Colts Neck’s Fiscal Irresponsibility

Colts Neck Township officials actions and inactions continue to border on bizarre. Their lack of transparency is alarming.

The past two years Colts Neck Elected Officials spent over $1,000,000 in legal fees to battle affordable housing. Deputy Mayor Dan Buzzetta stated no one has defeated affordable housing. Yet we spend opposed to finding a peaceful compromise.

We compliment our veterans, wave the flag yet our elected officials have refused to engage SoldierOn or Tunnels2Towers in support of veteran housing. We provide the land these organizations build and manage the property.

Mayor Tara Buss stated at some point a Judge is going to rule that we need to meet our affordable housing obligation.

Why not follow the example of Madison NJ? Build to the mandated number of affordable units. Build 100 mandated units opposed to 500 apartments to ensure a builder’s profit.

Our officials raised a concern over the cost of a Housing Authority. A shared Housing Authority with Holmdel or another community was suggested and promptly dismissed.

The 2024 Audit Report notes Colts Neck Elected Officials have $5.66 million dollars in a “slush fund”. That is a massive rainy day fund. Why aren’t those funds being applied to lower our property taxes?

With Mayor Viola in office the surplus “slush fund” has increased 142% from only $2.33 million in 2017 to a staggering $5.66 million in 2024. County governments with a solid AAA bond rating have a surplus “slush fund” of 14% of budget. Colts Neck is 28% of budget, which undermines proper budgeting and planning, at tax payers expense.

We spent $12 Million on the new town hall. The governing body has refused to share the additional costs to fix a leaky roof, remove the 6 inch concrete floor in police headquarters to fix the waste lines, among other bills.

Another conundrum is the proposed Five Points bathrooms. The Town Engineer’s estimate was $522,335. The Town Administrator’s estimated price on the state grant form is $742,550 or 47% higher than the Engineer. The average bid price from the 4 contractors was $1.5 million.

The Town Administrator refused to explain how her state grant fund request was $742,500 when the bid average was $1.5 million. For the past 3 years we paid the interest on a $500,000 bond for a park bathroom never built!

Deputy Mayor Dan Buzzetta listened to my concern 4 separate times. Buzzetta offered to talk over coffee opposed to providing a public and plausible explanation.

Lastly, our slipshod public officials had no issue with a property owner installing a par 3 golfing area within perhaps 30 feet of a main roadway. Imagine a golf ball hit into on coming traffic, becoming a projectile traveling 90 MPH into your windshield, as you or a school bus drove thru Colts Neck.

The Code Official who wrote there was no violation failed to read Code 120-70.1. The same official last year sent a code violation to a past property owner who died ten years prior, rather than to the current owners.

Kevin M. O’Brien
Colt Neck Resident