Partisan Fireworks Explode As Freeholders Adopt Budget

The Gloucester County freeholder board adopted the $201.9 million 2011-12 budget, which drops the county tax rate by a penny, amid parliamentary fireworks and partisan arguments Wednesday night.

The debate–or lack thereof–centered around a last-ditch motion by Republican Larry Wallace to amend a health care line item in the budget, which was superseded by a separate motion by Democrat Warren Wallace, who had moved to close debate and go directly to a yes-or-no vote on the budget.

That spiraled into a lengthy back-and-forth on parliamentary procedure between Larry Wallace, Freeholder Director Robert Damminger and chief county counsel Matt Lyons. Larry Wallace’s motion to amend came just moments after Warren Wallace’s had been seconded, though, and Lyons said Warren Wallace’s took precedence.

“I believe you’re out of order, sir,” Larry Wallace said.

Warren Wallace’s specific motion was to move the previous question, a procedure that quashes further debate, prevents any amendments and is not debatable itself, and was approved by a 5-0 party-line vote.

Larry Wallace continued to voice his desire to amend the budget over a rapid-fire roll-call vote, in which the budget was approved by another 5-0, party-line vote that saw a nonvote from Republicans Vincent Nestore and Larry Wallace.

The drama wasn’t over there, though. In fact, it’d barely begun.

During the public portion of the meeting, Dave Ferrucci, who runs campaigns and publicity for the county Republican Party, admonished the board for what he saw as a move to stifle debate on the budget by the Democrats.

“You didn’t feel it was appropriate to even hear what the amendment was,” he said.

Damminger pointed out that Larry Wallace’s desire to amend the budget hadn’t been brought up in any of the previous budget sessions, which he said amounted to around 40 hours of budget meetings.

“The time to discuss the budget and hammer out a budget is during budget sessions, not on the eve of adoption,” Damminger said.

Ferrucci continued to argue that ending debate without hearing the amendment amounted to political cowardice.

“You realize what a disgrace that is, and an insult to democracy,” he said.

Lee Lucas of Gibbstown came up after Ferrucci, and questioned why the Republicans didn’t vote on the budget.

Larry Wallace said the speed of the roll-call votes made the procedures confusing, at best.

“I didn’t know what was going on where,” he said.

Nestore said he and Larry Wallace have had to fight to try to get their voices heard on the 5-2 Democrat-majority board.

“We’ve been squashed continuously,” Nestore said, which set off a heated argument between him and Damminger that saw the two talking over each other until Damminger called out Nestore.

“You have the right to vote to vote no if you didn’t agree with it,” Damminger said of the budget. “If you didn’t have the spine to put a no vote on the board, that’s not my problem.”

Nestore fired right back at Damminger, and said he and Larry Wallace deserved the right to speak.

After more arguing, Damminger cut off both men and noted that he had the right, under parliamentary procedure, to assign votes in place of the nonvote by the pair, and gave them the chance to go on the record with an official vote.

Both Nestore and Larry Wallace then voted yes, making for unanimous approval.

Even after the meeting, though, Larry Wallace continued to assert that his motion to amend the budget should’ve been heard, and vowed to review tapes of the meeting to see if further action was warranted.

“They’re wrong about the rules,” he said.