How Your Newtown Township Tax Dollars Are Spent

Newtown Township prepares an agreement to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kelly & Close Engineers along with a guarantee of future work for Kelly & Close Engineers. 

Newtown Township officials are considering an agreement that would pay the Kelly & Close Engineering firm approximately another additional $160,000 which follows a payment for $100,000 during the latter part of 2011. The payments are for work on the township’s 537 plan. The 537 plan is the township’s state-required comprehensive sewage facilities planning document. The agreement proposes to hire this engineering firm for additional work. It also proposes that Kelly & Close will be the firm hired without seeking competitive bids from other engineering firms to provide detailed engineering and some construction related services if construction of a new sewer project is approved.

When I emailed the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors to ask who had authorized the legal work for this agreement. This is the response I received from Supervisor Nawn:

“The Township Manager convenes a meeting every other Tuesday morning to discuss the Act 537 plan.  Included in that meeting is the Manager, Township Solicitor, Municipal Authority Solictor, the Supervisor Liasion to the Municipal Authority and the Township’s Engineer completing the 537 plan. The ‘agreement’ is the product of that meeting, among other things.  There is no ‘additonal authorization’  or legal expenditures as you would say. I actually authored the preliminary draft agreement, on my own time, at no cost to the Township, of course, assuming that’s okay with you. John.”

This answer was curious to me as the email that was written by Mike Sheridan, the Municipal Authority solicitor that was provided to me about this agreement stated:

“Gentlemen, Attached please find a proposed Agreement that was prepared by Rich Sokorai and myself. “

In any event, if Mr. Nawn was truly asking if it was okay with me, my answer would be a resounding, "No." No to an agreement that guarantees more work without competitive bidding. No to more legal work on that agreement paid for by Newtown taxpayers and a resounding no to flip answers to serious questions asked by residents related to how tax dollars are spent.

This proposed agreement comes after the township has filed another Plan of Study with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) asking the DEP to approve the township’s need to produce a new 537 plan (task activity report with cost attached). The township states in this plan of study that it will cost another $142,000 and proposes to send the plan to the DEP in November 2012.

To date, the township has spent in excess of $600,000 on 537 planning and engineering. This does not include the cost of a legal settlement with Aqua that provides Aqua with $220,000 in payments and a no-bid contract to maintain the Springton Pointe wastewater treatment plant. 

It also does not include attorneys’ fees paid for the Aqua settlement. Nor does it include the cost of legal fees paid to defend the previous 537 plan that the township had decided before the appeal hearing not to implement. In that case, the township spent two years and tens of thousands of dollars to defend an appeal which resulted in the approval of that plan being rescinded.

In a quote from the judge’s decision in that case,  “By overturning the Department’s approval of the 2009 Update, we ensure that an invalid and inaccurate plan will not act as a collateral bar to any future challenges.” 

He also said of the township, “Indeed, it must be said that we were left with the impression during these proceedings that the township had something less than a firm grasp on what it was committing to even at the time of the resolution. When township witnesses were pushed on whether a certain area would be sewered, answers tended to be vague and non-responsive. (See, e.g., T. 86-88, 181-83, 292-93.)

There are errors in flow calculations (T.91-92, 97-98, 322-24), and commitments of more capacity than the Township may now have or have a reasonable ability to acquire (T. 111, 121-29; Wilson Ex. 75, 76). Without an understanding of these basic matters, there was no meeting of the minds, if you will, and the township’s purported commitment appears to have been illusory.”

Having spent all these taxpayer funds with Kelly & Close engineering firm for this plan, township officials are now considering hiring them for additional work. Please consider contacting the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors and let them know how you feel about their actions.   

The phone number and address at the township building is 610-356-0200, Newtown Township, 209 Bishop Hollow Road, Newtown Square, PA 19073.  The township manager's (Mike Trio) email address is triom@newtowntwpdelco.org.  The next public meeting of the Municipal Authority is Monday, February 6, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at the township building. The next public meeting of the Board of Supervisors is Monday, February 13, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. at the township building.