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On The Waterfront

Something fishy at the docks?  Here’s what I know. You can decide.

So let’s get right into it.

All this information is gleaned from an OPRA made this week from someone other than myself. The OPRA request and the Borough’s full response can be seen here.

Part of the OPRA was a list of occupants, starting in 2016, of the slips known by this person to be utilized by the Borough itself for municipal purposes. Here we see the part of the list for 2016 and 2017.

 

Then in January of 2018, while Matt was still mayor and Colleen was still BA, Mike Campbell made on behalf of the town some kind of agreement with Ed Kirschenbaum to let Ed keep his boat in one of those slips in exchange for the town being able to move or utilize his boat in the event of an “emergency”.  This seems like kind of a strange thing, particularly considering that Kirschenbaum wasn’t a public official in Belmar at the time and wasn’t even a resident. But here it is:

Sure enough, in 2018 one of the Borough’s slips was domicile to Ed’s boat.

If you’ll allow me to go off on somewhat of a tangent here I would be much obliged. I have been urging the Borough for many years now to make the meeting minutes searchable. If you are trying to research something or find something that was stated at a meeting or was part of the agenda at a meeting, it is often impossible without reading through hundreds of pages of meeting minutes. Even if you are committed to finding it you could miss it and hours of work could be for nothing. I feel so strongly that this would be an important tool for transparency and government accountability that in 2014 when I was co-chair of Jim Bean’s mayoral campaign I asked that it be made part of his platform. Of course Jim agreed completely and was happy to do it.

I would like to see all resolutions passed in the last three years regarding marina rates and the minutes where the topic was discussed by the Council. I am not going to read three years of minutes to find what I want. If the minutes were searchable I could have found what I wanted in five minutes. On Thursday I OPRAed all resolutions for 2018 through 2020 regarding the setting of rates at the marina. Unfortunately the Borough hasn’t responded yet.

A couple of days ago Mark Levis posted some of the OPRAed information I am discussing here to the Belmar Locals Only Facebook page. He also posted this 2019 resolution he found:

In his post Levis says that no such resolution was passed in 2020. I have no reason not to believe him. Still, if the minutes were searchable, or if I had gotten my OPRA back I could have confirmed this.

Anyway in 2019, as authorized by this resolution, and in 2020, in the apparent absence of an authorizing resolution, some of the Borough’s own slips were leased out classified “as is”.

Not all the slips leased “as is” at cut rates, as per the 2019 resolution, were ones previously used by the Borough. Part of the OPRA was slip sales reports for all slips at the marina for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Of course in 2017 and 2018 there are no “as is” slips mentioned.

The 2019 report shows 7  “as is” slips rented. (Click on the image to see the full report. You can scroll down for the “as is” slips.

In 2020 the number more than doubled even more though, as Mark Levis points out, there was no authorizing resolution.

There also is no mention of the availability of discounted slips on the marina’s “rates” web page.

So that’s what I have. Should the rates currently being charged for these less desirable slips be authorized by resolution? Yes, they should do that. Should the availability of these discounted rates be made more widely known to potential customers and not, apparently, just be by word of mouth? Of course. Is this some sort of scandal? You can decide that for yourselves but in my opinion the thing I find weirdest is that 2018 agreement between Kirschenbaum and Mike Campbell. Maybe someone should ask how that came to be.

25 Comments

  1. Anonymous wrote:

    Thank you and. Wow wow wow
    Time for feds to get involved !?!?!

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 3:56 pm | Permalink
  2. Skipper wrote:

    Admin thank you for your wonderful research. This whole thing wreaks of a scam. Huisman docked his boat there for years and years under the premis that it could be used in an emergency. I bet if you asked every boat owner if there was an emergency could we utilize your boat in exchange for a free boat slip, everyone would jump on it!
    These guys got caught and should be fired!! Not given cushy jobs.
    Wasn’t William Youngblood the boro administrator for 6 months and flew the coup when Sandy hit?

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
  3. admin wrote:

    That was Bill Young

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 4:22 pm | Permalink
  4. Anonymous wrote:

    Are some people on the list twice because they have two slips or because they split up the balance in two payments? Just wondering because if you add up the payments it equals the original amount of each invoice number, if not they haven’t paid in full.

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 5:22 pm | Permalink
  5. admin wrote:

    One bill paid in two installments.

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 5:27 pm | Permalink
  6. Anonymous wrote:

    Drew is only paying 25 percent of what he should be paying, those slips should go up for bid each year not giving away to friends this is bullshit we are running a business not giving charity to cops with pensions, three retired cops on that list

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 7:26 pm | Permalink
  7. Uncle Sam wrote:

    Any free or discounted slips should be taxable income to the boat owners docked there. Need to pay tax to both Uncle Sam and NJ.

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 7:43 pm | Permalink
  8. Anonymous wrote:

    Lock them all up for Official Misconduct, including the Mayor

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 8:09 pm | Permalink
  9. Resident wrote:

    Hey Fake News, here’s some of the facts that you said didn’t exist. This is only the beginning. Mayor Walsifer Fire Campbell, Huisman, Kirschenbaum and Poff immediately. This coverup is not going away until action is taken

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 9:50 pm | Permalink
  10. Sickening wrote:

    Doesnt everyone see what a scam these guys pulled. The bogus form that Campbell has Kirschenbaum sign is such a farce. It’s insulting to the taxpayers. This is official misconduct at its finest. These guys think they are untouchable. Can’t wait to see them in handcuffs.

    Saturday, August 22, 2020 at 10:04 pm | Permalink
  11. admin wrote:

    Just noticed that I counted the 2020 “as is” dock renters that paid in 2 installments twice. There were 15 not 19. The post has been edited with that mistake removed.

    Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 12:46 am | Permalink
  12. Average Joe wrote:

    This is way above average corruption for such a small town. Purposely and systematically doing things like this can only mean way above average punishment. Walisfer should fire them all. That is unless he was aware of wrong doing. Then him and them should be fired immediately.

    Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 5:32 am | Permalink
  13. Tom Dilberger wrote:

    #1 – Sir, I agree that there’s all sorts of chicanery going on but let’s not get crazy here by wanting the Feds to get involved. Everyone knows that whatever the federal government turns it’s hand to always turns out a 1000 times worse than the original offense ever called for. They are the biggest morons in our society.

    Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 8:40 am | Permalink
  14. Great Job Dave wrote:

    Thanks Dave, I’ll bet no one else reports this information.

    Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 1:16 pm | Permalink
  15. Anonymous wrote:

    13-Why are the Feds morons? Please enlighten us.

    Sunday, August 23, 2020 at 8:37 pm | Permalink
  16. Tom Dilberger wrote:

    #15 – I guess it’s because that’s all they will hire.

    Monday, August 24, 2020 at 6:22 am | Permalink
  17. belmarguy wrote:

    Everyone forgets that Ed Kirschenbaum use to be Chief of Detectives at Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. This needs to be reported to the AG’s office.

    Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 7:20 am | Permalink
  18. Dave Is Awesome wrote:

    #14 Great job Dave is right! The Coast Star is looking very thin lately with no community events. They could use a story like this on the front page with some real news instead of last week’s public relations piece of excrement orchestrated by John B from Djais. Maybe there are some real investigative journalists at the Star up to the challenge?

    Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 5:18 pm | Permalink
  19. Anonymous wrote:

    Campbell also fishes on Kirschenbaum’s boat and there also is a retired prosecutor guy getting one of the cheap boat slips

    Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 7:10 pm | Permalink
  20. Mark Levis wrote:

    I don’t know why Mr. Campbell felt he had the authority to enter into this type of agreement with Mr. Kirschenbaum in 2018. I was chairman of the harbor comission at the time. I’m sorry that happened on my watch but had no idea it was happening. A free boat slip so the borough could use it times of emergency?
    If Mr. Kirschenbaum’s vessel was so valuable to the borough for emergency use in 2018 why wasn’t the agreement renewed in 2019?
    And as for the “as is” slips. The marina is not at full capacity. Rather than offering a discounted rate for undesirable slips, those vessels could easily utilize an existing vacant slip and pay full rate like the rest of us

    Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 8:09 pm | Permalink
  21. Amen wrote:

    Mark Levis. Thanks for your common sense comments.

    Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 10:50 pm | Permalink
  22. Business Owner wrote:

    After all the millions of dollars Belmar taxpayers pumped into the Marina, how can we have any undesirable boat slips ? What else does the Harbor Commission not know ? Why do we need a Harbor Commission if it is not managing the business of the Harbor?

    Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 5:29 am | Permalink
  23. Resident wrote:

    Mr. Levis, Campbell thinks he owns this town and can do whatever he wants. He is a disgrace and should be fired. Don’t forget about Poff and Huisman. They had free slips for years under the same pretense of “emergency use”.
    Im glad this is all coming out. Drain the swamp!

    Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 7:30 am | Permalink
  24. Go away wrote:

    If Huisman had an ounce of decency in his body he would walk away, go get a job in the private sector and stop sucking the blood of the taxpayers.

    Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 7:49 am | Permalink
  25. Tom Dilberger wrote:

    #24 – “go get a job in the private sector”
    ————————————-
    Sir, Surely you jest. These type of people have no dignity. Everything in life with them centers only on the accumulation of dollars. The private sector requires some sort of attention to actually doing real work – never happen with these guys.

    Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 8:52 am | Permalink

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