Commissioners Vote to Put Lower Merion Township’s Checkbook Register Online

In a Finance Committee meeting Wednesday night, the Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners voted 8-5 to post the township checkbook online, in PDF and downloadable formats, with any confidential disbursements redacted.

Commissioners Daniel Bernheim, Richard Churchill, Jane Dellheim, Steven Lindner and Liz Rogan cast the dissenting votes.  Commissioner Philip Rosenzweig was not present.

Commissioner Scott Zelov said putting the checkbook online would create “transparency,” and Commissioner Jenny Brown agreed.

“This is a matter of disclosure and transparency and the taxpayers having reasonable access to knowing how their tax dollars are being spent,” Brown said.

Lower Merion’s idea is not unique and anyone who does a Google search will find many municipalities already have their checkbook registers available online, Zelov said.

Other commissioners said they were concerned about how much time township staff would need to spend on tasks such as updating the checkbook register online and answering the public’s questions about what they saw in the register.

“I do not see the point,” Dellheim said.  “Anyone can get a copy of the checkbook through the Freedom of Information Act.  And I do not want to burden the staff.”

Bernheim said the township’s finances are already made public regularly through financial reports.

“If you’re looking at just the checkbook register, it’s even more difficult to extrapolate from the line entries than it is from the report,” Bernheim said.

During public comment, four residents spoke in favor of posting the checkbook register online and one resident spoke against the proposal.

Bob Guzzardi of Ardmore said viewing the checkbook would allow the public to look at who was writing checks to whom to see if there were any conflicts of interest, match township contracts to campaign contributions and see how much township consultants are getting paid.

Guzzardi urged the commission to put the checkbook online.

“Anything less means you have something to hide…You have to put this online because anything less raises a question,” Guzzardi said.

The one person who spoke against putting the register online said she could not understand why there were residents of the township who feel the need to manage individual items in the check register.

Commissioners also discussed three proposals during the Finance Committee meeting which were voted on during a special Board of Commissioners meeting which immediately followed the Finance Committee: the appointment of bond counsel, appointment of financial advisor and 2011 bond issue refinancing. The Board of Commissioners (BOC) did not vote on the checkbook register proposal during the special BOC meeting.

The board voted 9-4 to reappoint David Unkovic of Cozen O’Connor as the township’s bond counsel for a three year term (2011-2013).

Commissioners Bernheim, Brown, Brian Gordon and Zelov voted against the reappointment.

The board voted 12-1 to appoint Daniel Kozloff of Public Financial Management Inc. (PFM) as the township’s financial advisor for 2011 and PFM Asset Management LLC to serve as investment advisor n connection with the escrow related to the 2011bond refinancing.    Brown voted against the proposal.

On the third issue, the board voted unanimously to authorize staff, the financial advisor and bond counsel to take necessary steps to incur non-electoral debt by the issuance of General Obligation Bonds to refinance various series of outstanding General Obligation Bonds.

The refinancing will save taxpayers about $350,000, Commissioner C. Brian McGuire said.

In other business, the Library Committee voted to recommend that the township manager be authorized to enter into an agreement with the vendor, Sentry Technology Corp. of Ronkonkoma, NY, to furnish and install a library materials security, asset management and self-checkout system for the six libraries of the Lower Merion Library System for a total proposed cost of $668,420.

Commissioners Zelov, Gould and Cheryl Gelber voted against the proposal. 

Zelov said prior to the vote that he would only vote for the proposal if the motion included an amendment which states the library staffing budget would be reduced by at least two full time staff equivalents.  He said this would not result in any layoff because the positions were vacant.

Zelov’s suggested motion failed because Rogan amended it to exclude the library staffing reduction and the committee voted to approve her motion.

Christine Steckel, director of libraries for the Lower Merion Library System, had initially made a recommendation that the township manager be authorized to enter into an agreement with another vendor, 3M library systems of St. Paul, MN, to furnish and install a library materials security, asset management and self-checkout system for the township’s six libraries.  But at a May 5 Library Committee meeting Steckel and Township Manager Douglas Cleland, asked that the committee to give them more time to consider the top two vendors, 3M and Sentry, before taking a vote.

Steckel said additional research on the vendors’ bids revealed that although 3M initially appeared to have a lower bid than Sentry, with 3M, there would have been $8,000 to $25,000 in additional costs incurred over the course of the five-year contract.  

Sentry’s bid is a fixed fee, Steckel said.

“We believe Sentry is the lowest cost and provides all the services that we want,” Cleland said.

In other matters, the Public Works Committee gave its blessing to Public Works Director Don Cannon to install gates to close the Righters Mill Road Ford for winter safety, as has been done since 2005 at the Old Gulph Road Ford.

The installation of gates did not require committee or board approval but Cannon said he was seeking the commissioners’ endorsement.

Righters Mill Road Ford is blocked with barricades during inclement weather, but drivers often disregard the barricades by driving through and knocking them over, Cannon said.

Cannon said they continue to have incidents with cars getting stuck during times of high water or ice.

Cannon said the township tries to err on the side of caution by closing the gates “too early,” before inclement weather, rather than risk injury to people in cars as well as the people involved with swift water rescues.