It has resurfaced yet again, and this time the issue is over a $40 bill for reimbursement for dinner served at a recent Mercer County Chamber of Commerce conference attended by Councilwoman Linda Geevers.
Councilman Charles Morgan asked for the item to be pulled from the list of bills and claims approved by the Township Council at the June 1 meeting because he felt the reimbursement was for an expense not relevant to township business.
Morgan ultimately voted against the reimbursement, but not before a brief airing of his discontent, which resulted in the council agreeing to discuss a formal reimbursement policy during an upcoming council meeting.
The issue is certainly not new to West Windsor politics. In 2008 the idea of creating a reimbursement policy surfaced after the council deliberated a 50 percent council raise from $5,000 a year to $7,500, and then a salary increase for the mayor from $17,685 to $25,000.
Proponents argued that the raise was intended to cover the expenses they incurred while on the job, and that the raises would eliminate the need for submitting reimbursement forms and dealing with questions that could be raised when it comes to determining which reimbursements are associated with the job.
Opponents said that expenses legitimately accrued by council members as part of township business should be submitted and reimbursed. Morgan argued then, however, that he submitted vouchers that still had not been paid, and controversy broke out over the legitimacy of those reimbursements. One was reimbursement for a conference call and another was reimbursement for taking Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner to lunch to discuss the board’s involvement in the redevelopment process.
The issue resurfaced in September, 2009, when Morgan pointed to the $250 blanket reimbursement for the mayor as a reason a clear reimbursement policy was needed. Morgan had argued that a $14 voucher for parking the mayor submitted in addition should have been included in the mayor’s $250 blanket travel reimbursement, and not approved as an additional reimbursement.
Both he and Geevers had drafted their own policies, but none has ever been formally pursued.
In the most recent situation, Geevers argued that her $40 reimbursement was relevant to township business because the township is a member of the chamber, two West Windsor students were being honored, and as a liaison to the West Windsor Parking Authority, she listened to relevant information from guest speaker Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Still, Morgan said, “I have a suspicion that if I put in for this reimbursement, I would have faced a bigger challenge.”
Councilwoman Diane Ciccone offered to look at drafts of proposals from both Morgan and Geevers.
