The transparency Mayor Carolyn Broullon and through her the Highlands Borough Council are displaying when it comes to the regionalization question for the school system should continue to be praised and appreciated.
If authorized by the Commissioner of Education, this will be a major decision made by the voters and voters should be cognizant of as many facts as possible before casting any ballots on any question. I continue to applaud the openness and wealth of information being released.
I also think the governing body under Mayor Broullon is taking big steps in trying to be a little more transparent in other areas, although still not giving the public the opportunity to he heard at meetings or accommodating the those with disabilities.
Still, they now have a camera on site at the new borough hall, though I haven’t seen it live yet.
They have videos of their meetings on their official webpage, though the audio system is terrible and the video is not much better.
They are trying, and I applaud them. Though I will never understand how they cannot keep up with the technical knowledge and capabilities that allow other towns to be so much more open with their residents. Or how little they care whether interested persons … disabled or not, can participate in meetings.
At the same time, and here is where I am not very complimentary, the Mayor and Council are still shamefully non-transparent when it comes to other issues which are vitally important to taxpayers, businesses, churches, and schools. Decisions that will also impact the borough and its future in substantial ways.
I’m talking about cannabis… and the new Borough Hall.
With the governing body’s continuing refusal to offer any governmental meetings via zoom, interested persons must attend night meetings at the Community Center, a building that does not meet all the requirements to be considered fully accommodating for the disabled.
Interested persons have no way of seeing what’s going in at a meeting now that a former councilwoman has moved out of town and is not videoing meetings on Facebook.
Interested persons have no way of interacting or asking questions or getting information from the governing body during public portions of meetings without being present in the meeting room, in spite of 21st century technology available throughout the county and state.
So some things might come as a surprise!
Like last week’s meeting of the Mayor and Council for instance.
The governing body simply adopted a resolution supporting Bridge City Collective LLC’s plan to open a cannabis dispensary within one of the business zones the borough previously approved. Bridge City, which is really a collection of different businesses can now go to the state and apply for the necessary license, now that Highlands has said it’s a good thing for them to be here. Their next step is to come back to the borough to apply for the one license Highlands has said could be used in Highlands. It will be interesting to see what local names are now part of Bridge City Collective.
A big decision, it would seem, with something so new as cannabis. Yet they did not even have to talk about it at the meeting. As one person who cannot attend night meetings because of a disability, I do not know whether they did. Or if there was any public there to even hear it, let alone ask questions.
On the agenda, it’s listed as one of several resolutions council members had apparently discussed and approved and there was no need to go into any detail at a meeting. Unless of course there were people who couldn’t attend the meeting who wanted to ask any questions…
Oh that’s right, they couldn’t. Because Highlands Mayor and Council meetings are not offered to all the public, just those who are fortunate enough to be in the room.
There’s a lot more to that story and VeniVidiScripto will have a lot more do say about it in the future.
But for now, let’s look at the lack of transparency on the construction of the new borough hall, the $10 million plus building currently under construction, and going very well on Route 36 adjacent to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
This is not to say the borough is doing anything wrong. It’s simply to note that it’s an important issue, is costing a bundle of money and still borough residents are not being kept up to date on everything. Not the least of which are all the costs of this brand new building where construction will be ongoing for more than another year.
The borough bonded $10 million…that’s six zeroes….for the new building.
The lowest bid came in around $10.4. So already, they started to be over budget before they even put a shovel in the ground. Sea Bright had the same architect when they built their two municipal buildings a couple of years back. When it was all done, they came in UNDER budget!.
It will take a lot of catching up to see that happen here
Call them hidden costs, call them routine costs, call them necessary costs, and that’s probably all correct. But it shouldn’t take prying, asking questions, or checking minutes to get all the information. If meetings were held on ZOOM, everybody who cared would know what contracts have been awarded, what necessary additional charges they are, and what is to be expected in the future. Sometimes, even, when things are done over the course of years, you can’t always remember each cost. But they all add up.
Ok, the land for Borough Hall was purchased for $450,000. Fair enough and well known. But that’s in addition to the $10.4 million bid.
Then there are a few more bills, by no means all of them, which have already added to that cost. In September 2018 Settembrino Architects a fine firm that has done considerable work on many different municipalities’ buildings in many towns, was awarded the job of architectural and environmental services and that work was revised seven months later to include all civil and environmental work, geotechnical, interior design, structural, mechanical some IT, and renderings plus a few more things.
That’s another $611,320…. Plus expenses.
That more than half a million dollars covers somebody from Settembrino preparing a schematic for the governing body to review, attendance at one planning board meeting, preparing all the construction documents and technical specs so the work could be put out to bid, reviewing the bid and making recommendations on it, and a few more things that architects are trained to do.
But then there’s more. You can’t just have a builder come in and do the job, no matter how sensational it is or how much the workers know. You need a construction management service to oversee the work, apparently another common expense.
But that is costing taxpayers another $263,921.28, which must be a great price for the work. MFS Construction, another great group of well educated and trained folks, was the lowest of 12 bids! Over a quarter of a million dollars and it was the lowest of 12 companies vying for the job!
There are lots more costs for applications, permits, the original cost of the architect before even becoming involved to make sure all the rules, changes, approvals etc. are done properly and correctly. Not exactly sure this doesn’t fall under the purvey of the construction manager’s job, but then, I’ve never built a $10+ million building
On the plus side, there are protections against some even higher costs. For instance, there is $500,000 set aside as protection against additional changes or charges.
Borough Administrator Michael Muscillo does a stellar job in his position and is open and timely in providing information, resolutions and just about anything else requested of him. But he is a busy man and there’s a lot going on in Highlands. So much of his time could be spent and so much more transparent could this governing body be, if it simply went with 21st technology and let people attend meetings virtually. The administrator is still providing me with the answers to more costs I have asked. And we haven’t even gotten to the costs of furniture, for the new building! Or the added costs of jail cells in the police department area. Or amenities needed for the court room.
Already, the new Highlands building’s costs are well over $12 million, more than $2 million over the bid for construction by Kappa Construction, the low bidder and industrious firm whose crews are on the job and working well, in spite of the record temperatures.
Heck, there wasn’t even a formal groundbreaking ceremony for this could be $15 million building, and I hardly think the reason was to save money.
But I also wonder…where are the taxpayers with their queries?
Don’t they want to know what everything is costing?
Has anybody asked if desks, files, tables, chairs, computers and all the other stuff that helps keep the borough running now are going to be used in the new building? Or is there just going to be another whopping bill for all brand new furnishings because the stuff there now is too old and won’t look nice in a pretty new borough hall.
Don’t property owners want to know what will be reflected in their tax bills?
Does everyone trust the governing body so much they don’t need to ask questions, make suggestions, or look into details?
It isn’t fair to sit back now and let things just happily drift along, then, when it’s too late and tax bills are out, start complaining about the high costs and terrible tax rate.
Or do Highlands taxpayers really just want to be surprised, shocked, overwhelmed, when they see the final bill and learn, too late, the final bill for everything they’re getting?
like mushrooms the taxpayers are kept in the dark and fed manure (bullshit) when it comes to these people spending our money like drunken sailors. This “project” is going to raise taxes on unpresented scale. Sit back and watch is all we can do….