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Health & Fitness

Monday's Town Meeting: I Finally Get an Answer to the Committee Benefit Question

Barnegat Township Committee Meeting May 23, 2011 – budgets and committee benefits

I'm sure Graelyn will have a synopsis, but here is mine:

The budget presentation, it did not happen. Up until 4:30 p.m. this evening a Power Point presentation was ready to be given by our administrator, David Breeden, but it was postponed until – are you ready for this – 3 p.m. May 27, the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.

Let's see, people might be going away, kids are being picked up from school, half the people are still at work, and as Frank Pecci said, alot of the seniors might forget there is a meeting.

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Hey, Frank said it, not me! I know I won't be able to make it, I'll be a little busy working. I mean really, why can't you just postpone it until the regular meeting June 6? What is another eight days?

A very well-spoken resident named Morris also asked if we could get the Power Point presentation up on the website before the Friday meeting so that the public may view it. Morris and I share exact views on the power of the internet for delivering updated and important information to the people of our town.

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But I guess the present administration does not share the same views and believes that we as the public have all of the information we need. He was assured, very adamantly by Mr. Breeden that the complete budget will be online after the budget is passed. So the bottom line is, if you can't make it to the meeting at this inconvenient time, you are going to miss a budget that is, according to our committee, loaded with savings! I'm pretty sure that the tax rate will increase, so hang on, but if it goes down, I'll be the first to say, kudos!

Now for the benefit question. I asked tonight straightforward to Mr. Breeden, "if the committee goes on the less expensive health benefit plan that all of the employees in the township are going to go on (the State health Benefit Plan or the SHBP), will they be covered according to this law that was passed by the legislators of our state and signed by the governor called NJ Chapter 2, P.L. 2010?

I have written extensively about this for a long time on my other blog www.letstalkbarnegat.com. I have been waiting for an answer for almost two months to this question, and have never got one from our township lawyer or administrator, and now I know why.

It seems that I was correct in assuming that the legislators and the governor all believed that our part-time elected officials that work less than 20 hours a week are not eligible and should not be given taxpayer-funded health benefit packages if they are covered by the SHBP. They feel it is just not right, and as legislators, they got it right, we should not have to pay part-time workers' health insurance.

So here is what our committee did in Barnegat. Every other employee in our town is going on the less expensive SHBP, but the five committee members are going to stay on the old plan that Mr Breeden told me is less expensive than the SHBP (if it is less expensive, then why are we changing?).

So the committee figured out a way to circumvent legislation by our state that could save the taxpayers money, they will just stay on the old plan! Genius! They want to keep the benefits for their part-time committee jobs. So there you go, they answered my question and the question of many other residents in this town. They will continue to take the bennies. I will be honest, I figured this is exactly what they would do and I was right. This does not look good.

A very reserved and soft spoken Phil Checchia also brought up a good point that I re-iterated in my comments to the committee. When a committee changes from one insurance provider to the other, should not a vote occur? I asked for a clarification of this from Senator Connors but he really could not give me an exact answer. I mean the law says they should vote or they don't have to. That's all I wanted to know. Phil wanted to see the figures of the savings, the co-pays, etc. I would have liked to see that myself. It's funny, usually when Mr. Breeden makes a deal that will save the taxpayers big money you get a nice presentation. None given tonight. I guess that will be a part of the Memorial Day weekend budget meeting.

Other stuff:

In the mayors' report Mayor Melchiondo singled out Marianne Clemente as disrupting Pet Day by walking around and talking to people about President Obama's policies. Now this has nothing to do with my like or dislike of our president's policies or Marianne's for that matter. This has to do with the proper decorum of being a mayor.  

I would say that that is pretty unprofessional and very unmayoral (is that a word?) to do. The mayor's personal and political relationship with a resident should be kept behind closed doors. Apparently you spoke your mind to her personally at Pet Day and that should be that, there was no reason to bring it up in the mayors report. What were you trying to accomplish by doing so, embarrassing her in public? Marianne has every right to speak her mind and this is America, try not to forget that.

Rich Fieramosca from Mariners Marina on the bay queried the committee about some help to dredge his channel that has been shoaling for the past 10 years. His livelihood is suffering by not having a deep enough channel so that his customers, most who own sailboats, cannot get out of their slips safely without running aground. He told them that he wishes he could get a little help from the town in return for the $107,000 in taxes that he pays every year.

After a long winter and five years of letter-writing and calls to the legislators and Trenton, he will go into another summer season of less slips being rented because the boat owners can't get out at low tide. Less customers, less people in town, less revenue for all. If someone can help him with any ideas for disposing of dredge spoils, let him or the DEP know.  

Vince Greene asked for a police dog financial report. He did not get the answer, just the fact that the dog graduated from school. Good for the dog, lets get him to Settler's.

On that note, I really felt bad for a lady from Settler's landing. She spoke with passion how her neighborhood was riddled with drug dealers and she very rarely sees a police car. This lady was very upset with the situation in her part of town. It's hard enough trying to raise kids right, and being surrounded by this bad element does not help. She sincerely was pleading for help, I really felt bad for her, I hope she gets the help she needs from the police. I hope they go in there and clean up the drugs and the dope dealers.

I'm no professional in law enforcement, but the way she speaks, they do this out in the open all day long. She also asked about getting the skatepark reopened for the kids. We have a lot of kids in this town that love to skate and bike, and the fact that this skatepark sits closed while we expidite a baseball field at Lower Shore is just wrong. This skatepark should have been a priority over that field. These kids need that park – they love it, they meet friends there, socialize and skate! Hey, it's 2011 and that's what kids do, not everybody plays baseball!

I know this is long, so I'll let Graelyn give you, as the great Paul Harvey would say "the rest of the story"!

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