New School Board Candidate Wants Architect Of Solar Project Reimburse District

Newly-elected Lacey Board of Education candidates Regina Discenza isn’t wasting any time getting down to business.

Discenza and Richard A. Bidnick - who chairs the local group Lacey Citizens for Responsible Government - recently wrote a letter to the architectural firm that overestimated the cost of the district’s solar project and asked that the firm donate $455,000 to the district for anti-drug programs.

Here is the letter:

Please see the attached NJ State Comptroller’s Alert dated March 11, 2014. I am sure you are aware of its contents. Mrs. Discenza went to the Comptroller’s office on an OPRA (Open Public Records Act) request for review of their investigative file. We wanted to confirm that the case was about the Lacey School District since it was not specifically named in the Alert. While all the numbers matched their solar project, we had to be 100 percent sure it was the Lacey case. It definitely was about your Lacey Solar Project.

At this time, we would like to ask you to donate $455,000 to the Lacey School District. The students were shortchanged by everyone’s oversight. In fact, around the time the solar project was being introduced, budgets cuts took place which greatly reduced funding for class trips. The current situation with the SREC’s is also very disheartening. And we reviewed the paperwork on the recent SREC sale Oct. 27.

Mrs. Discenza has also attached an e-mail copy that was obtained via OPRA from the Lacey School District dated January 27, 2011. It pertained to a request for the source data for the cost estimate on your project. For your information, Mr. Tom Palczewski, who assisted us with seeking construction and pricing records, is a construction auditor by trade.

Please make this situation right and reimburse the district with a donation. We believe the Comptroller’s Alert clearly indicates the Lacey School District should have their $455,000 back for the students and taxpayers. Please remit at your soonest convenience to Mr. Savage.

Mrs. Discenza recently met Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Kevin Sabet, author of Reefer Sanity, at an anti-drug forum sponsored by the Monmouth and Ocean County Prosecutors. We would like to have Patrick Kennedy and Dr. Sabet bring their message to the Lacey School District.

It would cost about $10,000 for their public appearance/presentation. We would like it very much if you could help make this a reality for our financially strapped school district since our solar project and SREC sales have not met up with expectations. (Just to be clear, the overestimate has the taxpayers on the hook for about $3.5 million in interest for the over borrowed $8.2 million from the $19.8 bond referendum.)