had a “problem with electricity,” and “when one section of the borough went down, they were able to switch it over.”

“I remember when the bridge went up, it (the transfer switch) had to be disconnected,” Simpkins continued. “Then I was told the

amount of necessary kilowatts put out by the north-end facility (substation) was outdated and needed to be replaced. What is the situation now? Once it goes down, it is down. Can the electricity be switched over?”

Griffin replied that “no, it can’t be at this time,” before adding that the situation is “one of my pet peeves.”

Stinger, amid confirmation from the mayor, called the situation a “real danger” to the public, with Griffin acknowledging that having a working switch is “very important.”

“The people of Pemberton Borough have been spoiled, because we are never without electricity (for a long duration), because it only takes Jimmy (the borough’s lineman) 15 or 20 minutes to come from home and switch them (the side of town without power) over and the whole town has electric again,” Griffin said. “At this point, I have to be honest with you, we can’t do that.”

The mayor in disclosing the second issue with the north-end substation itself, explained that it is the result of Hearthstone at Woodfield having been constructed, which added about 150 homes onto it, putting a “tremendous amount” of load on the facility. He maintained the construction happened before his time on council and that the developer should have been required to put in a separate substation for Hearthstone, or fund work to improve the grid to accommodate the extra load.

“During the summertime, I worry about that substation,” the mayor acknowledged. “When you all have your air conditioners on, I worry about that substation.”

In fact, the mayor said that “ever since I have been in office, I have worried about that substation.”

(Continued from Page 1)

of the Tabernacle committee, an official “interlocal/shared services agreement” was approved with Lumberton Township to now officially “recognize that the services are being provided by Lumberton” to the two municipalities and to “set forth” an “equitable allocation of insurance costs.”

The Feb. 9 formal green light given by the Tabernacle committee for the arrangement –at risk of a possible legal challenge after two township transparency advocates pointed to yet another possible “violation” of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) that came on the heels of one alleged to have occurred Feb. 2 – followed a report given by LES Chief Jamie Wood highlighting how a “national” EMT shortage that purportedly drastically worsened in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic has extended down to the county and state levels, reaching a “crisis” point.

“Everybody has an issue getting EMTs,” she explained. “The generation has changed. There is no more volunteering. The pay (even for career or paid EMTs) is low.”

EMTs, she added, are “coming and going” to the point it has turned into a “constant revolving door” in which personnel do the job “for a limited amount of time” before going on to nursing or medical school, to land a job in the nursing or medical professions, in which the pay tends to be much better.

All of this, Woods maintained, has led to “squads closing all over” the state and country.

“I think we had 20 percent, or so, of squads close due to no volunteers,” said Wood, who said she has been actively involved in bringing about Congressional solutions to the crisis. “Pretty much, we all determined we are going to have to do pocket regionalization agreements to survive; 1.) for manpower, 2.) for volume of sustainability (EMS agencies with low call volume receive limited reimbursements with the monies typically not enough for survival).”

Unlike some other squad organizations in the county, she maintained, officials of the Tabernacle and Lumberton squads decided to put their “mission” ahead of their “egos and t-shirts” and “decided to try this as a temporary solution” because it was observed the “national” manpower shortages had extended down to the local level to the point that it began posing a “very dangerous and frightening” situation while residents “wait for an ambulance.”

Wood further elaborated that some of those waits had occurred as a result of instances in which “sometimes people say ‘no,’” or that their entities are “not going into that town” or crossing the municipal boundary to provide mutual aid.

“We started talking at the county level about doing pocket agreements,” she contended in response to what was occurring. “But the egos

were too big. No one wanted to give up their sandbox. Some forgot what your ‘mission’ is –the ‘mission’ isn’t about township line, or the t-shirt you are wearing, the ‘mission’ is about that human being calling 911.”

Ultimately, Lumberton and Tabernacle officials, Wood maintained, decided it was best to “back off” on the prospect of a “larger regionalization” and “scale back” with a pocket arrangement such as this one, as the “personalities were too great to deal with” and “everybody wanted to be the ‘big cheese.’”

“We started thinking as two agencies, and Lumberton and Tabernacle believe in the ‘mission,’” Wood declared. “We haven’t had a chief-to-chief issue. What are we going to do when people are sick to make sure they have an ambulance?”

That is when, she explained, this “bandaid” solution of “Lumberton’s daytime staff running into Tabernacle from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 5 days a week,” came about.

“You have not noticed, nor as anyone noticed, a difference in patient care,” maintained Wood of the arrangement between entities. “The only difference is the t-shirt (worn by a crew member) says ‘Lumberton (EMS) and they are sitting in the station.”

But while a temporary arrangement between the Tabernacle and Lumberton squads, as previously reported by this newspaper, had been taking place since at least last fall (some reports said it had started as early as last summer), for the purposes of a needed insurance reimbursement from the Burlington County Joint Insurance Fund (JIF), the two squads were said to need the governing body to formalize an interlocal services agreement (which now makes the arrangement official and at least more permanent), with Wood declaring such action is not in “my purview.”

Tabernacle Solicitor William Burns suggested there was a need to act this month in an expedited fashion, which couldn’t wait for a regular meeting.

Essentially, as indicated by Wood, the JIF decided its organization and members are put in a better position than currently is the case if the insurance fund provides for general liability and worker’s compensation reimbursements for struggling EMS agencies versus taking a chance of a “bigger liability” posed by there being no ambulance coverage whatsoever. (Wood noted that it would cost towns some $1.5 million annually to run a paid EMS organization of their own, and that they tend to not want to carry such an expense.)

“The JIF does not want to see any town not covered by ambulance coverage, because obviously that is a bigger liability to the JIF,” Wood said. “… They are doing what they can do to remedy this situation.”

After the Tabernacle committee convened an executive session Feb. 9, and the report was delivered by Wood, the Tabernacle governing body voted 5-0 (a vote that included Noble

McNaughton, whose Feb. 2 appointment to the township committee has been the subject of controversy and had to be “ratified” at the Feb. 9 session after the governing body acted de novo due to allegations of an OPMA violation) to formalize the arrangement.

“If we have the ability to bring people in, and make sure people are covered, I think we owe it to the community to do that,” declared Tabernacle Committeewoman Kim Brown, who noted she and her family have relied on emergency services in the past. “Without them (the EMTs), we have no ability to do that (to make sure residents have EMS coverage) and it is usually life and death if they get called out.”

The arrangement, declared Tabernacle Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Moore, “speaks volumes” and is representative of the organizations “looking at the future” to “make sure our residents are taken care between the two municipalities (Shamong and Tabernacle).”

According to TRS Chief George Jackson, who also delivered remarks at the Feb. 9 meeting, when he first took over TRS, the agency was responding to as many as 800 annual calls, but now that number has nearly doubled, with there having been “1,600 dispatches between Tabernacle and Shamong last year.”

Additionally, according to both Jackson and Wood, in the wake of COVID and the various impacts the illness has had, the entity has observed that local patients are “much sicker” when they are called out to residences.

That has underscored the need for the township to have qualified EMTs responding to the calls, with Jackson declaring “it is not just about somebody getting in a truck and driving it,” but rather it is important that the first responder “knows what they can do” to help someone.

Wood maintained that the TRS response time has averaged “one minute and ten seconds,” with Jackson testifying that, “We are signing on in less than two minutes.” That despite both Wood and Jackson recognizing they both have become part of the national trend, now working full-time jobs during the daytime (Jackson pointed out he was recently promoted in his job – now a commanding officer of the Medford Township Police Department).

The Lumberton chief, who in the past was reportedly an officer with TRS, emphasized that “right now, we do have excellent coverage, and Lumberton has excellent coverage,” adding that Lumberton EMS will be “dynamically staging” one of their “power trucks” to improve local response times. Jackson, meanwhile, maintained this arrangement will also bring about a “cost savings” to TRS.

However, whether this arrangement will have to be formalized all over again at some point or was illegally conducted is a prospect raised by Stuart and Fran Brooks, Tabernacle transparency advocates.

Two weeks after there had been an alleged violation of the OPMA by the township allegedly not posting notice of the Feb. 2 special meeting on the township bulletin

board at least 48 hours in advance of that session, Stuart Brooks charged that the municipality sent a “defective notice” of the Feb. 9 special meeting to the Burlington County Times and The Central Record, as well as to the Pine Barrens Tribune

It amounted to a “violation of the OMPA,” Stuart Brooks continued, because the municipality is currently required to publish legal notices in at least two newspapers of paid circulation (see separate story as a state senator is proposing a change to allow municipalities to meet the requirements by publishing such notices in free weekly newspapers), and the Pine Barrens Tribune is a free newspaper, as well as is not currently designated by resolution as one of the municipality’s “official newspapers.”

Additionally, The Central Record “doesn’t publish a hard copy” and is “only digital,” with the once prominent local newspaper having since merged its website with that of The Trentonian and the Trenton-based newspaper’s website featuring the Oct. 27, 2022, edition of The Central Record as the last available published hard copy.

But even if The Central Record was still in publication, Stuart Brooks pointed out, it always “published its hard copy on Thursdays” and with the township sending out a notice of the Feb. 9 special meeting on Feb. 2, there would have been no way that the publication could have even “published the notice as OPMA requires because you sent your notice on Thursday, Feb. 2, so the earliest The Central Record could publish it would be today,” Feb. 9, and therefore 48 hours’ notice would not have been given to the public.

The Brooks also challenged a request by Township Administrator and Clerk Maryalice Brown that asked of all the newspapers copied on the notice for the Feb. 9 meeting to not publish it, but rather take it as “for advisement only,” with the advocates indicating there is case law suggesting that such a request is unlawful (notably, while Fran Brooks mentioned this suit, as well as the existence of a memo from the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office to that extent, loud banging and noise began overriding her public comments, with a similar situation happening Feb. 2 to her husband while making critical comments, only the previous time it was a case of loud coughing).

“She is giving a public notice by advising a newspaper not to publish,” Stuart Brooks maintained. “That is just crazy, and case law holds that violates the OPMA for obvious reasons. I don’t understand why you can’t get ‘adequate public notice’ right, and I don’t understand why you are not correcting this problem.”

While Fran Brooks also decried that the “Tabernacle committee would hold a meeting at 4:30 p.m. when almost no one can attend,” Burns responded to the concerns, asserting, “It is my understanding the meeting notice is sufficient, according to the OPMA.”

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was introduced by Republican Senator Jean Stanfield, representing the local 8th Legislative District, was approved by four of the five members of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee (with one abstaining) on the morning of Feb. 9 despite opposition from the New Jersey Press Association (NJPA), with the state’s remaining paid dailies, most of which are owned by two major media companies, among its members.

If passed by the full Legislature and signed into law by the governor, it would change the definition of what is considered a “qualified newspaper” for the publication of such notices to “any printed publication that is published and circulated at least once a week, for 48 weeks of the year” and remove the current requirement that such a paper must have a paid circulation.

(At least one additional amendment of the most current version of the legislation will be necessary to fully ensure free newspapers can receive legal notices.)

Besides giving municipalities “more options for publishing required legal notices by expanding the types of papers that qualify under state law,” Stanfield noted, it could provide their residents who don’t subscribe to daily papers “greater access to important legal notices that might impact them.”

Additionally, she pointed out, such a modification of the law “may also help community newspapers that have struggled in recent years to survive.”

The next steps in the process involve a second reading at which any amendments may be introduced, followed by a third and final reading at which the proposal is debated and voted on by the full Senate. If

approved, the bill would need to follow a similar path through the Assembly before arriving at the desk of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy for his signature.

The bill was ordered “released” by the committee following a lively hearing in which it was opposed by a lawyer representing the NJPA and the publishers of two paid-circulation weekly newspapers, both of whom are current officials of the NJPA Board of Directors.

This newspaper did send letters and statements to the committee detailing its arguments for changing the law, which expanded on the reasons for doing so provided by Stanfield.

One of the chief arguments against S3466 offered by Thomas J. Cafferty, of the Gibbons Law Firm, which represents the NJPA, was that newspaper readers tend to give more of their time and attention to publications that cost them money than those they can get for free.

To advance that assertion, Cafferty cited a case he had been involved in litigating on behalf of the NJPA on an amicus basis in the early 1970s, in which free-circulation newspapers challenged the constitutionality of the current state law regarding legal advertising—a challenge he noted had been unsuccessful, both on a trial court level and in a written published opinion by the appellate division in 1977.

“The argument was then, and I presume now, in support of this change, that ‘we’re on everybody’s lawn in a particular area,’” Cafferty maintained. “But the mere fact that you throw something on someone’s front lawn doesn’t mean they read it. The fact that you pay for something means you’re likely to read that publication (and) more likely to see the official advertising in that publication. And I think that proposition is no less true today than what it was in 1977 when the courts upheld the requirement of ‘paid.’”

That opinion, the attorney further noted, had made a point of emphasizing that “purpose would be most reliably accomplished,” based on “common sense and common experience,” by having such legal notices appear in “actual and bona fide newspapers” that reach “a broader cross section of the population than the contents of a free publication designed and distributed primarily for commercial advertising purposes.”

Concurring with Cafferty was Sen. Brian P. Stack (D-33rd District), the committee vice chair, who contended that “all this will do is just erode the newspapers that we have” and claimed he had seen “what you call throwaway newspapers in Hudson County, and many of them don’t have the news that you’re looking for, obviously.”

“And now to go ahead and reward and pay them for what they do …,” he added.

Stack then acknowledged, “I’m not sure what the Pine Barrens and people like that are publishing (an apparent reference to this newspaper, whose statements in support of S3466 he and the other members had been provided copies of), but repeated his assertion that the proposal would “just erode the information that the public is getting now from bona fide newspapers.”

“There may be some good intent by the senator behind this, but I couldn’t support this type of legislation,” he added. (Stack was the one committee member who ultimately abstained from voting on the measure.)

Supporters of the bill, however, who included Sen. Troy Singleton (D-7th District), the committee chairman, Sen. Christopher J. Connors (R-9th District) and Sen. Holly T. Schepisi (R-39th district), noted that substantial changes have occurred in regard to the coverage of events provided by print media in recent years and that free weeklies have now become the chief source of local and community news for many

FREE ESTIMATES

residents of the state, given the substantial shrinking or actual disappearance of the daily newspapers they once relied on to report on local government and municipal affairs.

Perhaps the strongest sentiments in this regard came from Singleton, who, in voicing his differences with his friend (and fellow Democrat) Stack, emphasized that “the weeklies of my area are vital to the communities of the area because local news is no longer covered by our local newspaper,” and blamed what he called “the corporatization of media” that he claimed “has actually shrunk the coverage of what is happening” in various locales.

To almost denigrate these local publications “is a disservice to those publishers and the work they do as well,” the committee chairman declared, adding, “in some communities that is the news.”

“That’s where folks go to find out what’s going on,” Singleton declared. “They don’t go to the bigger papers anymore.”

Schepisi pointed out that she was just five years old in 1977 when the decision cited by Cafferty was published, and that “the world was also a lot different when that case was argued—one in which “the Internet didn’t exist (and) we still had a TV with rabbit ears” and noted that she herself has “had difficulties even placing legal advertisements” because of the continual reductions in newspaper staffing and delays of five or six days in scheduling them that resulted in her having to postpone land-use hearings because of her inability to provide proper notification to the public.

When Cafferty responded to a query she posed regarding what percentage of the association he represents is on the Internet by pointing out that nothing in the current bill would allow legal advertising

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TOWNSHIP

Public Works Director Tom McNaughton during a Jan. 18 session.

The allegedly “unethical” discussion, as Lowery put it, occurred despite Attorney Andrew “Andy” Bayer reminding the public body on a couple of occasions that the employee had not been sent a Rice Notice and discussions about specific employees are to be held in closed session only once a notice is issued (unless the employee requests a public employment hearing). “You better all start finding common ground. I didn’t like what I saw.”

Also upsetting longtime council meeting attendees is an ongoing solicitor showdown that began back on Jan. 4 with Republican Mayor Jack Tompkins’ appointment for township solicitor, the law firm of Dasti, McGuckin, Ulaky, Koutsouris, not receiving council approval, despite now two tries by the administration to get Dasti installed in the post on Jan. 4 and Feb. 1, respectively.

Instead, attendees at a Feb. 1 council meeting found an agenda listing two resolutions for appointment of municipal solicitor, one that would have approved Jerry Dasti as municipal solicitor, and the other that would have appointed Bayer, the latter who has since claimed he can act in the capacity of municipal solicitor as a “holdover” per a stipulation in a previously agreed to contract with the township. However, an official later told this newspaper Bayer is now acting in the capacity of “special counsel.”

Democratic Council President Donovan Gardner acknowledged the second resolution Feb. 1 appointing Bayer, a veteran municipal solicitor for Pemberton, this year’s municipal solicitor was at his behest, but later had it “pulled,” contending “what’s the sense of it” given a recognized “disagreement” between the council and mayor.

But, of course, the mere presence of conflicting resolutions on the agenda appeared to be designed to make some sort of point to the public, with one resident angered by what has unfolded, Anne Quinn, of the Country Lakes section of the township, having to ask “why” there were two resolutions on the agenda for the same municipal professional appointment.

“Well …. there seems to be a disagreement of solicitors and the condition of employment of one solicitor,” Gardner responded.

When that resident asked if it was a “disagreement between council and administration,” Gardner replied, “yes.”

Later in the meeting, when Dasti moved to weigh in on a legal issue, he was told by Bayer (the latter allowed to give legal advice throughout the meeting, unchallenged) that “this is not a ‘public’ discussion,” and when Dasti protested that he had actually been temporarily appointed by Tompkins

as municipal solicitor through the Faulkner Act, and that the appointment power rests in the hands of the township’s mayor, Gardner quipped, “You are not part of this meeting sir; I don’t even know who you are.”

But not all of the public disagreements displayed at the Jan. 4, Jan. 18 and Feb. 1 council meetings, some of the first since Democrats lost absolute control of the township on Jan. 1, were along party lines.

Tompkins pushed back several times on suggestions by his 2022 GOP running mates, Councilmen Joshua Ward and Dan Dewey, that the township’s employees and department heads should have any wage or salary increases based on the results of “performance reviews” and “performance evaluations.”

Additionally, Tompkins found himself defending the work performance of the current township employees and department heads, as well as their recent purchases, against challenges from both Ward and Dewey, who made those challenges while referring to themselves as “businessmen.”

At times, Tompkins found himself siding with Gardner, instead of Ward and Dewey, though the latter two came to the mayor’s defense when Gardner proposed setting the mayor’s salary for this year at only $9,000 versus an apparently requested $13,000.

And Democratic Councilman Paul Detrick appeared to sympathize with Ward and Dewey on the issue of the mayor’s salary, contending that although the former Democratic mayor, David Patriarca (who left office Dec. 31, 2022, after a 16-year term), took only a $4,000 salary, that was “his choice,” and $9,000 is “no windfall.”

However, Gardner’s amendments to a resolution setting the “rates of compensation for non-represented employees and officials,” including that Tompkins only receive the “minimum salary” of $9,000 for the mayoral post, were ultimately approved along party lines, 3-2, with the Democratic members, also including Councilwoman Elisabeth McCartney, voting in the affirmative.

Leading to many of the public disagreements involving the township’s elected and appointed officials was not only the resolution setting compensation for certain employees and officials this year, but two (initially three) related ordinances setting the salary ranges “for certain employees and elected officials of the Township of Pemberton.”

However, ultimately, after more than an hour of discussion between the Jan. 18 and Feb. 1 council meetings and some protest (Ward in particular wanted to amend at least one of them to immediately implement a system of pay based on performance evaluations), the salary range ordinances passed without any amendments to make way for performance evaluations, 5-0, under the premise that the administration would come back to council later this year with

possible ways for performance reviews to be implemented.

By the Feb. 1 council meeting, at least some of the Democratic council members put on the record they were not entirely opposed to performance reviews.

Meanwhile, peppered into all of this were revelations that two employees “retired” from the township in recent days.

Solicitor Showdown

During council’s Jan. 4 reorganization meeting, a resolution appointing Kelsey McGuckin, Esq., of the law firm Dasti, McGuckin, Ulaky, Koutsouris, and Connors, a law firm with ties to Republican state Senator Chris Connors, was defeated by a 3-2 vote along party lines, with the Democratic council members the dissenting votes.

“At this point, they are not appointed since the current solicitor, Andy Bayer, is here as a holdover until it gets resolved,” asserted Gardner following the decision.

The council president then invited Bayer to come up to the dais to “assist council” on “legal advice” and with “legal opinions.”

“I believe Mr. Bayer’s appointment, under the Faulkner act, was done under the last administration, a year ago, and was for a oneyear appointment,” Tompkins challenged. “So, it being a one-year appointment, there is no ‘holdover.’ So, being that there is no ‘holdover,’ if you did not approve my recommendation, I then have the authority to temporarily appoint somebody until you do approve who I appoint. Under the Faulkner Act, I have the authority to appoint all professional services.”

Gardner then turned to Bayer, asking if he had “any comments” about what the new mayor had just stated.

“I don’t think the mayor is correct,” responded Bayer, to which Gardner asked for him to give an explanation. “In terms of the engineer, attorney, etc., the appointments are in effect until a successor is appointed and confirmed.”

Bayer pointed to his “2022 contract,” maintaining its provisions “mimic Faulkner” and allow him to continue serving as a holdover.

“And there is case law on this as well,” he added.

But Tompkins retorted that “I disagree,” adding, “I am afraid this is going to cause a litigation issue.”

“I would like to appoint the law firm I nominated,” the Republican mayor declared. “I am going to appoint them as solicitor of the township until further approval.”

Gardner told Tompkins to wait until Bayer got his “computer up and running” because “to the best of my knowledge, there is no ‘temporary appointments.’”

As the Democratic council president attempted to move to the next subject, Tompkins maintained, “it hasn’t been resolved,” adding that he didn’t “want to go

onto the next subject until we resolve this,” but Gardner quipped, “Council meetings belong to the council.”

The council then convened a closed session to discuss “personnel matters.” A source familiar with what was discussed by council in a conference room connected to council chambers later told this newspaper that it “got loud in there,” not only over the solicitor’s appointment, but Tompkins’ choice to re-hire Daniel Hornickel as township business administrator.

Sources told this newspaper that Hornickel – who mysteriously vanished from the business administrator post shortly after Patriarica lost a re-election bid, with an employee initially informing this newspaper after his disappearance that he no longer worked for the municipality after the Pine Barrens Tribune received a news tip he had been let go – had actually been let go by Patriarica, but that Tompkins negotiated to bring him back to the position, which one source maintained is because “he has the answers” and is the only one who can help the Republican administration with budgeting given his vast knowledge of the township’s inner workings.

“May I take my seat, please?” asked Hornickel following the closed session and appointment as township business administrator for 2023, to which Detrick responded, “You can use your ‘old’ nameplate.”

No remarks were made following the Jan. 4 closed session about the municipal solicitor appointment, however.

Tompkins, in a later interview with this newspaper, when asked if he rehired Hornickel, responded that, “As a resident going to town council meetings, I respected Mr. Hornickel.”

“I really like Daniel,” he added. “He is good guy who I thought benefited the township greatly. I did reach out, we had a discussion, and he wanted to know what I was about, and where I was going. I gave him pretty good idea of who I was, and he did agree to come back to the township and work here beginning the first of January.”

Tompkins confirmed that he “did hire him back” and that “council confirmed him during the reorganization meeting.”

During that same Feb. 1 interview, the Republican mayor, on his 30-day mark in office, pointed to a “concern” that there were “two items” on the meeting agenda for later that evening, “one appointing one attorney as township solicitor and another appointing another for solicitor.”

“I only remember appointing one, not two,” declared Tompkins, reiterating that under the Faulkner Act he has the “authority” to “appoint professional services.”

“Unfortunately, I appointed a new solicitor and council did not agree with that,” he said. “I tried to negotiate that about a week ago,

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and I thought we had an agreement there, but the council president didn’t agree with it.”

The Republican mayor added that Bayer remaining in the post as simply a holdover is because “the township needs an attorney” to carry on with public business.

“One of my goals in my term as mayor was to limit litigation, as I thought we were in the courts too much for things we could resolve,” replied Tompkins when asked about his threat of bringing about litigation over his appointment not being allowed to be seated. “Then I ran into this snafu. It is not something I am too proud of, or happy about.”

When asked if deciding against reappointing Bayer as municipal solicitor was at all political (with Bayer having been a longtime ally of Patriarica and coming to the defense of the Democratic council on a number of occasions), Tompkins responded, “it is not a political thing.”

“The current solicitor has been in there for a while,” said Tompkins, who was a Pemberton councilman in 2015. “The one thing I had an issue with as a councilman, and as a resident, is that a lot of times our solicitor interjected himself into the meeting as if he was a councilman, or councilperson, and not acting as the township solicitor giving legal advice. And I didn’t care for that too much. That is one reason I didn’t want to retain him, (as well as) I thought the other company is a much better selection.”

The previous administration, Tompkins explained, put out a Request for Quotes (RFQs) a “week or two before I came into office,” and Patriarca, he contended, “gave those responses” to the new administration.

“I actually sat down with Mr. Hornickel,

and evaluated them – the bid requests and responses, and that is how we determined who we were going to pick for our professionals,” Tompkins said.

Also resulting in disagreement during council’s Jan. 4 reorganization meeting was the appointment of a municipal engineer.

Gregory R. Valesi, of CME Associates, was narrowly appointed municipal engineer for this year, by a 3-2 vote, with Detrick joining Republicans Ward and Dewey in the affirmative.

Additionally, a “special counsel pool” had been amended Jan. 4 by council’s Democratic membership to include a second law firm, with Dewey objecting to the amendment. During council’s subsequent Jan. 18 meeting, a resolution was entertained by council that stated since the reorganization meeting, a “need” had arisen to “expand the special counsel pool to appoint additional firms to perform special legal work,” including with the addition of Bayer, as an attorney with the law firm of Pashman, Stein, Walder, Hayden.

Bayer’s appearance as “special counsel” immediately drew questions from McCartney, given the assumption of the Democratic membership that he is the town’s municipal solicitor.

“Is this how we operated last year, with these two firms?” asked McCartney, with the resolution also adding the firm of William Northgrave, of McManimon, Scotland, Bauman, as special counsel. “Is there anything different?”

Hornickel responded that “Andy has been working for the township for quite some time,” and that the McManimon firm is new for the township, the latter having been suggested because a prior firm that handled the township’s tax appeals “did not apply” for this year.

While McManimon had actually applied for “all of the township’s special counsel

slots,” Hornickel explained, council on Jan. 4 had appointed the firm of Capehart and Scatchard as the township’s special counsel “for labor work,” and the firm of Goldman and Spitzer as the township’s special counsel “for bond counsel work.”

“We are going to need Andy for litigation matters he is presently handling, and other litigation matters that pop up, which could be assigned to him,” added Hornickel of why Bayer’s firm was now being added to the special counsel pool.

Initially, the resolution expanding the township’s special counsel did not specify the type of legal work each of the four firms would handle. But Gardner demanded that it be “fine-tuned” and contain a “breakdown” of work to be assigned.

“I want it to say Pashman (Bayer’s firm) is to continue with ‘litigation’ for the township,” Gardner demanded. “Basically, since we have four law firms, I want there to be no wild card, and it to be specific.”

However, Hornickel, a member of the “administration,” retorted that he “would also want” McManimon

“to be qualified to handle litigation.”

“Because, in the event I have a conflict, who am I going to use?” the business administrator asked, to which Gardner asked a follow up question: “How would a conflict come about?”

Hornickel, also a lawyer, posed a third question in response, asking, “Andy’s firm has a huge client list, right?”

That question prompted someone to ask “What?” as if they were confused by what Hornickel had just implied, before Bayer, in seemingly displaying some nervous laughter, explained that the business administrator was suggesting there could be times in which his firm has a “conflict of interest.”

“If I could just give a hypothetical – if Andy’s firm had represented a developer who wanted to build here in Pemberton, and then

that developer and us got into litigation, Andy can’t handle that on our behalf,” Hornickel said.

While Bayer appeared to begrudgingly admit that Hornickel was “right” in what he was saying, Bayer made a point on two occasions to say “that in the 16 years that I have been here, I think I have had one conflict.”

“Well, I am just saying that I would prefer to also have McManimon listed because you don’t know,” Hornickel said. “We have a lot of developers knocking on our door.”

In providing yet another rebuttal to the business administrator, Bayer delivered what he called “two comments,” one being that at the time any conflict arises, the council in that moment could just adopt a resolution appointing a special counsel. Bayer suggested that the business administrator was viewing “litigation in the context of conflicts of conflicts.”

McCartney, who acknowledged “you never know” if a conflict could arise, wanted to “table” the special counsel expansion resolution to allow for a “rewrite” to specifically outline the responsibilities of the four different law firms, but Hornickel declared, “I beg you not to table this.”

“I have tax appeals now, and I need an attorney,” he further declared.

Gardner moved to approve the special counsel pool expansion on the premise that the resolution be adjusted to reflect that Pashman (Bayer’s firm) “cover all litigations,” while McManimon is to cover “tax appeals, tax foreclosures, any bankruptcy matters and litigation in the context of conflicts of interest.”

The special counsel pool expansion measure passed 4-1, with Dewey casting a lone dissenting vote.

“Resolutions 76-2023, and 77-2023 – does

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ARMORY

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“They are not temporary … they are up every day,” declared Brock, while Griffin retorted, “They take them in every night!”

“Mr. Philips (the borough’s code enforcement official) is satisfied our ordinance does not qualify to remove them,” Griffin added. “He is the one who has to take them to court, and he is not going to do it.”

ammo, magazines, knives, black powder as well as numerous other accessories. Items that are part of its “popular firearms” selection start at around $249 and go up to around $2,376.

A man who answered the phone at Big Igloo Armory, located at 72 Hanover Street, when asked if he wished to respond to the comments at the Jan. 17 council meeting, replied, “I do not.”

and storage containers.

“I have to say that every day, when I drive back home to Pemberton and look over there, that place is a disgrace,” declared former councilman Tim Quinlan, also a resident of Hearthstone. “Council said they were going to do something, maybe add a fence. That place is a disgrace! It is a danger to any kids out there at night, and I hope somebody does something to that place so that they clean up their act!”

features pictures of some of the borough’s historic, quaint buildings).”

She pointed out that many of the houses in the borough have recently been “fixed,” but among “all the pretty houses” stands out this particular one that is an “eyesore” with “broken windows.”

Councilman Steven Fenster suggested that officials “ask our legal advisor for the definition of ‘temporary.’”

According to the establishment’s website, the armory sells handguns, rifles, shotguns,

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Following closed sessions on both Dec. 19 and Jan. 3, as well as a brief public discussion during council’s reorganization meeting, the governing body unanimously passed a resolution Jan. 17 setting “non-police employee hours of employment” moving forward.

According to the resolution, it was decided to implement a “split four-day work week

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up the facility,” Baker said. “He wishes to help high school tennis and I know he is looking forward to doing it again on President’s Day. We will also keep looking to see if there are any other opportunities to make use of the facility and give South Jersey tennis more opportunities to interact like this at the high

schedule” to enable borough hall to be “open Monday through Friday.”

The discussion of the Armory led to two longtime controversial code enforcement topics being brought up once again, including the state of Thompson’s Lawn & Garden Supply, another borough establishment which in the past has drawn attention for purported stacks of old, rusted equipment need to be discussed in private without the public,” but thanked the women for coming forward.

“The borough administrator is directed to schedule staff so that borough hall is open five days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with staff working 72 hours per each two-week cycle, commencing Jan. 18, 2023,” said Griffin in reading aloud the resolution affirming the hours and the apparent agreement that had been reached.

Diane Fanucci, recently seated on borough council, had called for a return to a five-day work week at borough hall on a number of occasions as a member of the public, in addition to Councilman Steven Fenster.

Both Fanucci and Fenster previously claimed that there were a number of residents

school level, because it is usually restricted to regular season play or training facilities, if they do have that or if they belong the United States Tennis Association (USTA) – and not every tennis player is involved in that.”

Arrowhead, Baker described, has seven courts in total available for use, including one that has been converted over to a pickleball court, but can still be used for tennis. The former high school coach noted that not only is he “helping with the tennis aspect” of the club, but also with its pickleball program as the sport has “started to become a big thing.”

“On any given day or night when tennis is not scheduled” at Arrowhead, Baker noted that groups can “schedule to play pickleball there.”

“We have various groups of 16 or more people that sign up for pickleball during those hours,” Baker added.

But as far as the high school tennis tournament is concerned, Baker called it a “good day for them (the high school players)” and a “good day Arrowhead,” with the club a “great provider of space, time and training” for local tennis athletes.

That led to a historic, but reportedly delipidated house at the corner of Antis and Hanover Streets being raised once again, with Hearthstone resident Lois Sickles quipping, “It doesn’t look like that picture on the wall back there (council chambers

who work full-time that found being able to go to borough hall for municipal services on Fridays the best time that worked for them.

“It has been many years that I had been arguing out in the audience to get back to five days a week,” Fenster said. “I heard from many people in the town that they want to come to the office on Fridays. I am glad to be finally able to make this work.”

Fanucci, following the action, identified her “goals” for the new year, including transferring the ticketing of “non-crimes” to code enforcement, conducting plantings at Mill Creek Park, expanding the municipal dog park, “soliciting street captains” to aid in the “maintenance of properties,” holding a “Most-Improved Property Contest,” getting

“I keep asking the same question,” said Griffin in implying that he keeps asking when is the home going to be rehabilitated, pointing out the owner of it also owns three others in the municipality. “Believe me when I say this, I am frustrated about this house. My term is up at the end of this year and it will be taken care of before I am out of office. Because I will keep on them. I drive by it every day.”

rid of feral cats, adding more Christmas decorations in season, “making landlords aware of tenant habits,” installing nolittering signs “on all streets,” enforcing recycling requirements for businesses, and getting a license plate reader for the Pemberton Borough Police Department.

Fenster noted that among his goals is to continue to encourage public participation in council meetings and to pursue a “community garden” for growing vegetables, including perhaps reaching out to the Pemberton School District to see if they would allow some of their property to be used for one.

“It is called your backyard,” quipped Griffin in response.

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Singles champion Sofia Kaufer, who is a student of Shawnee High School in Medford.

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“I just don’t want something to happen if there is something we should be doing to make it not happen,” Griffin added.

The mayor maintained that “we got through last summer without any problems,” but “that is not to say we will get through next summer,” or if there is some sort of “accident” that occurs.

“We are really spoiled that way, to tell you the truth,” Griffin declared. “Believe me, it is one thing I am trying to get done before I am out of office.”

The mayor revealed that in addition to reconnecting the transfer switch, officials are looking at putting more load on the south-side substation “which doesn’t have a problem” and essentially creating a better electrical balance in town. However, he maintained, “last summer there wasn’t anything we could do about it because they were doing the bridge.”

Jerome maintained fixing the issue is something “on the front burner,” and when Stinger contended he was told a “new substation” is actually needed on the northend, the council president explained that the Electrical Department is looking at two solutions, one that is immediate and the other that is more of a long-term fix.

The Electrical Department, according to Jerome, is “developing a plan” to “reach parity” (the state or condition of being equal) with Jersey Central Power and Light (the

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CHRISTMAS COLORING CONTEST WINNER

neighboring electric utility) “which brings electricity to us.”

“By doing that, the goal would be to eliminate the need for that substation,” Jerome said. “We would be on parity. We would be accepting electricity at parity from Jersey Central. But that takes some investment. That takes some time. It takes resources that post-shutdown, and post-a very large hurricane in Florida, are hard to come by.”

Different types of transformers, in addition to “changing line voltage,” are just some of the things that would be required, the council president further explained.

“In regard to the switch,” Jerome said, “the goal” is to put it “much deeper into the borough as opposed to by the bridge,” and by doing that, he maintained, “it would take some of that load in an on-demand situation and push it to the south side, thereby alleviating demand on the north substation.”

“One aspect is a long-term thing, the other is an immediate thing that would lessen the load on that substation,” Jerome declared.

But Stinger pressed for a “timeline,” asserting that “all it takes is for there to be one bad storm that could knock us out” and that one is dealing with an “older generation here” that could “make for a life or death situation.”

“You are absolutely right,” declared Griffin, telling the resident that he had asked a “very good question” and to “keep asking about it,” which prompted Stinger to retort, “I hope I don’t have to keep asking about it.”

However, after another resident questioned if the north-end substation is “at this point

in time considered substandard,” both Griffin and Jerome replied “no,” though the mayor repeated that “they tell me in the summertime that thing gets very, very hot” and “something unforeseen, I feel, could happen anytime.”

“To alleviate some potential fears, when we speak of a substation being ‘burdened’ –when dealing with any electrical appliance, you talk about the amount of load there is with regard to 100 percent capacity,” said Jerome as the crowd seemed to be somewhat uneasy with what they were being told. “And there is a given amount, somewhere below 50 percent, considered ‘normal capacity.’ So, as you approach 50, 60 or 70 percent, you get into higher load values, high capacities and you are using up more reserve.

“The substation has a given general capacity. I can’t give specific numbers. But when talking about approaching the 50 percent mark, you are eating reserve. We are not talking something about approaching a red line, or the red line all the time, and we are not talking about something that would explode at any given point. It is machine; it could fail, but it is going to get repaired. We are not talking about things in general that are catastrophic.”

State aid, Jerome added, to assist with the cost is hard to come by since the borough’s utility is considered a “private” one.

“Because it is private, we have certain burdens we have to bear,” Jerome told the crowd.

Meanwhile, Jerome revealed that the borough had been without its own bucket truck for quite some time, but now has one,

and will soon have two bucket trucks back in service.

“The large, older bucket truck is back in service,” Jerome announced. “It has been away from service for quite a long time. It was out of service because parts simply weren’t available to bring it back in service.

As you can imagine, things did not happen, or weren’t able to happen, because there was a lack of two trucks. As we move forward, the guys should be able to get more done, because in the near future, the guys will have two trucks.”

The older bucket truck has been “certified” to return to service, he added, and is “readyto-go.”

But this revelation prompted a resident to ask if any electrical service has been affected by both trucks being out of service.

“The immediate needs were always met through various methods, whether we had to have somebody bring in a truck,” Jerome replied. “We also looked into the possibility of renting a truck should there be a need. There was no lack of service.”

During the meeting, a resident contended the borough was paying the highest amount around the area for electricity, 22 cents per kilowatt, and at one point, Councilwoman Diane Fanucci announced a goal of “researching electric to go back to Jersey Central Power and Light.”

When Fanucci asked if she could “add something” to what the resident who raised a concern about the cost of electric had to say, Griffin replied, “not at this time – no.”

Photos By Douglas D. Melegari Shelby Davidson, of Southampton, is the winner of the 2022 Pine Barrens Tribune Christmas Coloring Contest sponsored by Zallie’s Fresh Kitchen and ShopRite of Medford. Congratulating the winner are store manager Jim Gallagher and store Dietitian Beth Ann Peterson.

on that medium, she retorted, “that’s because you guys objected to that as well and fought against that” (a reference to 2016 legislation that would have given municipalities the option of publishing legal notices on government websites rather than newspapers).

Schepisi then suggested to the NJPA attorney that the association he represents exhibit greater flexibility in keeping people informed.

“We all need to be fluid as the world is changing,” she declared. “To have a wider swath of the public know what’s going on, you guys need to be fluid and work with us in coming up with better ways to ensure that you’re getting the revenue but also keeping up with the times and in being pragmatic about where we are today.”

Connors questioned Cafferty on several points raised by the latter, such as his observations that many individuals, especially seniors (including his wife), are more inclined to look things up in a newspaper than use the Internet, where the lawyer noted that the NJPA maintains its own website listing all legal classifieds published by newspapers in New Jersey, and that some don’t even own computers.

Connors responded, “With regard to the online advertisements, you point out that there are people in a position not to have a computer. But aren’t there people in a position not to buy a newspaper?”

“Sure, no question,” Cafferty replied. But the association, he contended, attempts to “capture both segments” of the population by making legal ads available in both its paid newspapers and at its website for which “there’s not a prerequisite that

you be a subscriber to one of our member newspapers (in order) to access.” (Singleton, however, subsequently expressed doubt that digital subscribers to daily papers would go to the NJPA website to find legals and remarked that he was unable to find them at the website of the paper be subscribed to).

In addition to those alternatives, the attorney ventured the opinion that “if you really want access to a newspaper, you can get it in the library and various other locations.”

Connors, however, said he thought that unlikely, because “If you’re not going to navigate through an Internet, you’re not going to run down to the library just to read legal notices.”

When Cafferty responded that his point was “there are a number of sources where one can find legal notices without having to pay,” Connors shot back, “And this (having them run in free weeklies) could be one as well.”

Connors also said that he himself had observed that the daily paper (Gannett’s Asbury Park Press) to which he subscribes had “little news” about the municipalities in Ocean County where his office is located, even while it focused on events in adjacent Monmouth County, and asked how that should be addressed. (Currently, some eight free weekly newspapers are considered the main source of local news in Ocean County.)

“I think that’s not a question you can address legislatively,” the NJPA lawyer replied. “It’s a question that one addresses by speaking to the editor. Because we have the First Amendment, the case law is clear for better or for worse that what goes into a newspaper is up to the editor.”

He then recounted a case in Miami in which the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that how much space to give a candidate was the editor’s prerogative.

“At the end of the day, it’s better that editors hear that and can address concerns

with their readership,” Cafferty added.

Finally, the two scheduled witnesses appearing on behalf of the NJPA – the association’s current president, Brett Ainsworth, publisher of The Retrospect , a paid-circulation weekly in Collingswood, and Lauren Barr, a weekly director of the group and publisher of the Westfield Leader and Union County Hawk , another weekly for which readers are charged (and thus is allowed to run legal advertising) were given a chance to testify before the committee.

Barr said she had purchased the Westfield Leader, a “newspaper of record for 133 years” just prior to the pandemic, and described it as the “go-to paper for local news” in the community.

“Not to say that there aren’t free weekly papers in our area – there’s lots of them,” Barr declared.

However, she also claimed that “they don’t do what we do” in providing coverage of local government.

That, she said, is because the revenue from legal notices, coupled with that from advertising and subscriptions, enables her to employ “actual journalists to go out and do this work, which is really important in government transparency.”

Barr added that “I can’t tell you the number of calls that I get on a regular basis from people that see things in the legal notices.” A lot of her paper’s subscribers, she claimed, “actually do read them.”

Transparency, Barr maintained, is another reason why legal ads are so important.

“The legals are our information superhighway,” she declared. “We see what’s coming up for bids, for projects. We don’t necessarily need a news story. They are newsworthy. …we’re watching all of those things and keeping government honest in the way that a free-circulation paper without the staff that we have may not do.”

Ainsworth said his paper had been

publishing for 120 years, and, “Nobody gets these stories, except from us, using an example about “somebody who is not a reader” having called him regarding a concern they had about a potential traffic problem because “we know the process. … you have to think about, who is this bill intended for, and are you going to address the issue of transparency?”

Ainsworth added that as he looked at the proposed legislation, it wasn’t just about the Pine Barrens Tribune, which he said he was familiar with and which he admitted “does cover news,” but was concerned that it would also allow a weekly publication like the Coffee News, which is essentially “a diner placemat,” to carry legal advertising.

“We need to be serious about where are we putting this sort of stuff,” he asserted. “We’re still trying to serve our purpose, which is informing the public.”

At this point in the testimony, Schepisis broke in by talking about a free weekly in her district that is currently “the only source of local news available in our region”—one which she said does “an excellent job” of covering governmental functions, and is “a legitimate paper, but is offered free of charge that would probably give legal advertising a much wider audience than would the nearest daily, The Record of Bergen County (now also owned by Gannett), which she contended “is nowhere near” what it used to be.

So, in an instance like that, if a paper like that charged a penny a year, she asked Ainsworth, “should they now be able to do it?”

When the NJPA President indicated that the charge involved would have to be a nominal amount and asked “how are you distinguishing what’s an actual journalistic enterprise,” Schepisis replied that the paper to which she referred was indeed an actual journalistic enterprise and noted that she

somebody want to explain to me why we are having two solicitors?” asked Quinn during a subsequent Feb. 1 council meeting.

Gardner replied, “77 is going to be pulled tonight,” and then summarized the ongoing disagreement between the council and administration. Later, when it came time for council to consider the pair of resolutions, Gardner, in reference to the one that would have appointed Bayer as municipal solicitor, or 77-2023, remarked that he is “going to be upfront” that he had it added to the agenda “hoping the mayor would approve it.”

“As we all know, the mayor appoints; council cannot appoint,” Gardner said. “Since I did not have his blessings, what is the sense of it? So, I am going to pull it.”

In regard to 76-2023, which would have appointed Jerry Dasti, of the law firm Dasti, McGuckin, Ulaky, Koutsouris, McCartney asked, “Is there a reason why we are going with a different firm than the one in the past?”

Tompkins, while having given this newspaper insight into the reasoning earlier in the day, replied there are a “couple of questions” and “if you want (to go over them) in public, I can do that,” or he could do it in a closed session. Bayer advised council the matter needed to be discussed in closed session.

Shortly thereafter, when Dasti moved to respond to a question about the salary ordinances, Gardner moved to silence him, declaring, “This meeting – I don’t believe you are part of it.”

That led Dasti to challenge that he has been “appointed temporary attorney as per the mayor” through the Faulkner Act.

“The mayor appoints; council approves,” responded Gardner. “There is nothing in our

packages approving you.”

When Dasti began further challenging his seat at the table, Bayer quipped, “Jerry, this is not a ‘public’ discussion,” as if to imply that Dasti was merely a member of the public and not a recognized professional appointment.

“You are not part of this meeting, sir,” asserted Gardner as Dasti continued protesting his not being allowed to give legal advice. “I don’t even know who you are.”

According to resolution 76-2023, or the one “disapproved” by council that would have appointed Dasti to the municipal solicitor post, Dasti (or a representative of the law firm Dasti, McGuckin, Ulaky, Koutsouris) was to receive $1,000 for every Pemberton council meeting he attends, as well as $175 per hour in handling general legal matters. Resolution 77-2023 contained the same compensation schedule for Bayer and his firm.

Township Clerk Amy Cosnoski, when asked by this newspaper if the township was currently employing one or both solicitors, given the fact that both were in attendance at recent council meetings, referred this newspaper’s question to Hornickel.

The business administrator, appearing to be using a new email address since his return to the township, initially responded “the mayor appointed Jerry Dasti, of the Dasti Murphy firm, as the temporary township solicitor” and that “Mr. Bayer has been appointed as special counsel.”

When this newspaper pointed to the comments of Gardner and Bayer, including suggesting Dasti was simply a member of the public, Hornickel replied, “I can’t comment on what the council president and Mr. Bayer uttered,” but reaffirmed that “Mr. Dasti has been appointed temporarily as the township solicitor.”

“It is administration’s position that the township solicitor be seated at the table with administration, which is where Mr. Dasti will continue to sit at council meetings,”

Hornickel added. But what Hornickel said he “is not in a position to respond” to were questions posed by this newspaper asking if Bayer or Dasti will both be paid for their attendance at recent council meetings, should either individual turn in a bill for their attendance.

“I cannot predict how this contention will be resolved,” added Hornickel, with council technically holding the power of the purse or having to approve the bill’s list, though by statute, any bills under $6,000 can be paid by respective department heads.

Hornickel, when asked if he has or would sign-off on bills from either of the two attorneys, responded Feb. 6, “I have not received any invoices from either attorney for work performed this calendar year.”

Compensation Clashes

According to Hornickel, the last time the salary ranges of non-ununionized employees, department heads and officials were adjusted was back in January 2020. The business administrator contended that he had “planned to introduce” amendments to the salary ranges in January of last year, “as it is something we like to do every two years,” but the “prior mayor” had “pulled the salary ordinance” that had been prepared for council’s consideration in January 2022.

“The (prior) mayor was going to introduce it again in the fall, and I suggested to him, courteously, maybe not to do that,” the business administrator said. “So, this is really like the first salary ordinance in three years. That is why you see the numbers proposed.”

But several members of council, on Jan. 4, agreed with McCartney that “we should look at this a bit,” or three ordinances that would implement changes to the salary ranges, reflecting about a 2.5 percent increase across the board for the aforementioned parties (with members of four different unions covered under separate agreements

and not affected by the council’s action on the ordinances).

During the following meeting, on Jan. 18, prior to the salary ordinances being discussed further, council initially was asked to approve a resolution adopting salaries for 2023 for non-unionized employees, department heads and officials. That resolution apparently contained figures that would be within the range of the new salary ranges in the ordinances.

But before McCartney could suggest that council first contend with the ordinances, which Bayer would ultimately recommend is advisable, Gardner railed against the resolution having proposed that Tompkins was to receive the maximum of what would become the new salary range for the mayoral post, or $13,000.

The “only thing I want to change,” maintained Gardner of the salary resolution, is making the mayor’s 2023 salary only $9,000, or what would be the minimum of the new salary range to be adopted through one of the three later salary ordinances.

“My recommendation is for $9,000,” Gardner said. “My thing is you don’t start a job at top salary. And that is just my thing on it.”

However, Detrick, in pointing out that the previous mayor only received $4,000 annually, quipped, “personally, I thought what last mayor was paid was ridiculous” all as the council took McCartney’s advice and first handled the salary range ordinances.

“He (the former mayor) was getting $4,000 and he was in here probably 40 hours a lot of weeks,” Detrick added. “$4,000 is gas money, practically.”

Getting paid only $4,000 to be the township’s mayor, Detrick further maintained, “was never an appropriate salary,” though, he acknowledged, “that was

See TOWNSHIP/ Page 15

his choice” and that Patriarca “pushed his salary down because that is what he did.”

But $9,000, the Democratic councilman continued, “is certainly no windfall.”

“I, as a council member, get paid $7,000 and I expect the mayor to work a heck of a lot harder than a councilman, frankly,” Detrick declared.

The Democratic councilman maintained he was “not so sure” the council shouldn’t make $13,000 for an annual salary at least available to the mayor through the applicable salary range ordinance.

“We are talking ranges here,” Detrick asserted. “I wouldn’t be against mayor’s range being a little higher than what we are dealing with here.”

Ward, in maintaining that over the past three months he has done his “due diligence,” said that when one looks at what the mayors of Evesham, Medford and Mount Laurel get paid, it is “drastically higher” than what Pemberton provides as compensation to its mayor, even in comparing those figures of other towns to $13,000.

The “maximum salary” in the new salary ranges for the mayor “makes sense,” Ward declared.

However, McCartney sided with Gardner in expressing discomfort in compensating Tompkins $13,000 for this year, given he has “only been in that position for two weeks.”

“But he is a leader,” Dewey retorted. “It should not be based on how long he had the job. He has been involved in the DVA (Department of Veterans’ Affairs), in the military (a career spanning some 20 years) and has been dealing with people. He was elected to the office. It should not be based on working for two weeks.”

Gardner, however, argued that he was merely “taking a page out” of Tompkin’s “comments prior to election” in which he ran on “fiscal responsibility.”

“He ran on saving money here, here and there, and then when he gets elected, now he wants to raise his salary from the get-go,” Gardner said. “So, get some time and some experience. This is amendable.”

Bayer agreed that council could indeed amend the salary resolution at any point during the course of the year, with the measure passing along party lines, 3-2, with the Democratic members voting to approve it – and the decision coming prior to the salary range ordinances being adopted at a subsequent Feb. 1 council meeting.

But Gardner’s comment suggesting Tompkins didn’t have enough experience to earn $13,000 was just one of several that infuriated some longtime regulars, such as Quinn, who went toe-to-toe with the Democratic council president Feb. 1, declaring his particular remark is one she “took offense to.”

“I do not like your comment that the mayor shouldn’t be paid a fair salary because he has no experience being mayor!” she declared. “He is a veteran, and so are you! If there was ever a situation where you needed help, Mr. Tompkins would be there for you. Your comment is uncalled for and is inappropriate!”

Quinn inquired if Gardner, when he first was seated on council, got a “lessened” salary, and in assuming the answer to that question, asserted, “So, your comment has no place.”

Gardner retorted, however, that his salary was simply “already established” when he was seated on council and that “what I said the last time, I still stand by it.”

Tompkins, he charged, came in “under the guise of fiscal responsibility” and then “tried to raise” his salary and that is something he

didn’t “find appropriate.”

“You don’t start a job at top salary with no experience,” declared Gardner, which only infuriated Quinn further, who sternly retorted in using a command voice, “I don’t like your comments!”

“Things have to be fixed in this town, and with what I heard last week, I hope it doesn’t continue for the rest of 2023,” Quinn declared. “And as a voter, I will remember that.”

But Gardner continued to defend his remarks, including asking if the resident believed Tompkins’ “reduced salary” would actually “stop him from doing his job.”

“No!” she yelled back. “Your comment that he was inexperienced as mayor is far from it! He lived in this town his entire life! Yes, you don’t start at top salary, but your comment was uncalled for! That is what I don’t like about it!”

But that was just one of several moments seemingly upsetting attendees of the past several council meetings (as well, according to sources, the township employees).

Another moment came when Ward, during introduction of the salary range ordinances, suggested an amendment, after Gardner asked, for example, that the top range for the business administrator post be taken up to $157,000 by 2025, and over $8,000 by 2025 for councilmember slots, with him proposing all other non-union represented employees also receive a 2.5 percent annual increase as well.

“I am concerned in regard to the percentage increases, as made by the council president, due to fact that we don’t use any type of performance ratings for employees whatsoever,” Ward responded. “I have been a businessman, and have been in business for 25 years, and to sit there and just give somebody a raise just because we think we should give a raise every year, I think it is counterintuitive to what I think our constituents are looking for in being financially responsible with their

money. It is a big concern for me.”

Without such a system, Ward said he would be “voting ‘no.’”

“In regard to what Josh Ward had said, I understand (that’s the case) in the civilian world, but you are kind of dealing with the government, Josh,” said Tompkins in appearing to push back against the suggested proposal by his Republican running mate. “It is just like when we were in the military, Congress set our pay raises. Right, Donovan?”

After having turned to the Democratic council president, Gardner replied, “correct.” The pay scale used in the military, Tompkins explained “doesn’t really have a whole lot” to do with “whether you are a good performer or bad performer.” And the military, Tompkins contended, is “like government service.”

“So, I think that is what we are doing here,” maintained Tompkins, with Ward responding by pointing out he too has been in the military.

The Republican mayor maintained that in the case of government service, if the township’s chief of police or business administrator doesn’t perform, “they are going to be replaced.”

“I understand what you are saying, but you are thinking (along the lines of) commercial businesses, and this is government, and there is a little bit of a difference,” declared the Republican mayor, prompting the Democratic council president to remark that Tompkins was “right on par.”

The annual 2.5 percent raises, Gardner added, “also serve as an incentive to the employees” to “keep people around.”

McCartney pointed out that there has been a 5 percent increase in pay nationally, while at the same time, the cost of living has gone up some 8.7 percent recently due to inflation, asserting, “I think 2.5 percent is more than reasonable.”

“I understand what you are saying, but to me you usually want to acknowledge good performance, and give them a raise above and beyond inflation,” said Detrick to Ward, noting that by not providing raises during inflation, the employees, as he maintained, would simply “tread water.”

But the discussion soon took another turn when Dewey, in the midst of council discussing salary ranges, brought up the bill’s list to be approved that night, maintaining “we get them (bill’s lists) after the money is already spent.”

“There are a lot of people who work for this township who need to learn the difference between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ in the way that they spend other people’s money,” Dewey declared. “And that has been going on for 16 years!”

And then, when the salary resolution had been referred to once again, Ward remarked “we just selected the director of Public Works at the last meeting,” and that individual is “going to receive $112,000 for not having any licensing whatsoever to do the job.”

That remark brought about Gardner and Hornickel suddenly joining forces, with both men simultaneously stating, “That’s not true!”

Bayer interjected, reminding council that it “can’t talk about an employee” in public and that the Public Works director “has not been served with a Rice notice.”

“Otherwise, we can be sued,” warned Bayer, noting that the council could just talk about a position publicly.

But Dewey soon asked, “Without mentioning any names, does he have a water license?”, causing the business administrator to respond, “The position holds a Certified Public Works Manager certification,” which is “necessary for the position.”

“I understand that, but I would think the department head should hold some type of licenses to perform … what happens if an assistant gets run over by a dump truck?” asked Dewey, who during the township’s reorganization meeting cast the lone dissenting vote in reappointing McNaughton as director of Public Works.

Hornickel responded that the township has “two licensed operators in the sewer division” and also has a “licensed operator in the water division,” as well as “those with subordinate licenses.”

“And then, with our DPW structure, the top two positions hold certified DPW management certifications from Rutgers,” the business administrator added.

However, Dewey quipped, “but the ‘big boss’ doesn’t,” which prompted Gardner to cut short the councilman’s remarks, remarking, “we are still discussing an employee, not the position,” with Hornickel

reiterating that the Public Works director “meets the statutory requirements.”

Dewey then returned to the bill’s list, maintaining what he was about to say is a “lead up to the performance review for employees” and lends credence to his belief that there are “employees hired in the township based on who they know rather than what they know.”

After declaring “these bills are all over the place,” Dewey alleged someone handling the municipality’s utilities “bought 275-gallon tote” for some $772.

“If you go on Craigslist, you can buy one for $50,” declared Dewey, with Ward maintaining that as someone who deals with waste oil products on a regular basis, there are companies that actually provide them for free, wanting to recycle such oil.

Gardner replied that “this is the township,” and a municipality “has to buy from reputable establishment,” to which Dewey retorted, “Mr. President, we are talking about a tote to put drain oil in!”

After the Democratic council president turned to Hornickel for an explanation, the business administrator replied, “Most bills were made by the prior mayor” and that “I don’t have anything to do with it.”

“In my heart, I can’t approve anything like that,” Dewey declared. “It is mindboggling.”

In further chastising the employees and officials, a seemingly fired up Dewey continued that if “you look through this, every department buys toner from a different place.”

“My theory, being in business, is that all printers should be written down with model numbers, and the type of printer should be written down as well, so you put it out to bid,” Dewey declared.

Tompkins and Dewey ultimately got into a heated exchange, with the mayor maintaining “chances are we have 45 different printers,” and such a process could lead to the “changing out of every working printer.”

“I am not buying printers,” Dewey responded. “You break the serial numbers down, and you could have 50 machines and 10 have the same cartridge. When you look through here, every department is buying them (toners) from everywhere else.”

Dewey maintained that the process could be simply streamlined by having one employee contact a single vendor to purchase toners, such as Staples.

“There is no way you would go out to bid for two cartridges,” Tompkins retorted. “The other thing is, you said, ‘make phone calls,’ and you would pay someone $50,000 to $60,000 to make phone calls?”

That led Dewey to suggest finding such savings could help provide the money to make up for the additional $4,000 that the mayor was denied for a salary, and to declare “so many things can be done with the town to save the town money.” He then pointed out one department buys gloves “here” and the

“other buys from here,” before blasting the purchase of gloves for $264.

“There is this unbelievable waste!” Dewey declared. “I did run on fiscal responsibility, but it starts here! Come up with guidelines for these people just spending money! They need to learn the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’!”

Gardner, in appearing to try to bring calm to the situation, asked what the possibility is for purchases to be “streamlined.” Hornickel explained that the mayor and administration have the authority under township code to make purchases up to $6,000 and that anything above that requires council approval. Purchases of $17,500 or more has to be accompanied by a “pay-to-play form,” Hornickel added, and anything over $44,000 has to be “placed out to bid.”

The business administrator maintained there are “pragmatic difficulties in procuring things by piecemeal,” and maintained department heads are “instructed” to first check for cooperative purchasing opportunities with the township currently participating in “seven different Co-ops.”

“So, we don’t take purchasing lightly when it comes to big ticket items,” he declared. “I can’t explain purchases made in December, because I wasn’t here.”

Tompkins noted he “looked at the bill’s list” before it was presented to council, and called up some of the department heads, such as the Public Works director, to review some of the charges, and “what he said made sense.” Tompkins, during his interview with this newspaper on his 30-day mark in office, extended high praise on McNaughton.

“We don’t randomly sit in our office, and say here is the bill’s list, just approve it,” Tompkins declared. “We looked at the things that popped out and do make phone calls. We have been going through this list, inquiring about the expenditures and trying to do the right thing.”

Gardner, in trying to further quell the exchange, asked councilmembers to “reach out” to the mayor or business administrator if they “come across things they feel can possibly be cheaper,” but Ward then challenged the $120 purchase of a case of extra-large rubber gloves.

“I mean, I will take that contract all day long!” Ward asserted. “That is crazy! I can get them for $29 a case!”

Hornickel explained that the bill’s list is merely a “general listing for purchases” that “often times doesn’t detail quantity.”

“Chances are they either got safety gloves, and they are not cheap, and you know with using a chainsaw you have to have gloves that withstand a sawblade, or they could have purchased a lot of disposal gloves in bulk,” the business administrator maintained.

McCartney maintained that while she can “appreciate” having councilmembers “investigate some of these products,” as far as she is concerned, “we kind of already have

people in place in our township to do just that” and the investigatory responsibility “shouldn’t be” on the council.

Bayer called it a “form of government issue,” in which it is the “mayor and administrator” having the “obligation to oversee and implement departments,” and run them on a day-to-day basis, with the operations simply “subject to your oversight.”

The attorney reminded council that it has a qualified purchasing agent (QPA) “for bigger purchases,” and the municipality is subject to “regulations on how to buy things,” making it “not as cheap as in the private world.”

Tompkins noted his door, as well as the one for Hornickel, is “always open” and that councilmembers can visit their offices with specific purchasing questions.

“You can’t un-ring the bell, because people already bought it,” said Dewey as council was asked to approve the bills. “People have to be held accountable for screwing up!”

But that remark led Gardner to declare that he “doesn’t think it is a matter of ‘screwing up,’ rather “just purchases were made.”

“Every quarter they get a bucket of money and they are great at spending taxpayer money!” Dewey declared. “There has to be some sort of controls, and accountability for purchases. There are two (truck) bodies still laying on pallets! If they did their homework, you could have had them installed for that price!”

The bill’s list was approved by a 4-1 vote, with McCartney casting the dissenting vote.

Dewey also alleged he observed a township vehicle on the road in apparent violation of motor vehicle laws, to which he was again cut short, with Hornickel vowing to address such a matter if it occurred.

All of this led to another tense exchange on Feb. 1 when it came to the second reading and public hearing on the salary range ordinances, with again a call for performance reviews.

But before that discussion began, Hornickel announced the township’s QPA “retired yesterday,” and that the township was entering into a shared services agreement for a QPA with Stafford Township.

“Having one (a QPA), allows us to get solicitations for proposals up to $44,000 without getting bids, which saves time and money,” Hornickel explained. “When we have a need for quotes for her to review – let’s say we need an engine replaced for $26,000, she will review the quotes, and ensure the lowest responsible bidder is meeting the terms of what we need to meet. She will give us the OK before it comes on council’s agenda for approval.”

The business administrator added that the new QPA will do her review “on Stafford’s time,” while the retiring QPA was doing her work on “weekends and nights,” but that “we are not really going to be spending anything more” for the new individual’s services.

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had received offers to subscribe to The Record for a dollar. But she agreed that “we should not allow legal advertising on a one-page diner flier.”

She added that as the proposal moves forward, it perhaps should be amended to exclude nebulous publications of that sort, but should “allow some of the other, robust smaller organizations that are real news sources that are doing the exact sort of thing that you guys do with real reporters, being the only source of local news that we have these days—I think they should be able to benefit.”

The last word in the committee hearing, however, came from Connors: “You want to protect the First Amendment? Then have greater competition—because what has happened now is all of the little guys have been eaten up by the big guys and we have one editor deciding what news gets printed in the paper. You (meaning Cafferty) said so yourself. Call the editor if you want more local news. Well, I’d rather call several editors than call one editor. I think this bill is important to make sure we protect the First Amendment, in addition to making sure a

TOWNSHIP

greater number of people are informed.”

“Newspapers,” he added, “have an obligation to cover local news.”

Doug Melegari, publisher and owner of the Pine Barrens Tribune, when asked for his reaction to the initial hearing, stated, “The Pine Barrens Tribune has a loyal and dedicated readership that seeks out our newspaper on a weekly basis for the best in local news and original reporting every week, turning to us for what is happening in their backyard through both the good times – such as when the 10U Marlton Chiefs baseball won the Cal Ripken World Series and were paraded through town, to the difficult times – such as when the Coronavirus pandemic hit with local commerce and healthcare affected. Sometimes our team shudders to think what would happen if we had not been there to bring you all these moments and stories, and also archive them for the sake of history.

“Should this legislation indeed pass as intended, it will only put free newspapers, among those having been recognized across the state for award-winning journalism and photojournalism, in a stronger position to continue serving you and allow you to have expanded, more convenient access to all the local information, including meeting schedules and land-use applications in your community. It will also make the entire newspaper industry stronger as a whole.”

unionized workers.

“I support performance reviews, as I feel it is a good way of evaluating,” McCartney said. “I support that. I don’t know what that would look like as a system, though.”

FirstBaptist

Dewey, however, inquired as to whether the new QPA would be presented with the bill’s lists to review the purchases on them.

“I can certainly share the bill’s list with her, but we would typically get her involved when we reach the threshold of $6,000,” Hornickel replied. “If you do more than that, we would have to bring someone on board to look at purchases, and that is not what this contract contemplates.”

Then, in turning to the subject of the salary range ordinances, Ward recounted his recent attendance at a session in which an “individual highly accredited in public labor law,” he maintained, “explained that it is allowed and recommended that we take a look into the process of performance evaluations for department leaders, as well as department employees.”

“It is not hard to adopt a situation to tie together a public employee’s performance to salary increases,” asserted Ward in recounting was said.

The Republican councilman then moved to amend one of the salary range ordinances to “retract proposed guaranteed increases” and instead “have it based on a “biannual performance review cycle in which departmental employees and department heads are afforded with an opportunity to rate performances together in order to find common financial grounds to proceed with said future employment.”

Such a proposed amendment immediately drew questions from McCartney and Gardner, with McCartney asking if this would cover all township employees, and Gardner asking how such a system would actually work.

“I think we would be better off to sit there and say the ‘max could be this, but due to performance, it will be this,’” Ward responded.

Since the ordinance in question would also set the salary ranges for elected officials, Gardner put a question to Ward: “How would you be able to rate your performance review?”

Bayer reminded council that “most” township employees are unionized and “covered by a contract,” and that any system through the ordinance would be for non-

Dewey added that “department heads should have performance reviews also.”

However, while Gardner responded it is “definitely something we could look into,” he “believes the public workforce is different,” with Tompkins again joining with the Democratic council president in expressing his skepticism of the proposal.

“My feeling is our department heads are usually extremely well versed and experienced, and that has been my experience in my first 30 days in office,” Tompkins declared. “If we were to have a department head – and I don’t think we have that in our town right now – not performing, they would be provided guidance to get to that point or else be terminated and replaced.”

Detrick, also a lawyer, said he is “not against the idea of performance reviews to the extent we legally can do it,” but that “we are getting into amending employment contracts” and that “sometimes these issues sound simple, and then they are a little bit more involved.”

Bayer again issued a warning, this time drawing council’s attention to the fact that if there are no hard salary increase figures on paper, one would need to ask themselves: “How do you deal with ranges in terms of budgeting?”

“I am not sure this fits into the scope of this salary ordinance,” said Bayer of Ward’s proposal.

Hornickel, appearing to become somewhat frustrated by this point in time, declared, “Personally, if you want to evaluate me, I will give you forms! I am not afraid of criticism!”

He then issued a warning of his own that if the council wants to proceed with evaluations for all township employees (including those who are unionized), then “you have to negotiate those parameters with our four unions” and give them an “opportunity to grieve.”

“If they grieve, you will end up in arbitration,” Hornickel explained. “Arbitration is $20,000 if management is not necessarily successful, and the arbitration system doesn’t always seem to be fair and objective.”

(Continued from Page 16) See TOWNSHIP/ Page 21

and Russell Webber r 50 Burrs Mill Roadd, Southampton, NJ 08088 609 -847- 4848

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FEBRUARY

Feb. 26

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Bayer said implementing a performance evaluation through the salary range ordinance “doesn’t seem quite right, respectfully,” but added “I think the administration has gotten the message this is what council wants – to implement a process.”

“And if you want to codify it somehow after discussing it with labor counsel, I think it would be a good idea,” Bayer added.

But as Bayer again reminded council that the “overseeing of employees is done directly through the mayor and administrator,” Tompkins again challenged the suggestion of Ward.

“A few of us are still fairly new, and when we are talking about performance, I am in charge here, but I delegate that down to Daniel, though the dollar really stops with me,” Tompkins said. “… I walk around quite a bit, and talk to the majority of our department heads to see what they are doing every day. It is not like I am locked in my office, not doing anything. I do see what they are doing, and do see what they are capable of doing. And I am more and more impressed every day. I understand the performance

questions, but from what I am experiencing, at a higher level looking down, we don’t have any performance issues that I have seen yet.”

Ward then abandoned his amendment, with both salary range ordinances ultimately passing with simply the suggested changes by Gardner.

Other remarks seemingly distressing the public over the past few council sessions included Hornickel remarking that when David Benedetti, the township’s longtime director of Community Development, “retired” recently, he “just left his office with no rhyme or reason to it” with a temporary replacement “finding matters of constituent concern that have not been addressed,” as well as the business administrator revealing an “unnecessary” resolution was approved back in December by council that over expended $160,000 for four electronic LED signs the township purchased using some of the $2.8 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds with two other action items (including one authorizing purchasing the signs for some $137,000 and change) having already allotted funds for their procurement.

“The former mayor wanted to buy the sign boards,” Hornickel added. “Yeah, they will be purchased, but you don’t need the $160,000 resolution. It is the wrong amount, and truly, it was unnecessary. … The resolution was

superfluous; it should not have went on there. … Otherwise, the final budget will be overstated by $160,000.”

The new council ended up having to “cancel” the prior resolution. Rosemary Flaherty, on Feb. 1, was appointed as Benedetti’s replacement.

Also, when it came time to approve the release of a performance guarantee for the “530 warehouse,” or one recently built for Seldat’s operations at the corner of Birmingham Road and County Route 530, Hornickel explained that firm is actually paying the township more in payments than previously anticipated, or having paid $560,000 so far versus an expected $486,000 by this point.

“For the ‘gift’ that they got, they should be paying more,” quipped Dewey, however.

Lowery, in reflecting on all of these remarks, said she was “very disappointed … very disappointed” with what has unfolded, noting she is “not a Democrat, and not a Republican,” but is rather an independent.

“This fighting and bickering is unacceptable!” she declared. “You better all start finding common ground! I didn’t like what I saw.”

In referencing the remarks about the Public Works director, Lowery reminded officials that there are “ethics you need to follow”

and that they apply to “everybody” elected to public office, regulations of which she came to learn about as soon as she became a local school board member.

The conversation “about one employee” was “really unethical,” she declared, especially given he was “not Riced.”

“I want your different opinions, and debate, but I need resolve,” added Lowery, noting that she is not only friends with parties on both sides of the aisle, but that Pemberton is a close knit community where people see each other all the time at stores such as Walmart. “Guess what? All our taxes going up! Arguing over the same thing is such a waste of time! … I need resolve … you can’t nitpick.”

As for the solicitor situation, Lowery declared, “I don’t like you guys going after my man, the solicitor,” and that “I saw you are bringing in another law firm in – and there is no need for that, as there has never been a conflict.”

“I know you have to argue it out, but at the end, you have to be able to shake hands together when you walk out of here,” Lowery added.

Quinn added that Lowery “said everything right.”

“I am furious with certain members of this council,” Quinn declared.

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