Budget Adoption Postponed; Residents, Committee Voice Frustration Over Costly Revaluations

Issues of properly advertising the recently amended 2011-12 budget forced the Barnegat Township Committee to postpone its scheduled budget adoption hearing on Monday night.

That postponement — the budget hearing is now set for next Monday, Sept. 26, at 5 p.m. — did not delay the criticism leveled at the Township Committee, however, as residents complained about what they viewed as a lack of notice of a special meeting held last Thursday on amendments to the budget.

Rose Jackson of Marblehead Place, asked why the township didn't use Nixle, the web-based notification system the township uses for a variety of other notices, such as public safety notifications. She also questioned why the township didn't release an announcement to the Barnegat-Ocean Acres Patch.

"We use Nixle for everything else," Jackson said. "Why not use it for this? Why not use Patch?"

Township Administrator David Breeden said ads were placed on Monday in the Asbury Park Press and the Press of Atlantic City in anticipation of the state approving the town's budget plan, but the meeting was not a certainty until they received notice of that approval late Wednesday. The Patch, he said, "is not an authorized ad agency."

"It makes it look like you're doing things behind our back," she said.

With the budget postponed, much of the discussion focused again on the township-wide revaluation. Committeeman Martin Lisella, in his report to the committee, criticized Ocean County officials over the revaluation and the reassessments that occurred in its wake.

Breeden and Mayor Jeff Melchiondo say county officials refused to allow them to use in-house employees to reassess certain areas of town in the wake of the real estate market collapse that came on the heels of the township-wide revaluation in 2006-07.

The result, Lisella said, has been an enormous number of tax appeals that have cost the town nearly $1 million.

"We've spent more on tax appeals than on infrastructure," Lisella said.

Residents questioned Breeden and Melchiondo, saying they've received emails from Ocean County Tax Administrator Lawrence Ozzie Vituscka that contradict the claim that the town was forced to hire outside help.

"Is there something in writing that says that?" asked Marianne Clemente of East Bay Avenue.

She also criticized the committee for not acting sooner on fighting the county's stance on the assessment process.

"We've been talking to you about this for a long time," she said.

Lisella replied that he had been talking about the issue before he was elected to the township committee, and that's when things began to get heated.

"I'm glad to see we're finally taking a hard stand on this," Clemente said, after debating with Lisella on how long he's been pushing the issue. Then she added, "Then again, it is an election year."

Lisella fired back angrily that Clemente should have openly stated she is president of the township's Democratic Club — which drew an even angrier response from Jackson.

"I think it's inappropriate to mention party politics," said Jackson, noting she is the municipal chair of the Democratic party. "I resent that."

Lisella said after the meeting that the bottom line is the township is having to pay too much when there are simple solutions to the reassessment problem — if only the town was allowed to use them.

Check back later today for a followup to this story on the Barnegat Patch.