|
Brush |
Brush Says Dissolve DMUA Because GOP Commission Majority Is Trashing
Agency's Finances; '05 Deficit Caused By Haines, Bellu, Clement,
Gilmore Is Now $5.3 Million
|
Haelig |
Haelig Warned Republican Council, Republican Commissioners, That Greed And
Incompetence Would Jeopardize $225 Sewer Rate And Invite Trouble
Veteran DMUA Commissioner Robert K.
Haelig Jr. repeatedly warned the DMUA commission majority appointed by
the new Republican council that collective bad judgement and
destructive financial policies would lead to big trouble, and now the
trouble is
here with a missive from the mayor.
|
Haines |
Former Dover Municipal Utilities
Authority Chair Virginia Haines started squandering the authority's
vital reserves in 2001 to buy votes for the 2002 election which she
lost to Democrat Richard Larsen.
|
Boss Clement |
The reserve hemorrhage continued because
of the greed and foolish policies of Republican Club commissioners
like Juan Carlos Bellu, Deborah Clement, Leonard Hedinger, April Yezzi,
Joseph Bilotta and others appointed by the new council on orders from
GOP Greed Club chair Richard Clement and County Chairman George
Gilmore.
Numerous Warnings From
Haelig Were
Ignored, So The $225 Rate Is Now In Jeopardy
Cumulative deficits have reached $14
million, and the $225 sewer rate, which has been stable for 20 years
because of good financial planning by Haelig and other commissioners
who held office in the 1980's, is now in jeopardy.
Now Mayor Paul Brush has submitted a
plan that would dissolve the DMUA and turn its assets over to the
township.
|
Bellu |
GOP Greed Club appointee Juan Bellu,
current DMUA chairman, told the Asbury Park Press: "we have work crews
out there, we have supervisors running around checking things" in
response to an assertion by Brush that two-thirds of DMUA employees
are "management and overhead."
Brush Wants
"Immediate" $150 Rebate
In a letter to the Republican council,
Brush said DMUA commissioners should "immediately issue a rebate of
$150 to customers," and he recommended a merger "of DMUA operations
into the township government as a new Utility Department as a self
liquidating utility" like the Bey Lea Golf Course.
At Tuesday's council meeting, Brush's
letter drew immediate criticism from Councilman Carmine Inteso, one of
the officials arguably most responsible for the Utilities Authority's sequence
of big budget deficits.
|
Inteso |
Inteso Five Years
Behind The Times
Inteso called the DMUA the "most
fiscally responsible agency in Ocean County," a description that was
once accurate, but no more.
Commissioner Haelig was at the council
meeting, and he reminded Inteso the original decision to begin
liquidating DMUA reserves was made in 2001 at Inteso's
recommendation, and that the Republican council, despite Haelig's warnings,
"has never taken a single step to fix what is fundamentally wrong at
the DMUA."
Haelig DMUA Comments On
OCP Video
Haelig gave a summary of problems at the DMUA, and told council members they should enter into
a dialogue to fix the problems instead of "trying to minimize damage
that is not minimal.".
He said some of Brush's numbers and
assumptions were "fundamentally wrong," but the mayor's proposal might have
"constructive consequences" if it "focused the spotlight on the folks who
did the damage and persuaded the Republican council to
put its house in order and concentrate on conserving resources instead of squandering them."
To Haelig Video From 6/14 Council meeting
This article prepared for publication
6/16/05. It is the first of numerous articles about the DMUA
dissolution proposal.
|
