Volunteers, town tangle over grant applications
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Crossed communications over budgetary protocols led to the resignation of two volunteers who had been serving on the Manalapan Arts Council (MAC).

Following an exchange with municipal officials at the Aug. 22 Township Committee meeting when the matter of a grant application process was outlined for the purposes of clarification, Sandra Lippman and Kalman "Butch" Budai both resigned from the MAC.

Lippman's and Budai's resignations due to a grant application brouhaha follows the recent resignations of former Manalapan Symphony board members Steve Pine and Roger Hicks after a reorganization of the Manalapan recreation department, a change that removed the symphony from operation under the recreation department budget.

Pine and Hicks resigned after Deputy Mayor Michelle Roth's request to review outstanding symphony bills wherein Roth asked for backup information to substantiate vouchers that were waiting for approval for payment. Roth's request to audit the way the symphony's money was being spent also resulted in the symphony conductor resigning following the request to her for the backup documentation.

The exchange about MAC grant applications at the Aug. 22 committee meeting was prompted by a discussion at that meeting that was initiated due to the discovery by Township Administrator Tara Lovrich that Lippman and fellow volunteer Judy Tolchin had applied for matching grant funding from Monmouth County.

Tolchin said that night it was she, while working with Lippman, who prepared and submitted the grant paperwork. The application required two-for-one matching funds from the municipality, meaning that if the township wanted to accept a $3,500 grant officials would have to come up with $7,000.

Lovrich said she had not been aware that the MAC grant application had been submitted until Aug. 22.

The matter went a few rounds between Lippman, Committeeman Rick Klauber and Roth.

Lippman said she and Tolchin had not been aware there had to be a resolution from the Township Committee before they could submit a grant application, or that the grant required a township resolution.

Roth said she attended a MAC meeting and informed Lippman that the grant the MAC members were thinking of pursuing required two-for-one financing from Manalapan and "that meant we would have to pony up $7,000 and therefore the township would be required to pass a resolution to provide for the matching funds in the budget."

MAC Chairman Bruce Brickman said he had been informed by Terry Thomas, the director of Monmouth County funding, that the county does not require a municipal resolution as part of the application process.

When informed of this, Roth told a reporter that regardless of what the county may or may not require does not change the fact that Manalapan's auditors will not permit the township to take in money that does not have the appropriate matching funds in place.

Noting that a $3,500 grant applied for last year had to be returned due to the same breach of budgetary protocol, Roth said, "I have no problem with adding the seven grand, I have a problem with not following procedure."

Lovrich agreed that regardless of what the county may or may not require in order to approve a grant does not change the fact that by not being aware of the application's submission, municipal administrators can not know they have to create a line item in the budget to meet the expenses.

And, the township now had to work under a tight time constraint in order to get the necessary resolution adopted by the members of the committee; a measure needed in order for the matching funds to be provided for as a line item in the budget.

Speaking about the matter this week, Mayor Andrew Lucas said that as the committee members all support the arts, he will move to rectify the matter because "the township needs grant money to do things and appreciates the efforts of people like Judy (Tolchin) and Sandra (Lippman)."

Brickman, who said that while he was not at the Aug. 22 meeting when Lippman pled ignorance of the protocol and was reminded by Klauber of their respective responsibilities, said he had viewed a broadcast of the meeting. He said he believes Klauber was rude and insensitive in his remarks to Lippman.

Klauber's comments to Lippman included the observation that while municipal volunteers are respected and appreciated by every member of the governing body, the volunteers sometimes need to be reminded they are not autonomous and must remember that they have to come before the committee if they are seeking funding that will commit the town to a matching funds agreement or an expenditure of any kind.

Maintaining that when they are in the process of making applications it is up to the volunteers to come before the governing body to review their plans and not the other way around, Klauber told Lippman, "You have to remember that you have to come to us, we don't have to come to you."

When reached for comment, Lippman said she did not wish to comment on any aspect of the matter.

Budai said he resigned from the MAC due to Klauber's comment to Lippman as well as "problems behind the scenes."

Lovrich said she does not understand how Lippman could say she had not known a resolution was needed in order for there to be a line item provided for the grant in the new budget when just recently, in a matter involving a similar grant application, Lippman knew to come for a resolution from the committee for some township tot lot equipment grant money she was applying for and was awarded.

Lovrich said she did not understand how Lippman could maintain ignorance of the need for the resolution for the MAC grant when she had been aware that a resolution had been needed to provide for the funding for the tot lot.

Lucas said so that no grant money is lost, there will be a resolution up for passage at the Sept. 5 committee meeting which, if passed, will come in under the time set by the county for receipt of the grant application.