As I predicted a few days ago, the big issue at Tuesday night’s meeting was the apprenticeship/journeymans wages clause added to our bidding law last January. First came a discussion during the workshop session. Bean opened up by stating the obvious, that the language in the ordinance limits competition for work in Belmar and drives up the cost of public projects here. Doherty responded first by insinuating that Bean had a conflict of interest in the matter because he works for Stavola Paving company. Stavola is on the payment of bills list nearly every month but they don’t do any work here. Stavola doesn’t fill potholes. They build highways. As Bean pointed out, all they do in Belmar is sell us asphalt. I thought the mayor knew that. The ordinance has no bearing on Stavola at all, and besides, Bean is an IT guy, he has nothing to do with the business end. It’s pretty funny hearing the mayor express concern about a possible conflict of interest with Bean when the organization that most directly benefits from the language Doherty inserted into our bidding law is the union that is/was a client of his very own wife!
Doherty then presented a time line that purportedly showed that the new ordinance was not the reason that the most recent solicitation of bids produced far fewer responses than a similar one made last year. He tried to get Bean to agree that the ordinance came into being after the bids were made but Bean rightly pointed out that the ordinance was made public a month before that date. (I still think that the contractors might have been tipped off even earlier than that.) The mayor claims it doesn’t matter because that they still wouldn’t have known if the proposed ordinance would pass. Of course that statement was made on the presumption that we were all born yesterday.
The other three members of the Council then, each in their own way, asserted that unless we pay for the apprenticeship program that the buildings might accidently be built upside down or something.
Their arguments are all completely ridiculous but unfortunately they seem to be sticking with them.
The good news is that a group of petitioners collected 418 signatures demanding the offending language be removed from the ordinance. The petitions were presented to the Council later in the meeting by Joy DeSanctis and the Council will now have to make the change or put the issue to referendum.
Of course the mayor will complain to no end about the $17,000 cost of another special election even though he’s the one that insisted on having the last one instead of having the bond decided at the regular November election. Anyway the cost of having the ordinance in place the way it currently reads is exponentially higher than the cost of getting rid of it.
This time please vote “yes”.
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What else can you expect from a mule and his donkeys. Stubborn is as stubborn does.
Maybe we should see if all the “yes” signs from last month are still available.
Man has no understanding.
He can be taught a few simple tricks.
Nothing more.
Too bad this petition can’t be on the ballot for the general election this November. Then the voters would have an easy choice in voting NO to the apprenticeship program nonsense and NO to Doherty remaining as Mayor.
Review:
A mayor and council in need of a come back,tried to parade more-of-the-same as the best of all possible worlds. Similar to trying to sell a deluxe and reliable car with four flat tires weeks after the taxpayers had already rendered their lack of approval was an exercise in futility. As before,residents spoke up and to the deaf ears of the elected. Campaigning door-to-door, the mayor told my neighbor that he just needs” four more years.” I for one am just trying to keep my head from exploding between now and Jan 1.
I wonder if the mayor thinks he is wearing us down and we will all go away. The more shifting he does the worse it will be. Maybe his supporters will realize some day that he believes there are a lot of stupid people in this town and we the Element are not the only ones. Wake up people. The next question you should be asking is why with Wall-Spring Lake-Lake Como-Spring Lake Hts. and whoever is involved in the water shed Belmar is lucky enough to be able to pay for the whole job with another multi-million dollar loan and maybe a grant if there are any left. He doesn’t need 4 more years with the way things are.
Yea Time for a change…Give this guy Bean
four years.
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