Holmdel Public Meeting Monday: Who Approved Turf Field Spending?

HOLMDEL, NJ — Ousted Holmdel Twp. administrator Donna Vieiro will testify at Holmdel Twp. Committee public meeting Monday night, Sept. 23 as the town council — and many concerned residents — try to answer the (literally) million-dollar question in town:

Who approved spending $2.1 million on turf fields at the Holmdel swim club?

Vieiro quit Holmdel Twp. under controversy earlier this summer — but as an employee in good standing. She will be brought back this Monday night in what is expected to be a blockbuster meeting. The meeting will be at 8 p.m. sharp at the Holmdel Twp. building (4 Crawfords Corner Road) and is open to the public. Patch will be there, reporting live.

It was Committee member Mike Nikolas who requested that Vieiro testify, along with Committeeman Greg Buontempo and Committee Member Rocco Pascucci, the Asbury Park Press reported.

In August, Pascucci first brought up that he was stunned to see a $58,000 invoice to be paid to longtime Holmdel Township engineer T&M Associates, for a study 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.

By law, such a large expense requires a majority vote of the Township Committee.

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

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

At the Holmdel TC meeting, on Aug. 13, Edward Broberg from T&M Associates said all the work was approved by Vieiro.

"So the township administrator gave you direction to pursue these projects?" Buontempo asked.

"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.

According to Pascucci, 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 in town, such as installing lights for the girls' softball team and making improvements to rec 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 — again, something the Township Committee never approved or even voted on.

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 in late August that 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 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. "Don't we want to know how this happened? Tell me if I'm wrong, but this shouldn't have happened."

Stay tuned to Monday night, Sept. 23.

Related: Holmdel Investigates Who Authorized $58K Turf Field Study

New Allegations Emerge Against Holmdel Administrator

Holmdel Administrator Quits As 'Employee In Good Standing'