T&M Checks (and Balances?)

2018-745: Amending Resolution Number 2017-220, adopted March 9, 2017, a Professional Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) Service contract with T&M Associates of Middletown, New Jersey, to provide ongoing LSRP Environmental Services associated with the Meisel Park Project for an amount not to exceed $9,450.00 for a new contract amount not to exceed $59,050.00. (NJDEP Case # 99-04-28-1512 and 01-08-29-146-05; SRP Pl#130838; Union County Engineering Project #2011-030)

There were questions brought up at the Agenda meeting:
.

.
With some confusion:
.

.
More questions at the regular meeting:
.

.
Some sanctimonious pushback:
.

.
More back and forth:
.

.
Now as to those checks and balances:

Advertisements

UCCF 9/13/18: Against Bow-Hunting for Deer

Here are the speakers from the floor who were mostly against expanding the deer hunting season in Watchung Reservation and allowing bow-hunting.

UCCF 9/13/18: For Bow-Hunting for Deer

There were several speakers tonight against expanding the deer hunting season in Watchung Reservation and allowing bow-hunting. We will get to them in a future blog (as well as the usual pay-to-play with some pushback this time regarding T&M) but first, here are the freeholders on this issue:

Malinowski/Devanney Link

A new poll by New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski shows him narrowly leading five-term Republican Representative Leonard Lance in the 7th District. Malinowski’s last major victory was on March 11, 2018 when he cemented himself as the frontrunner in the CD7 Democratic Primary, defeating Union County (Berkeley Heights) resident Linda Weber by a final tally of 7-6 for the backing of the Union County Democratic Organization line. At the time it was rumored that Garwood was the decider. An anonymous source disagrees:

Union County Retirees – June, 2018 Update

Data on participants in the New Jersey Retirement System have been updated from 2017 through June 1, 2018 on the state website and here is  a spreadsheet, sorted by employer and name, of 17,017 retirees getting total annual benefits of $571,625,854 whose last Employer was in Union County. Feel free to review the listing for any anomalies. For example, can anyone out there explain row 11,206?

GLOVER, KEVIN

$645

4/1/2017

1951

71

Service

SCOTCH PLAINS TOWNSHIP

Here are those who retired in 2018 with the largest pensions sorted by the amount of that annual pension:

Hectoring Works

Perhaps you recall these incidents from the freeholder meeting of July 28, 2011:
.

.

.
This hit a nerve with Willard C. Shih, Esq of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, PA who, two months later, on behalf of Netta Architects, LLC and Nicholas J. Netta, AIA, NCARB (“Netta”) dispatched a letter to the offices of the Union County Watchdog Association (UCWA) addressed to Ms. Tina Renna and Mr. Bruce Paterson (though the latter was never affiliated with the UCWA) that, considering what we now know about how Netta got his start with the county and how Netta projects (Family Courthouse; Warinanco Ice Rink;  Galloping Hill Clubhouse) work out, reads like an object lesson in hypocritical bullying.

Excerpts from that September 28, 2011 letter:

Netta/Devanney Links

According to county check registry data Netta Architects (established in 2007) has received over $7 million for professional architectural services from March, 2010 through May, 2018. Among their projects:

• Union County College MacKay Library
• Galloping Hill Clubhouse – 2013
• West Hall Building Expansion at the Union County Vocational-Technical Schools campus in Scotch Plains – 2015
• Union County Family Courthouse – 2017
• Warinanco Park Skating Rink- 2017
• Union County Courthouse Complex New Tower Stairwell Modernization Project – ????

What qualified Netta Architects for these diverse projects? Could it have been past experience?
.

.
Or could it have been campaign contributions and former County Manager George Devanney?

According to an anonymous source: