Holmdel Investigates Who Authorized $58K Turf Field Study

HOLMDEL, NJ — Who redirected $2.1 million in taxypayer money to be spent on turf fields at the Holmdel swim club, including a $58,000 preliminary study?

That's what a majority of the Holmdel Township Committee wants to know.

Earlier this month, Holmdel Township Committeeman Rocco Pascucci said he was stunned to see a $58,000 invoice to be paid to longtime Holmdel Township engineer T&M Associates. That invoice was for a study T&M did to look into the possibility of building turf fields at the Holmdel swim club. T&M said they were directed by Holmdel Township to do the study — but Pascucci says the Township Committee never authorized such a thing.

"This was never a resolution; this was never discussed in public. This is pretty serious; I'm a little upset," Pascucci told Patch on Tuesday of this week. "Someone directed T&M to do this work; T&M didn't just do it on their own."

Pascucci said the problem actually runs much deeper than the $58K study: Last year, the Holmdel Twp. Committee approved a $2.5 million bond to be used for a wide range of recreational improvements, such as installing lights for the girls' softball team and making improvements to recreational football. But this summer it was revealed that $2.1 million of that bond has been quietly redirected solely for the expense of building turf at the swim club — another expenditure the Township Committee never approved or even voted on.

"As far as I'm aware no three Township Committee members ever approved this, either in public or in private," said Pascucci at the Aug. 13 Council meeting. "To me this is quite irregular, unethical and possibly illegal — it's defrauding of public funds."

Pascucci said he immediately pulled the $58K invoice from committee approval and now convened a special meeting of the Township Committee scheduled for Sept. 12 "to get to the bottom of this." This will be a public meeting to begin at 7 p.m. Pascucci is also now reviewing all of T&M's invoices from the swim club, as well as work they did on the controversial land swap deal with Monmouth County at Holmdel High School.

"I don't want to throw anyone under the bus yet, but someone in authority did this," Pascucci told Patch.

At that Aug. 13 meeting, Edward Broberg from T&M Associates said all the work was approved by Donna Vieiro, Holmdel’s former township administrator, who quit this summer.

“So the township administrator gave you direction to pursue these projects?” Committeeman Greg Buontempo asked Broberg.

“To the best of my knowledge that is correct,” Broberg said. "We were authorized to do this work and proceeded with this work with the administration."

Vieiro has since quit Holmdel. She technically left as an employee in good standing, but there were a number of allegations made against her.

Turf fields are a sensitive issue in Holmdel: Many people — mostly the parents of sports-playing kids —want them. So does Holmdel Mayor Eric Hinds, who volunteers as a coach at a recreational youth soccer league that would practice on the fields and be able to host lucrative tournaments on them.

But others in Holmdel have resisted Hinds' turf attempts for years. For example, the most recent attempt by Hinds in 2016 to install turf at Cross Farms Park was defeated by his opponents.

Hinds told Patch this week he has no idea who authorized T&M to do the study.

"I agree when that much money is going to be spent a resolution is in order," said Hinds. "But the reality is whether Donna took some liberties or T&M ...," he trailed off. "There's no secret plot. Quite frankly if it was not authorized properly, this should be looked into."

Pascucci requested to see all emails from members of the Township Committee between Vieiro and T&M Associates before that Sept. 12 meeting.

Also, Holmdel Township does have subpoena power and the Township may be subpoenaing people after that Sept. 12 meeting, said Michael Collins, Holmdel Township's lawyer.

"I just want to know why taxpayer money was spent without our knowledge; that's a concern," said Buontempo.

"Don't we want to know how this happened?" asked a clearly distraught Pascucci at the Aug. 13 meeting. "Tell me if I'm wrong, but this shouldn't have happened."

Watch the Aug. 13 Holmdel Township Committee meeting. The turf field issue is brought up about midway:

Editor's Note: Patch incorrectly reported that Hinds owns the youth soccer league. He does not. He is a volunteer. We regret the error.