Newtown Resident Encourages Others to Help Hold Elected Officials Accountable

If you attend any Newtown Township meeting, Regi Siberski is the one person that you will most certainly see at the meeting. Regi has been a resident of Newtown Township for 53 years. Her involvement in township government began in 1982. 

Regi has become my source for accurate and honest information about how township government should and could be serving residents. This is true at every meeting she attends (which is practically every township meeting) and was true at the Feb. 6, 2012, Municipal Authority meeting.

Regi began by questioning Supervisor John Nawn’s replacement of the Municipal Authority Board member's place vacated by Ray Lopez’s resignation. Mr. Nawn said that under the Second Class Township Code, Supervisors may serve on two other boards including the Municipal Authority. 

He also said, "Supervisor Catania suggested I fill in the vacancy created when Mr.Lopez resigned" and "I'm now sitting on the Municipal Authority Board." Regi questioned that action asking, “Do we have to wait for the Board of Supervisors to take action on the resignation?”  When told "No," Regi said, “I’ll check.”   

At the following Monday night's meeting of the Board of Supervisors, the supervisors accepted the resignations of both Ray Lopez and Jack Lear.  They indicated that the Municipal Authority would have to act on these resignations at their next meeting. After that meeting, the Board of Supervisors could make new appointments to the Municipal Authority. So, it would seem Mr. Nawn's self-appointment to the Municipal Authority was successfully challenged by Regi.   

Regi also questioned the Municipal Authority about their non-payment of money owed to a resident who had installed the sewer line on Timber Lane. Years ago, Timber Lane resident Sean Sweeney paid to install the sewer line on Timber Lane.

The township agreed that he would be reimbursed by the residents on Timber Lane that tied into the line. Now, years later, the township never required the residents to start using the line and Mr. Sweeney has not been fully reimbursed.

On Wednesday night, with the knowledge that another Timber Lane resident wished to tie into the line, Regi asked again whether the Municipal Authority was going to reimburse Mr. Sweeney. The Municipal Authority solicitor said, "We have an agreement with Mr. Sweeney." Regi stated, "I want on the record that Mr. Sweeney has not received the required payment." 

Regi’s willingness to ask questions has encouraged me. At the meeting, I asked that the Municipal Authority to read out the bills that were being approved for payment.

The Municipal Authority Solicitor was paid $1,032.50, Valerie Hoxter (independent contractor bookkeeper/administrative) was paid $917.50 and Jack Lear was reimbursed $27.55 for supplies. 

Additionally, $10,145.01 of the Municipal Authority’s available funds of $35,321.82 was stated to be money for Kelly & Close Engineers. This means that the Municipal Authority has approximately $25,000 available funds. And the financial reports provided by the Municipal Authority state that they have accounts payable of $119,583.98,  along with an outstanding loan said to be of $491,760.39. 

I then commented that I had a problem with the amount of money being spent on Ms. Hoxter’s work. Newtown Township taxpayers pay Ms. Hoxter $50 per hour for bookkeeping services and $35 per hour for administrative work. 

This past month, the Municipal Authority paid three bills. Ms. Hoxter’s bill was $917.50 suggesting she worked approximately 20 hours. When I questioned this, Joe Sweeney, the newly elected chairman said, "As a volunteer organization, we don't have time to do the financial work." 

It is still not clear, in my view,  why or how the Municipal Authority required 20 hours bookkeeping/administrative work both in number of hours and rate of pay to pay three bills last month. I would think that somehow they could have figured out how to do the necessary billing and reports for less than $917.50 this month.

Thanks again, Regi, for continuing to ask questions and encouraging other residents. Consider coming to the township's public meetings. The next meeting of the Board of Supervisors is Feb. 27 at the township building at 7:30 p.m. You can meet Regi, find out more about township decisions and, hopefully, start asking questions too!