Newtown Municipal Authority Meeting Update -- Creating more debt, spending more taxpayer money

The Newtown Township Municipal Authority held its monthly public meeting last night.  In a welcome surprise and good news for taxpayers, the agenda was available on the township website prior to the meeting. In another welcome surprise, the new treasurer, Jack DiPompeo, provided a financial report and made it available to all who attended the meeting.I've provided that report with this post. As a result of this reporting, taxpayers got a current view of the finances of the Municipal Authority and going forward taxpayers now have the ability to ask questions about Municipal Authority spending. 

Now for the not so good news. Jack reported that the Municipal Authority’s loan payable guaranteed by Newtown Township to TD Bank is $397,149.33. He also reported that this loan has a payment due again by May 15, 2013 or an additional $2194.31 late charge would be added to the payment. The loan payment amount is $43,886.16. Given that the Municipal Authority account does not have the necessary funds to pay the loan payment, the Municipal Authority voted to ask the township to make this payment.  This latest request for payment follows 3 previous payments made by the township on this loan. Along with another $100,000 Municipal Authority accepted as payable back to the township, the total debt of the Municipal Authority is over $600,000. 

Currently the Municipal Authority reports a balance in their account of $51,559.53.  This, however, is not available cash.  It represents the balance of available cash as well as escrow accounts.  It was indicated by Mr. DiPompeo that the Municipal Authority available cash is likely about $20,000. The Municipal Authority has about $20,000 available cash and over $600,000 in debt.  Where will the money come from to pay for all of the Municipal Authority's debt?

This brings me to another order of business that took place last night. The Municipal Authority discussed and voted on their role in a proposed settlement previously agreed to by the township for outstanding invoices for Kelly and Close Engineers.  With only one dissenting vote by Jack DiPompeo, the rest of the Municipal Authority agreed to pay $25,000 of the settlement amount($95,000) to Kelly and Close.  Joe Sweeney, Mark Caldwell and Linda Gabell all agreed to pay this settlement money. 

When this was discussed, Linda Gabell, currently a candidate for Township Supervisor, stated that she was not in agreement about paying this money.  She indicated that she now understands that much of the spending by the Municipal Authority in recent years was planning costs that should have been paid by the township.  In her view, the township should be asked to pay the Municipal Authority back the money spent on a township responsibility. This was a great argument by Linda. 

However, after making this argument, Linda proceeded to vote yes to have the Municipal Authority pay $25,000 as a portion of the township’s agreed upon settlement.  Rather than stand by her belief and vote no, she voted yes with the majority.  That majority included Mark Caldwell who was on the MA when a significant amount of the money was spent/wasted and never questioned it and, Joe Sweeney, the current chair of the Municipal Authority.  They agreed to pay these additional costs without a certainty that this money was even owed. And then, they further voted to create a subcommittee which became Linda and Mark to work with the township to “reallocate” the liabilities that they have created.

When I commented that the Municipal Authority had the ability to approve this settlement but require the township to provide all the payment to Kelly and Close, Chairman Sweeney wanted to know if I had questioned the approximately one million dollars that had been wasted by the Municipal Authority on planning and engineering.   I made it clear as I had at the Supervisors meeting that I had frequently called into question the spending that was taking place.  I’ve included with this post some emails that make it clear that the Supervisors and Municipal Authority were both aware of all the activity that resulted in taxpayer money spent/wasted on sewage facilities planning.  I’ve also included a copy of the loan documents for the TD bank loan. I made it clear to Mr. Sweeney  that both Mark Caldwell and Solicitor Mike Sheridan were on the Board and said nothing while much of the wasteful spending was taking place.  Taxpayers can come to their own conclusion with the information provided as to who is responsible and who should be held accountable for the waste of about one million plus taxpayer dollars.