Despite council’s removal of the salary increase/monthly reimbursement issue from the agenda earlier this month, controversy arose yet again on June 23 when it came time for council to approve reimbursement to Councilman Charles Morgan for expenses associated with a conference call and a lunch with Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner.##M:[more]##
One voucher was for a $57 conference call on December 14 in which he was trying to set up a meeting date with the members of the redevelopment finance committee. The second was the voucher and receipt for the lunch at Villa Maria restaurant in Mercerville, on December 11. The bill was for $38.58. Last month, Gardner gave the township a check for $15 for his part of the lunch, saying taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it, and that if he had known it would be submitted for reimbursement, he would have opted to instead meet with Morgan at the municipal building.
During the salary reimbursement debate that carried on through May into earlier this month, Morgan referred to the voucher he submitted that still had not been paid as one example of why the council should get rid of what he says was a faulty reimbursement system and instead opt for the raises. Councilwoman Linda Geevers was a heavy opponent of any salary increase or flat monthly reimbursement similar to the mayor’s, and had proposed, instead, a reimbursement policy in which council members would be paid only for expenses they submitted. Council eventually dropped the issue altogether.
But when it came time to approve the bills on June 23, Geevers said she didn’t support paying Morgan’s reimbursement for the lunch. “If you were at the convention or a training seminar somewhere out of town, I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” she said. “It would be legitimate. But if you’re out to lunch to more or less socialize and to talk about social issues, than I think you should pay for that yourself. I don’t think we should be paying for these lunches.” Geevers said she felt the phone bill was legitimate.
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman asked why the administration agreed to pay that bill after having the issue hang around “for a very long time and not being addressed, and then all of a sudden, it was paid.”
Business Administrator Chris Marion said that at the request of Council President Will Anklowitz, he and chief financial officer Joanne Louth took care of the matter. The hold-up with the reimbursement process was that the administration and the mayor did not believe the money should be charged against the redevelopment bond ordinance. Marion said that instead, the administration charged the lunch to a 2007 reserve meal account, and the phone reimbursement charge to a technical supplies account.
In response to Geevers’ comments, Morgan said his first observation is that the reimbursement policy that Geevers drafted would allow for such reimbursements as the lunch. “The language speaks to meetings pertaining to township business,” he said. “I would not have had that lunch if not for my job as a member of council. I would not have spent the time but for my job as a member of council.”
“The whole thing is ludicrous; it’s petty,” Morgan added. “This amount was clearly a business expense.” With regard to the conference call to set up the meetings for the redevelopment finance committee, he said tried to work with the clerk, but the clerk “could not get schedules going, so I took it upon myself to incur that expenses. I put that in in January, and I’m still waiting for that reimbursement and have not been paid.” At the same time, he said, he submitted an expense for the lunch.
He also mentioned that he had a breakfast a week and a half ago with a redeveloper to talk about redevelopment “because I believe that if we get redevelopment right, we must understand how developers think,” he said. “We need one on our team telling us what Mr. Goldin is thinking.”
He said he paid for the breakfast because it would compromise his situation if the developer paid for it, but also didn’t submit it for reimbursement because “people are going to stand up there and throw stones at me for spending money and doing my job when it’s a political football, and the mayor puts out a memo saying he’s not going to reimburse it. What’s going on here? We do need a practice.”
Morgan also mentioned a mandatory insurance program he and Kleinman had to drive 100 miles to attend. He did not put in for reimbursement “because I’ll have to wait six months. We need to fix this,” he said. “We need to get back to the business of this town. Stop talking about the reimbursement issue and casting stones at each other. We need to be working behind the scenes to resolve these issues rather than coming out in public and debating silliness.”
He then said he didn’t question what he says was a “nearly $200 meal” Geevers had put in for during her time at an Atlantic City conference a few years ago. Township records show the meal reimbursement was actually for $114.72.
Geevers, however, said the bill was for the entire weekend of meal expenses, not just one meal. In addition, she says, “any expense I have ever put in has been approved by council.”
Township records show that Geevers’ reimbursement voucher for her trip to Atlantic City from November 15 through 16 included $114.72 for meals, and Geevers was not the only person who submitted meal reimbursements for the trip (see box above). All together, she was reimbursed $15 for parking fees, $114.72 for meals, $190.46 for lodging, and $81.69 for travel. Under meals, she submitted receipts for a $20.85 dinner at a cafe, and the $18 charged for the conference luncheon. She also submitted a credit card receipt for a $151.73 for two people, which was paid for using her husband’s credit card. However, she divided it in half and only submitted for her $75.87 of the meal, bringing her total meal expenses to the $114.72. Her travel expenses included $69.69 for 202 miles she traveled to and from Atlantic City, and a taxi bill for $12 during her time in Atlantic City.
Geevers questioned why Morgan hadn’t put in for the training seminar to which he drove with Kleinman, as it would have been a legitimate reimbursement, she says. She also questioned why “one specific lunch made it, and all the other lunches didn’t,” with regard to a reimbursement voucher submission.
She continued: “For a local lunch, you shouldn’t put in for it. You can have it right here in the township, and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything. My proposed reimbursement policy goes for out-of-town work.”
Morgan asked if she would return the money she was reimbursed during the conference.
“I didn’t have a $200 meal, Charlie,” she added. “I didn’t. Whatever expenses were there were over a course of at least two days. Let’s not confuse the public. Let’s get the facts right. I had not put in reimbursement expenses for dinner at the second convention I went to, or the third, so you can divide it by three, and you can feel better about it.”
Morgan said he felt no reimbursement should exceed $55 for dinner. Geevers said she would like to see council work on a policy.
“Every corporation in America has a policy on reimbursement expenses,” Geevers said. “I don’t know why it’s such a problem that the council can’t consider that.”
Geevers motioned to not approve the lunch expense, but no one seconded her motion. Instead, Anklowitz, Kleinman, and Councilman George Borek approved the bill, with Geevers voting against it.
“This is very large issue and it is a disgraceful amount of time to continually go over this,” Kleinman said after the vote. “There is a problem here, and it needs to be fixed.”
After the meeting, Morgan, referring to Geevers’ $75.87 bill from Dock’s Oyster House, speculated about why the bill was so high. Said Morgan: “Given the likelihood that prices three years ago were lower than today, it is challenging to understand how she ran up such a large bill without having some alcohol on the tab.”
A copy of the menu at Dock’s Oyster House sent to the media by Morgan shows appetizers ranging from $5.50 to $10.50. Entrees range from $25 to $32, and “classic” entrees range from $20 to $63. Steak ranges from $29 to $34, and lobster selections range by weight, from $39 to $90. Wines and beers range from $5.50 to $11.50 per glass.
He said he questions whether township taxpayers should pick up. “There should be a limit on the amount reimbursed,” and that “for three meals in the aggregate during any one day in the amount of $55 to $75 might be a reasonable limit.”
“I think it’s best to move the conversation forward in a more productive way,” Geevers said in response. “Having a reimbursement policy will set ground rules for what is a reimbursable expense. Many members of the public have spoken out in favor of having a reimbursement policy. It makes a lot of sense and is so much less costly than council salary raises or monthly allowances.”
