(Reprinted frm Amboy Beacon, Oct, 13, 2010)
SOUTH AMBOY — Despite a state requirement that the final Calendar Year 2010
Budget be approved by the Mayor and Council no later than Friday, Sept. 24,
no action was taken by the City Council at its regular meeting last week.
Instead, Council President Fred Henry announced that the Council would hold
a Special Meeting today at 6 p.m. in an effort to adopt an amendment to the
CY 2010 Budget and the Budget itself.
The day after the Council’s regular meeting last week, the Redevelopment
Agency held its regular monthly meeting at which representatives of The
O’Neill Properties Group appeared for a slideshow presentation introducing
themselves to the community.
After the presentation, the Agency voted 4-0 to adopt a Resolution
rescinding its previously-declared emergency and a Resolution adopted at its Sept.
23 Special Emergency Meeting authorizing a Redevelopment Agreement with a
newly-formed Limited Partnership, and to instead authorize a new Agreement
designating “O’Neill Properties” as redeveloper.
The first Resolution was moved by Henry and the second Resolution was moved
by Business Administrator Camille Tooker, both Agency members, and both
were seconded by Agency Chairman Kevin Meszaros. Members Benjamin Block and
Melvin Rosado were absent. Mayor John O’Leary, an Agency member, recused
himself from voting but was in the audience and participated in discussions during
O’Neill’s presentation.
The Agency’s vote to change the contract might be enough to convince state
officials to allow South Amboy to include the $800,000 in the Agreement as
anticipated revenue in the CY 2010 Budget, thereby heading-off a massive
tax-hike this year.
A Special Council Meeting held on Sept. 27 ended with the three Council
members in-attendance — the barest number for a quorum — refusing to take any
action on the spending plan.
After voting on a Resolution moved by Councilman William Schwarick,
seconded by Councilman Mark Noble and adopted 3-0 to appoint Tooker as Acting City
Clerk, the Council adjourned into a closed-door executive session because
“the Council has to be brought up-to-speed about some problems with
negotiations,” Henry explained.
Councilmen Donald Applegate and Joseph Connors — both of whom are running
in the Nov. 2 election — were absent.
At 6:30 p.m., Henry came-out to inform the audience that the Council would
be out for “another five minutes” because “we’re waiting for a call from
our Auditor.”
The three Council members attending the Special Meeting emerged 23 minutes
later with O’Leary and took their seats.
“I feel personally that I cannot vote to adopt this Budget because it’s
not fair to the taxpayers of South Amboy,” Noble declared.
“I concur,” Schwarick added. “There’s a decision on additional revenue
coming from the state. We had a deal with a developer who agreed to purchase
Amboy Aggregates for $800,000, but at 4 p.m., the rug was pulled-out from
under us.”
O’Leary interjected to correct Schwarick’s statement.
“O’Neill Properties, the contract-purchaser for Amboy Aggregates, also had
signed a contract to purchase one acre next to it known as ‘the restaurant
site,’” he said.
“At 1 p.m., we had an agreement from DCA (state Department of Community
Affairs) Commissioner Thomas Neff, but at 4 p.m., this anticipated revenue
source was not accepted,” the Mayor stated.
“Obviously, we have no vote for the Budget tonight,” Henry said. “”We
had a deal already-made, everything was set, and then apparently an anonymous
call was made that this was not a real LLC (Limited Liability Company).
“We’re fighting a tax-increase, and for whatever reason, it’s not
coming-about,” he said. “We’re talking only about one acre of land where the (South
Amboy) Boat Club was. A deal was made, but at 4 p.m., we received a call
that the deal was off.”
The Council’s inaction subjected the three members in-attendance to the
possible assessment of individual $25-a-day fines against them by DCA.
O’Leary castigated DCA officials for not accepting what he referred-to,
interchangably, as “O’Neill Companies,” “O’Neill Properties” and “The
O’Neill Group,” a Pennsylvania-based redevelopment firm specializing in
contaminated properties and the redeveloper of the former NL Industries site in
neighboring Sayreville, whom he said is the contract-purchaser of Amboy
Aggregates.
At a previous Special Meeting held six days before, the Council conducted a
scheduled public hearing on amendments to the CY 2010 Budget which would
increase local taxes by $722,576, taking no action at that time except to
schedule another Special Meeting.
The new tax-increase shown there would be on top of the $39 hike
previously-announced by the Administration and the Council on a home assessed at
$266,000, the average in South Amboy. Using the numbers provided with the CY 2010
Budget as introduced, the amended Budget would result in a $268 tax-hike on
the average home.
City Law Director John Lanza and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Terance
O’Neill did not attend either Council Special Meeting.
The amendments as introduced earlier would increase the total amount of the
CY 2010 Budget by $1,553,543, from $13,993,033 to $15,546,576, and the
amount to be raised by local taxes by $722,576, from $7,129,425 to $7,852,001.
But City Auditor Gary Higgins said at the first Special Meeting that
“within the past hour at-most,” certain unnamed “developers” had provided city
officials hope that they might be able to anticipate an additional “$800,000”
in new revenues.
“If the $800,000 comes-through, there will be about a $30 increase for this
calendar-year,” he stated.
Higgins indicated that a DCA official would have to approve the “other
revenues” in order for the city to include them in the CY 2010 Budget.
“Normally, DCA doesn’t let you anticipate funds,” Henry stated at that
time. “Talking with the DCA people today, they said they’d allow us to do it.”
“It appears that the developers are providing us with the documents we need
so we can move-forward,” O’Leary stated at the first Special Meeting.
A source familiar with municipal budgeting indicated to the Amboy Beacon
after the first Special Meeting that DCA will allow municipalities to
anticipate revenue from developers “only if there’s signed contracts.”
In anticipating revenues, a municipal government runs the risk of not
collecting that revenue — part of the reason for neighboring Perth Amboy’s
fiscal problems.
The Beacon has obtained a copy of a two-page Agreement signed by
Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Eric Chubenko and Richard Heany, President of
Amboy Waterfront Acquisition Associates LP, providing for the payment of
$800,000 to the City of South Amboy by Dec. 15 for the one-acre parcel as part
of a $3.8 million property purchase.
However, an “escape-clause” in the contract allows the entity to withdraw
from the Agreement “at it’s (sic) discretion,” and to “compel” the Agency
to sell the property and return “the deposit.”
According to a Business Entity Status Report provided by the N.J. State
Business Gateway Service, Amboy Waterfront Acquisition Associates LP is a
“foreign (Delaware) Limited Partnership” (not an LLC), which filed on Sept. 27,
the date of the second Special Meeting.
At the Redevelopment Agency meeting, O’Neill attorney Edward Campbell
acknowledged that Amboy Waterfront Acquisition Associates LP is an O’Neill
“affiliate,” but noted that he did not draw-up the Agreement.
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