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Community Corner

Letter to the Editor: Township Mayor is "Abusing" Power with Budget Freeze

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This mayor is absolutely abusing the powers, that may be in question, that she thinks she has.

I don't care who you are, what power you think you have, what entitlement you think you can have. It should not work this way. The municipal building is on pins and needles for no reason.

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Cutting off the ability to buy office supplies, sending back copier machines that were approved in the budget by the council so the town can operate properly, not paying approved council stipends to some municipal workers while paying others cut off the municipality's ability to function and make purchases that the council spent hours approving funds for in the budget sessions. We already have cut out $260,000 of her budget.

Having them like they are one of her students before the department heads or purchasing agent moves forward on the request is pure immature behavior. This is why you have an administrator, purchasing agent and a CFO in place. Let these people, that the taxpayers of Washington Township pay a salary to, do their jobs. Micromanaging, being spiteful, favoring who you like and ignoring or making it hard for people you don't like is not to be tolerated by anyone. I would encourage the municipal workers to voice their concerns.

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This mayor is out of control. I am tired of us spinning our wheels, trying to do something and having this mayor think she has the absolute power to do whatever she wants. This form of government can work, if you have a reasonable person in place. What we have now is something different.

We should change this form of government to the borough form where six people make decisions and the mayor is the tie-breaker. You should not leave a final decision up to one person who feels they can do whatever they want to do, unless you a have a reasonable person in place.

I have made calls into government agencies to see if the mayor can legally freeze the municipal budget that she presented to us. I believe that this may not be legal for the mayor to order a freeze as she is the one that submitted the budget for approval, received what she wanted and signed it, unless it has already gone over the line items budgeted, which I know it has not.

The mayor also makes a statement saying that the spending this year is more than last year at this time. The mayor should realize that last year vendors were coming to the council for help in getting paid. Our bills, for the most part, are up to date now, thanks to having proper personnel in place, so yes we are paying more bills the first six months because vendors that were owed money are caught up and are now getting paid on time.

The mayor said she is doing this to build up surplus. You do not build up surplus this way. To build surplus you need to make big changes in your expenses, like switching from ways you currently operate different municipal departments. You need to have a game plan in place, you need to present your game plan, you do not just make a decision on the dais at a council meeting saying you are freezing the budget to slow down spending (that is needed to operate) and state you're doing this to build surplus. One person should not think that they have this power. Yes, you need to be careful on your everyday spending. This is why we pay professionals to do their jobs.

By handcuffing your municipal employees from doing their everyday job you are actually costing the town more money by slowing down the system that is in place. The mayor really should depend on the people that are in place, this is how government works. The mayor should treat the municipal employees with respect and not scream at them or talk down to them. No one is better than the next, Mayor Sobkowicz needs to open her eyes and ears and use the team she has in place and let them do their jobs. This immature erratic behavior needs to stop.


Joe D’Urso
Council Vice President

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