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Next Borough Council Meeting - Tuesday 1-15-08

Keyport Neighbors

Re: Next Borough Council Meeting - Tuesday 1/15/08
 

The Keyport Borough Council (KBC) will meet this Tuesday starting at 7:00 PM at Borough Hall. The starting time for all the 2008 KBC meetings has been moved forward an hour to 7:00 PM.  Items on the 1/15/08 KBC agenda include resolutions to:

  • Authorizing Hatch Mott MacDonald to perform Soil Sampling Analysis and Reporting. (Cost and site location for the study are not defined in the agenda. Hatch Mott MacDonald is the engineering firm with the Keyport water plant consulting/service contract and a major contributor in the past to Keyport campaign funds.)
  • Appointing Special Legal Counsel  
  • Appointing Consulting Engineer and/or Planning Services Consultant (Cost and site location for the study are not defined in the agenda. At the 1/8/08 NPP meeting the Keyport NPP coordinator indicated that a portion of the NJ State NPP grant will be used to fund a Redevelopment Study for the Highway Commercial area. This may be the resolution to fund this study.)
The public will have the opportunity to inquire as to the nature of these contracts during the Public Comment session preceding the vote on these resolutions.
 
Re: Keyport Pay-to-Play One-Year Anniversary
 
A year ago at the 1/23/07 KBC meeting, Councilman Joseph Sheridan submitted a pay-to-play ordinance aimed at reforming the way the Borough does business with redevelopment contractors and Borough consultants. The proposal was not acted on that night; instead it was referred to the KBC Finance/Redevelopment Committee for review. The proposed ordinance was based on a Red Bank pay-to-play ordinance. Last years 1/31/07 edition of the "Independent" reported on this issue in an article titled Sheridan proposes pay-to-play ordinance. The article also identified a $4,000 contribution from T&M Associates (provider of Borough Engineer and Planner) to the mayoral campaign, as an example of  contributions impacted by a pay-to-play ordinance. A year later Keyport still does not have a pay-to-play ordinance.
 
Don Norbut, T&M Associates, was announced as the Borough Engineer at the Jan. 1 reorganization meeting. T&M Associates has been a major contributor in the past to Keyport campaign funds. Hatch Mott MacDonald also provides engineering services to the Borough and has been a major political contributor. Without the pay-to play ordinance protection, will the cost of these latest redevelopment engineering/consulting contracts be the source of future political contributions?
 
Re: Ex-Mayor Merla's Incarceration began 1/8/08
 
According to a 1/8/08  article in the Asbury Park Press, former Keyport Mayor John Merla arrived at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., at 10:31 a.m., to begin serving his prison sentence. Merla, who pleaded guilty to accepting a $2,500 bribe from an FBI informant posing as a demolition contractor in the FBI's Operation Bid Rig investigation, was sentenced to 22 months of incarceration to be followed by 3 years of probation.
 
The authors comments and/or insights are in Italics. Any and all comments are appreciated.

Regards

Michael Lane