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Meeting Lowlights

Sorry I don’t have a lot of time this morning but I want to pass along some information about what occurred last night.  The tape upload won’t be complete until this later today some time.  It was a long meeting but worth watching, particularly the second half.  I do suggest, however, that you keep a bottle of aspirin handy as it was a rather contentious affair and the Mayor and certain members of the Council were very rude and unprofessional.  Bring a bucket of popcorn too because, as I said, it was a long meeting and you might get hungry.

The SID budget passed.  Janis voted “no”.  I believe that’s the first “no” vote she ever cast as a member of the Council.  The SID budget is up this year because there was a year when they never collected the assessments so they collected the missed revenue over a period of a few years.  Now that they’re caught up, the full assessment money can go into their budget, hence the increase.  I complained that businesses that are under redevelopment contracts don’t pay traditional property taxes and are not paying anything into the SID.  Tom Volker, who sits on the SID board, responded that the problem will be resolved this year.

The resolution authorizing solicitation of bids for the stand up paddleboarding concession was tabled at the suggestion of Brian Magovern after residents Ted Ehmann and George Skudera spoke at length about the myriad of major violations of contract committed by Summertime Surf in 2014 and 2015 (and their advertised intention to violate the contract this year too.)  Many of these violations caused inconvenience and even a hazard to users of the L Street beach.  The owner of Summertime Surf addressed the Council but didn’t directed address any of the complaints made about his company.  Anyway, as Mr. Ehmann pointed out, it may not even be legal to lease out part of a Green Acres funded park to a for-profit private company.  We’ll see what happens.

Added to the resolution calendar at the last minute was a resolution to award the pavilion construction contract to Epic Construction.  We are told that “value engineering” will save us even more than what we would have saved by doing it ourselves.

Another surprise was that instead of modifying our pay to play laws, with the deletions crossed through and the additions underlined, Ordinance 2016-1 was changed at the last minute and now completely re-writes them.  It’s going to be quite a lot more difficult now to understand what’s been changed.  I scanned the ordinance for you and have it in my Google drive.  Click on the image below to open it.

Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 4.41.45 AM

Anyway I hear my boss’s voice down the hall so I better get to work.  Tape up as soon as I can.

Oh, one more thing….

At the end of the meeting Tom Burke announced that after witnessing last night’s events he decided to run again for Council.  I’m not sure whether he meant that he was opposed to members of the public asking questions, in which case he shouldn’t run but instead be a campaign volunteer for the Democrats, or whether he was upset at the abusive behavior exhibited by our elected officials in which case he should….naw, I’m sure it wasn’t that.

BTW, I happen to know that he won’t be running unopposed in the Republican primary this year.

13 Comments

  1. Anonymous wrote:

    Green Acres protects public properties for We the People. Thankfully we have voices who do not want to violate the law of the land.

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 8:55 am | Permalink
  2. Tyranta-sore-is Matt wrote:

    We all have bad day. The mayor’s treatment of people last night was over the top. You would never know we have a Constitution. You would never know the power and authority is with us. Tyranta-sore-is Matt is giving every indication of extinction rather than success. If I were the Monmonmouth County Republican Committee, I would copy and edit and definitely share select moments for voters in the County.

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 10:47 am | Permalink
  3. Michael D Druz wrote:

    To the Administrator and his drones, please provide in any Green Acres rules, regulations or policies it specifically prohibits this type of rental or leasing of GA funded properties such as exampled by the areas described during the meeting. Further my reading of the ads on the Internet did not offer definite camp dates in Belmar to register. Again provide the ad in question.
    Finally the past leases said that alledged violations MAY be reason(s) to void the lease. However contract law provides for a hearing on the issue(s) and a chance for remedial action by the lease !

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 11:21 am | Permalink
  4. belmarguy wrote:

    A highlight reel should be made of all the council meetings of Matt being rude and maybe the voters will rethink who they should vote in as their Monmouth County Freeholder.

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 12:47 pm | Permalink
  5. Teddy Ehmann wrote:

    Mr. DRUZ: YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOOSE. Others took notes. Howevery Now that Dave The Administrator of this blog was kind enough to video. All your questions are answered by me at 1 hour. 22 minutes. Try and pay attention next time. If you need a pad and paper, don’t be shy, I will loan you such.

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 2:28 pm | Permalink
  6. Tulips wrote:

    Admin

    Admin: When do we learn who the candidate is?

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 3:55 pm | Permalink
  7. admin wrote:

    There are two seats up so the Republicans need to recruit two people to run. Don’t know when I’ll know but should be in a week or two. When I do know, I’ll report it right away.

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 4:01 pm | Permalink
  8. BEN REAL wrote:

    Hey Druz, help me out. You said Belmar had 4 seasonal liquor licenses but I can only think of three-D’jais, Burrito and LaDolce. What is the fourth?

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 9:27 pm | Permalink
  9. Michael D Druz wrote:

    No Mr. Ehmann, you stated you could not find where renting or leasing was permitted, but did you find a specific section that prohibited those actions ?

    Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 11:49 pm | Permalink
  10. watchman wrote:

    #8 The fourth seasonal liquor license belongs to the neighbor of La Dolce Vita.
    http://www.laterrazzabelmar.com/

    (I am not Mr. Druz.)

    Monday, January 25, 2016 at 12:06 pm | Permalink
  11. BEN REAL wrote:

    Thanks Watchman but La Terrazza is the same liquor license as La Dolce. There are only three seasonal liquor licenses in Belmar. Druz was spreading misinformation-not facts. He should start using the word “like” when he is stating his “facts”!

    Monday, January 25, 2016 at 6:47 pm | Permalink
  12. watchman wrote:

    I got that info from either the Coast Star or Asbury Park Press. Seems to me that they are the same license, and I suspected that. I wonder who gave the press misinformation. Anyway, moving on. Shows you can’t believe what you read in the paper…

    Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 11:41 am | Permalink
  13. Love the Beach wrote:

    These 3 were on the May 5, 2015 agenda. Yearly license were approved in August.

    – RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING ISSUANCE OF SEASONAL RETAIL CONSUMPTION LICENSE TO D’JAIS LLC, T/A D’JAIS FOR THE PERIOD ENDING NOVEMBER 14, 2015

    – RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING ISSUANCE OF SEASONAL RETAIL CONSUMPTION LICENSE NO. 1306-34-001-004 TO FUSAL, LLC T/A LA DOLCE VITA FOR THE PERIOD ENDING NOVEMBER 14, 2015

    – RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING ISSUANCE OF SEASONAL RETAIL CONSUMPTION LICENSE TO THE IRISH CURSE, LLC DBA 10TH AVENUE BURRITO LICENSE NO. 1306-34-004-001, FOR THE PERIOD ENDING NOVEMBER 14, 2015

    Tuesday, January 26, 2016 at 8:56 pm | Permalink

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