West Deptford Committee Rejects Professional Bids for a Second Time

The tackled round two of professional appointments Thursday night–or maybe it was just round one, all over again.

After new Mayor Ray Chintall , they were back on at the work session this week, since they technically needed to be rejected via a resolution.

The outcome was largely the same–the committee rejected proposals for a township appraiser and bond counsel along party lines, in a pair of 3-2 votes.

The Democrats again questioned the moves, this time on more pragmatic grounds; committeewoman Denice DiCarlo raised the concern of the risk the township takes going without a bond counsel, and whether they could use new township solicitor Anthony Ogozalek Jr. or his firm, Capehart Scatchard, if the need arose.

“What is the backup plan?” she asked.

Ogozalek said he didn’t think it was likely they’d need bond counsel within the re-bidding period, but said the committee could either turn to him in that situation, or put together an emergency resolution awarding the contract on a temporary basis.

“You’re not leaving out coverage,” he said.

The committee also changed course on one of the professionals, backing away from the rejection of bids on the township financial adviser’s position.

Instead of outright rejecting those bids, as they did at the reorganization, the committee opted to approve last year’s appointment–Phoenix Advisors–on a 60-day term, then voted to send that contract back out to bid for the remainder of the year in a 4-1 vote.

“We’re going to retain them…since they are the advisers directly connected to the ongoing Sunoco litigation,” Chintall said.

That Sunoco litigation loomed large on the agenda, with a closed-session meeting on the pending lawsuit essentially shutting things down for the evening. The committee headed into that closed session around 8 p.m., and still hadn’t wrapped up more than two hours later in their discussions about the case.