Millville Insider

Once again at the February 20, 2018 Michael Santiago, James Parent, Asleigh Udalovas, Joseph Pepitone, and Bruce Cooper rewarded another contributor to their campaign. Vineland Landscape was awarded a contract with the city of Millville. This time it was a thank you for an $1000.00 contribution to Stands Tall for South Jersey.   The out of town contributors to Team Santiago gave more than $100,000. So there are still more contracts to be awarded to pay them back.   The question is by how much will these contract awards raise our taxes? It is interesting that a politician is on trial in Allentown, Pennsylvania for rewarding campaign contributors with lucrative contracts. The link if you would like to know more is: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-nws-allentown-fbi-mayor-pawlowski-trial-day-nineteen-20180222-story.html

The February 6, 2018 commission meeting proved the partisan paybacks are not over yet. Doug Long’s law firm received not one but two more professional service contracts.  The contracts were for tax appeal and tax foreclosure attorney. Historically, the tax appeals were done by the city solicitor so a request for proposals for this position was not done.   A request for proposals for a tax foreclosure attorney was sent out and proposals were received. These were ignored and Long’s firm got the position. These bids were awarded non-fair and open. That means the commission just picked who they wanted. Why? You will have to ask Santiago, Parent, Udalovas, Pepitone, and Cooper. For more information on the other contracts awarded see the previous post, Millville Partisan Politics.

At the December 19, 2017 Commission meeting the city commission appointed three new members to the Zoning Board. On January 2, 2018 two of the members were sworn in. That evening when the new city commissioners took office, they rescinded the resolution appointing the three members and appointed three members of their choice. There is a very clear process to remove board members in the city’s municipal code. According to 30-87 : Removal for cause.             The City Commission may remove for cause a member of the Board of   Adjustment upon written notice to the member sent to his or her last known address at least 20 days prior to the holding of a hearing, at which time causes for the removal shall be heard and the member to be removed shall be     allowed to speak on his or her own behalf. A hearing shall be in private          unless the member requests that the hearing be held in public. Cause for    removal shall include misconduct in office, unexcused absences fro