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Give Voters Chance To Decide? Baloney!
Dover Council Rejects Referendum On Huge Property Buys, Passes
Resolutions In Secret
Spend Up To $20 Million For Home Depot And JAMM Realty
Properties, But McGuckin, GOP Council Never Told The Public
What The Resolutions Were For
See August 8th Video: Rescue Dover Candidates Said Council Would Let
Referendum Deadline Go By; Then Rip Off Taxpayers Again - They Were
Right!
Editor's Note: The Republican
pay-to-play Council has done it again. Brazen arrogance on $20 million
in "open space" purchases for triple and quadruple the money they
would have paid two, three, four years ago when they promised to buy
more than 1000 acres for the $20 million they are now spending for
less than 200 acres, most of which is wetlands and unusable.
Resolutions Adopted In
Virtual Secret
The resolutions were
adopted in virtual secret at Tuesday's council meeting after everyone
in attendance went home.
The money will go to
major Republican campaign contributors who own the property. What a
rip-off!!
When they discovered the Home Depot - JAMM flim-flam, Rescue Dover
Township council candidates Robert Silva (Ward I) and Walter Seymour
(Ward II) issued a strongly-worded statement.
Resolutions Don't Even
Mention JAMM Or Home Depot
Silva - Seymour
Statement On Secret Resolutions Adopted by the Republican Council: The
resolutions do not even mention JAMM or Home Depot, just a bunch of
lot and block numbers.
Silva and Seymour
predicted in a letter that the council would wait until the deadline
for a public referendum passed, then try to buy the properties without
consulting the public.
Access Video Of
Taxpayers Being
JAMMED At The End Of This Story
Former Republican
leader Robert K. Haelig Jr. made the same prediction at the August 8th
council meeting when the council passed similar consent agenda
resolutions appropriating $50,000 for "title searches."
You can access a
video of this exchange at the end of this story.
Here is the Silva - Seymour statement:
"Cesspool Of Red Ink -
Spend Money Like Drunken Sailors"
The taxpayers of Dover Township are
drowning in a cesspool of red ink and a 12¢ tax increase, and the
Republican council spends money like drunken sailors and engages in
one act of cheap duplicity after another.
The latest sneak attack on the
sensibilities of the taxpayers is the resolutions adopted at Tuesday’s
council meeting to purchase JAMM Realty and Home Depot properties for
more than $20 million without telling anybody or explaining to anybody
what they were doing.
De Facto Violation Of
The Open Public Meetings Act
In another de facto violation of the
Open Public Meetings Act, the council is acting contrary to the
public interest – and they are doing it in secret.
These resolutions, perhaps the two most
important council resolutions of the past two years, were on a consent
agenda. They were not announced to the public at all.
No one told the audience at the meeting
what was going on; that these items had to do with the $20 million
“open space” purchase of JAMM and Home Depot.
Deep Dark Republican
Club Secret
The effect of this was to keep the two
most significant resolutions of the past two years a deep dark
Republican Club secret for political reasons.
This is nothing but another pay-to-play
scheme to enrich Republican campaign contributors by elected officials
who have repeatedly insulted the intelligence of the taxpayers by
making important decisions in secret.
This council has a history of
withholding important information from the public; and the subterfuges
always involve large amounts of taxpayers’ money.
The council specializes in acts of
duplicity and misleading the residents of our community.
STRIKE ONE
STRIKE ONE: These two resolutions,
arguably the most important resolutions of their tenure on the
council, were put on the consent agenda but they did not make the
requisite announcement that the two resolution related to the two most
expensive land purchase in the history of the township, a total
possibly over $20 million.
STRIKE
TWO
STRIKE TWO: Without telling anybody what
they were doing, the council took the two resolutions off the consent
agenda and put them in the executive session. The council then
concluded the regular part of the meeting and adjourned to the
executive session.
STRIKE THREE
STRIKE THREE: The council apparently
discussed the resolutions in secret; then came back out after
everybody had gone home and adopted them without telling anybody what
they were for.
TAXPAYERS ARE OUT
Once again, the Republican Council has
told the taxpayers: YOU’RE OUT!
For a council which specializes in acts
of duplicity and misleading the public, this was the single most
deplorable act of duplicity of the last two disgraceful years.
The township is obviously for sale, and
Council President Gregory McGuckin is the broker.
Excessive prices are being paid by the
township for properties no longer worth the money.
The article was prepared for publication
August 26, 2005
Video Of
Rescue Dover Township Predictions Of Council's Duplicity At August 8,
2005 Council Meeting |
