Commission Meeting: It was better-attended last night than those held over much of the summer, I was told. A representative of the outside engineering firm (Remington Vernick, former employer of Ventnors city engineer Charles Sabatini) hired to prepare a Ventnor-after-Sandy report of all the items needing to be done was asked to provide a summary and did so. Matters on the formal calendar included revisions to the minimum bulkhead heights ordinances (10.5-foot minimum height for beachfront bulkheads and an 8-foot minimum height for bayfront bulkheads, with a maximum height of 9 feet on the bayfront bulkheads); introduction of a $1.3 million, 40-year bond ordinance to pay for repairs to Ventnors publicly owned bulkhead system including both repair or replacement of its bulkheads in various locations; and, introduction of a $5.4 million bond ordinance to make repairs to its stormwater management system, including pump station repairs. Public hearings on the bond ordinances will be held at the commission’s Oct. 16 meeting. The commission further advised that the bond authorizations being set in place were a prior condition from DCA and others as requirements for consideration for obtaining grants to address the same infrastructure needs. A resident of Callender Avenue (a street running parallel to Ventnor Ave. for four blocks, terminating at its end points in N. Jackson Ave. and N. Austin Ave.) got up to protest the total ban on curbside parking on that street on both sides and inquired why it had been done. The mayor replied that it was because emergency vehicles could not get through. The resident advised that tempers have flared in the neighborhood as residents along Callender have been forced to park cars along adjacent side streets where they take up what have been the habitual parking places used by residents of the side streets. The VCPD Chief then advised that his measurements suggested that emergency vehicles might be able to find passage through the street if parking were limited to just one side. The matter is being taken under advisement for further city review. The resident further advised that she had seen cars pulling up to each other and shady-looking exchanges and transactions taking place which might warrant stepped-up patrols in the area, especially as people on Callender are now forced to walk more of a distance from parking their cars to reaching their homes. Michael Carr got up to speak from a seat which had found him surrounded by his neighbors from N. Harvard Ave. He advised the Commission that residents of his street had lawyered up to address a problem with a property where a house has been demolished and its rotted bulkhead has essentially given way, causing street flooding problems for the entire street. (The property was owned by the late Dr. Deich and has been inherited by a relative.) He asked if the city could use its police powers to require a property owner to replace the bulkhead and further asked that the situation of a city storm sewer in front of the property and possibly running thru the property per easement with an outlet to the bay be investigated by the city. The various replies from mayor and city solicitor suggested that the city might be helpless vis-a-vis private property but the solicitor would investigate whether there are city ordinances which can involve the city in addressing the issues. I had a lot of questions which would have busted the 5 minute time limit and so had set them forth in written documents so that the unlimited time of the replies could be undertaken. These addressed: 1. VCFD and a personnel matter centered on a re-instatement which might be problematic (morale, legal liability issues) and about which fear of job retaliation has hampered internal discussion. 2. Resignation of the OEM director and other matters pertaining to his employment. Of the series of questions, the only two which were addressed were that (a) Mr. Melfi absence while using accrued sick leave will last until November 1st when his resignation and/or retirement will remove him from city payroll and (b) someone from one of Ventnors uniformed services departments tasked as an OEM deputy under Melfi was now handling the OEM duties. 3. Finance/Budgetary 4. Status of the Green Acres held hostage funding of @$2.1million which has become entangled in the ROSI (Recreation and Open Space Inventory) snafu created by demolition of the ice rink and the resultant proposal for a swap of ice rink space for Ventnor West acreage open space. Partial answers to #4 were that: (a) The DEP informed the city that it must file a federal report about the matter which the city apparently thought the state would be filing; this was done months ago; and there has been no word back since then; (b) city solicitor stated that the potential fine from Green Acres could be a 20-to-1 penalty and the deal worked out by appraisal was more favorable 3-to-1. (c) no one knows if the DEPs promised level of funding for the pier dating back to 2007 is actually set aside and carried forward year after year or whether it might require a new authorization and appropriation from state legislature in our debt-hobbled state of New Jersey which now ranks among the bottom 3 of the 50 states for creditworthy ratings from Fitchs, S&P and other debt-rating agencies. 5. Ventnor Grant Writer. Partial answers to #5 were that (a) an additional $25,000 is sought in the current budget year for Mr. Rutalas services after exhaustion of the budgeted $17,000 (b) there has been some dispute about the cost-benefit breakdown of hiring the position which centers on whether credit should be given the grant writer for grant sums received which have traditionally always been received thanks to department heads submitting grant applications and obtaining grants which are in the nature of being expected and routinely granted over the years. 6. Current status of the K-9 dog(s) Caesar, Niko and a new one. Chief Miller advised that (a) Ventnor now has a Belgian Malinois and that a private donor had stepped forward to cover the cost of the dog and that the dog is being trained to single-purpose working dog use as a sniffer with a different officer assigned to dog-handling duty; (b) that there has been no refund of the purchase price of the original dog by the Pennsylvania kennel which had first supplied Caesar then taken Caesar back after he washed out of training and supplied Niko at no additional charge; (c) that the kennel had cited to its warranty and an elusive term of handler aggression in declining to issue any refund; (d) that the Chief had indeed been contacted by Dan Vespertino about his offer to place Niko with a friend who is a K9 handler but for a future as a household pet which might happen but that (e) the department is still working to get Niko placed for service dog use by another police department which is an attempt to recoup some $$$ for what was paid for the dog and that (f) the amount of news coverage (statewide and national) that was an outgrowth of the local ACPress story has hampered the attempt of (e) but it is still being pursued. [Added note: my Google on handler aggression turns up too many definitions to permit anyone to draw any conclusion solely from that term about the officer who was bitten.] 7. Tax abatement proposal. The mayor stated that the survey needed to receive consideration for a designation as a municipality in need of rehabilitation has already been paid for and completed as part of the submission to the state. He further stated that much of the review devotes itself to how much is over 50 years old in terms of a towns structures and its infrastructure. When questioned about whether the designation might stigmatize Ventnor, Mr. Russo stated that both Atlantic City and Margate have designations. Commissioner Kelly stated that her information suggested that Margate had allowed a tax abatement in one or a few instances but that she wasnt aware of any attempt by that town to seek out a citywide designation. The complete list of questions submitted is set forth below except for the VCFD matter, which found me passing along to the Commission some over the transom information which had been received from somewhere in the innards of the VCFD.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 15:07:47 +0000
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