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Three estimates were received, according to Brown, and also provided in a meeting handout, one from Revive Painting and Powerwashing, LLC, for $15,567, one from CertaPro Painters for $31,739, and another from Noble Painting for $75,500. Brown maintained she didn’t know for sure which company the festival committee would be selecting, but Sheerin claimed the festival committee settled on moving forward with Revive.

But an expenditure the township committee did approve on March 22 for use by the municipal government is a software upgrade from Edmunds for tax and finance purposes. According to Brown, the upgrade will allow the township to accept credit cards when residents go to pay their taxes. Chief Financial Officer Kathy Rosmando added that the software upgrade will also allow residents to do “direct bill pay,” or essentially issue an E-check from a bank account to the township.

“I think this is a wonderful opportunity, and I think it is going to be very helpful,” said Brown of her “strong support” for moving forward with the purchase. “A lot of people have been calling

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(Continued from Page 8) photographer), and it (the services of JOCHAS Photography) is provided for free, why are you going to prevent somebody from doing that?” asked Gardner of the mayor April 5.

Gardner, after qualifying his next question with a charge that Tompkins “didn’t have the decency or the courage to tell me” personally about the directive, put another question to the mayor: “Now, why did you do that?” or issue such a directive, maintaining the mayor and asking about being able to do this, especially during COVID, as they didn’t want to be out in public. It is a simple program where people go online, enter their credit card information, and can pull up their own block and lot numbers, and see what is due. Payment is automatically wired to the account we have, and the tax collector gets a report for the day.”

The township, Brown explained, “gets no service fees” as a result of using the software, but rather that is passed on to the resident choosing to pay their taxes through an online portal. But the fee that the township must carry is for the implementation of the program.

The township committee, by approving the purchase, agreed to a five-year contract for $1,500, as well as the purchase of two credit card swiping devices for $250, for a “total package of $1,750,” with Brown noting the implementation fee alone was originally $1,750 before a discount.

Residents paying their taxes via credit card will be charged a 2.95 percent fee, while those paying by E-check will receive a $1.99 fee, according to the officials.

“This will also be beneficial because it does put our taxes on the internet,” Brown said. “So, a mortgage company, instead of calling the tax office, can key in. I think this will expedite the workflow in the tax office tremendously.” owed an answer to “not just to me,” but to “the residents.”

While Tompkins’ response was inaudible on the tape of the April 5 proceedings posted to the municipal website, the mayor, according to Gardner, briefly responded that he “‘doesn’t have to tell me that.’”

“He apparently told the Rec Department that I was not allowed to do that anymore without any good explanation as to why,” maintained Gardner in the April 10 interview with this newspaper. “While he said he ‘doesn’t have to tell me that,’ in my opinion, there is no good

See DIRECTIVE/ Page 10 that would be great.”

Later in the meeting, Evesham Police Chief Walt Miller, before concluding his regular report, weighed in on the issue, noting that “federalism dictates that federal law would supersede state law when a conflict occurs,” something he called “a very old portion of our legal system.” But at the same time, he asserted, “the (U.S.) Department of Justice was given direction to not interfere with statesanctioned legalization programs,” although it still is involved in investigating illegal marijuana distribution.

The current situation was compared by Miller to the one that existed during the latter stages of Prohibition, in which he said various states started making their own laws to authorize the sale of alcoholic beverages, even though federal authorities deemed it illegal under the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Eventually, he pointed out, enough states (36, or three-quarters) got together to vote for its repeal on a federal level.

“It seems like history is repeating itself right now,” he contended. “The predictions are if they get to about that number, it will tip the scales and the federal government will follow. So, we’re basically repeating the process, just with a different substance.”

(The chief, however, in response to a question from Deputy Mayor Eddie Freeman III, noted that his department, working with state police, had seized between 500 and 1,000 pounds of illegal marijuana from a business that had actually established a storefront, which had previously been raided while operating in Lumberton).

Then, just prior to the session’s conclusion, Councilwoman Heather Cooper said she had just quickly checked the cannabis law at a New

Jersey website that does address the Controlled Substance Act, and that, according to one of the comments there, “the states are not required to enforce the federal law or prosecute people for activities prohibited by federal law.”

“Therefore, compliance with the act does not put the State of New Jersey in violation of the federal law,” Cooper contended, thanking Miller for his comments.

Also speaking during the public comments portion of the meeting was Stephen Kavalkovich, a Planning Board member and natural healer, who had previously chided the council members that voted to appoint the Parker McCay firm as township solicitor, and who declared that he was “back again as I promised to hold you all accountable, as I believe myself to be someone who follows my own moral compass” and that he considered it his duty as a citizen to pose “some very serious and important questions that still remain unaddressed to the voters of this town.”

Kavalkovich particularly singled out for criticism “the member of this council who is also a practicing attorney (Freeman) who he noted “has yet to give reasons why he put forth a resolution to bring in a new law firm back in January … that was removed a little over four years ago by the same council” and had done so without offering “any explanation after three months.”

“I would think any wise attorney would conclude that council member … either doesn’t understand their role or is hiding something,” he asserted.

Kavilkovich also again raised the question of how the individual who would end up being appointed to that post (Orlando) knew to be at the Jan. 4 meeting where the vote was taken, and charged that his being “related to the current conflict counsel” constituted in itself a conflict of interest, asking whether the township has “hired a second conflict attorney to deal with that conflict, and if so, what does it cost?”

“What does all of this cost?” he added. “And how is this better for Evesham?” answer for it.”

This newspaper has reported that since Tompkins took office on Jan. 1, Gardner and Tompkins have clashed over a number of issues, including over the appointment of municipal solicitor for 2023, later bills turned in by a solicitor temporarily appointed by the mayor, as well as the mayor’s salary.

Gardner, when queried if he believed these clashes had anything to do with the mayor’s directive, responded, “I believe so, yes.”

“With Mr. Tompkins, that is how he operates, full of vindictiveness and spitefulness,” Gardner charged. “This is not going to affect my job; however, it is going to affect the residents. It is just me doing a service for the township.”

Without having been reportedly provided an answer, Gardner told this newspaper that the “only thing that came to mind” about why this directive was issued is there possibly being some sort of a “conflict of interest,” but maintained “there is not a conflict of interest” in this case because he is “not charging the township anything” as well as is “not advertising services,” rather is merely “just taking pictures in the township.”

“I was very upset, especially with the way I found out about it – that was upsetting,” Gardner told this newspaper, noting there are a number of residents affected by the decision, especially given Pemberton is a military community within close proximity to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. “For the last six years or so, I did the pictures. They help you see the progress of the people in the township; it allows parents to the see pictures, and share them with grandparents and military members overseas, or loved ones that are not here.”

“It was very hurtful. And the hurtful part about it is the mayor didn’t have decency to say this is what is about to happen … this is what is about to transpire. I would love to know the answer as to why. Why? Tell me what it is – something that makes sense to me and everybody else.”

This newspaper, after hanging up with Gardner, who notably defeated Tompkins when the Republican sought to retain a seat on council back in 2016, contacted Tompkins for answers.

“Basically, personnel issues are run by the mayor, the way I understand it, and council people shouldn’t be interacting with the directors of departments and providing direction on how the department is going to be run,” replied Tompkins when asked if he issued the directive and why he did so. “That is why I made the decision to not let the councilman interact with the director of Recreation.”

But when asked by this newspaper if the directive that was issued specifically didn’t allow Gardner to take photographs on the municipality’s behalf at township-sponsored directive.”

“It eliminates any misunderstanding, or misinterpretation with the councilman interacting with the department,” Tompkins added.

On several occasions during now-former township mayor David Patriarca’s 16-year tenure, it was told to various councilmembers that they cannot direct department personnel to do specific tasks, rather any directives must come from administration. The mayor, in Pemberton’s form of government, is considered administration, along with their business administrator appointee.

Tompkins, when asked by this newspaper if there had been any specific complaints brought against Gardner accusing him of giving direction to the department heads that necessitated the directive, responded, “No, it was just something I saw, that I didn’t think was appropriate and just wanted to end it.”

The mayor, when asked by this newspaper as to whether he would reconsider the directive, replied, “not at all,” and when queried as to whether he believed it was a mistake for him to not personally inform the council president of his directive, responded, “him and I rarely interface on anything other than a casual hello in passing – that is just about it.”

“When you are running departments and stuff, just sometimes you make a decision on what you feel is best,” Tompkins declared.

The Republican mayor, now more than 90 days into his mayoral term, when asked if the directive had anything to do with the recent clashes between him and the Democratic council president, replied “no, this decision was done long before that” and “actually something I did shortly upon taking office.”

“I guess it just hadn’t caught up to Gardner,” maintained Tompkins, who had been told just three weeks earlier by the council president, during a March 15 council session, that “what you did, in my opinion, is overstepping your boundaries, hiring someone without our approval” in regard to the appointment of GOP-affiliated attorney Jerry Dasti as temporary municipal solicitor, while Gardner – who also recently questioned the current mayor’s experience that entitled him to any raise in salary – maintained Township Solicitor Andrew “Andy” Bayer, a close ally of Patriarca, was able to act as a “holdover” until council approves an appointment.

After two failed attempts by Tompkins to get Dasti appointed permanent municipal solicitor, in a “compromise,” Bayer was appointed by Tompkins and confirmed by council as this year’s township solicitor, with Dasti named special counsel.

Gardner, when provided an opportunity to respond to the mayor revealing the basis for his directive over the photography, maintained that “for the last six years, under the previous mayor,” he approached a total of three Recreation directors about taking photos and had “no issues with them.”

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was it,” said Gardner of his interactions with the directors. “I wasn’t telling them how to run office or how to do the job, all I gave them is pictures and that was it.”

The council president, in recounting that Tompkins has frequently attended council meetings in Pemberton for the last six years since having lost his seat on council, asked,

“Why didn’t he say something then?” and “Why didn’t he bring it up then?”

“Nothing has changed,” said Gardner of the services he offers and limited interaction of just merely confirming the particulars of the events. “And also, now, for these events, especially the big one, Pictures with Santa, they are going to