Marlboro council may kill MTMUA

The dissolution of the Marlboro Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MTMUA) could result in a savings of $800,000 in salary and employee costs, according to a study recently presented to the Marlboro Township Council.

The topic of the authority's dissolution, which was discussed during the council's Nov. 12 meeting, was met with opposition from several MTMUA commissioners who said they had not been given any prior notice about the possible end to the authority.

Municipal officials created the MTMUA in 1962 and today the authority provides water to about 60 percent of Marlboro. The authority has its headquarters on Harbor Road in the Morganville section of the municipality.

A board of five commissioners who are appointed by the Township Council runs the MTMUA. Commissioners receive a stipend and are eligible to receive paid health benefits. Service as a commissioner counts toward a public pension.

A professional staff is responsible for the daily operations of the water system.

At last week's council meeting, MTMUA commissioners Dick Previte, Jack Williams and Joann Denton blasted the council and Mayor Jonathan Hornik. The commissioners said they were upset to learn about the possible dissolution of the MTMUA in a daily newspaper article.

Denton said the MTMUA has been known as one of the finest utilities authorities in New Jersey while maintaining some of the lowest rates.

Previte noted that he had been reappointed to his position by the people sitting on the dais with a unanimous vote. He said the council must have had a lot of confidence in his capability for the job.

"Why didn't someone ask me, 'Is this a good thing to be doing?' Why so secret?" Previte asked the members of the governing body.

Township Attorney Jonathan Williams said that during the time the study of the water authority was being conducted, the MTMUA's director, Peter Wersinger, was aware of what was happening.

"I can assure you there were discussions with Mr. Wersinger which led to this report. He is perfectly well aware that we were looking at this. He helped provide us with information to a certain degree which allowed us to get to this point," Williams told Previte, Williams and Denton.

Councilman Frank LaRocca pointed out that at a previous council meeting, MTMUA commissioner Jack Zatz spoke in opposition to the study that was being conducted. LaRocca said members of the water authority were aware of the research being performed.

During the council meeting one resolution and three ordinances related to the proposed dissolution of the MTMUA were introduced. Each document was approved in a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Jeff Cantor casting the dissenting vote each time.

Council President Steve Rosenthal said the members of the governing body want to have an open discussion about the possible dissolution of the MTMUA. Public discussion is expected to take place at the next two council meetings, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17.

Rosenthal said the township administration is encouraging people with questions about the MTMUA to submit them in advance of those two council meetings so that the questions may be properly addressed at the public hearings.

If the council dissolves the MTMUA, a division of the water utility will be created in Marlboro's Department of Public Works with the purpose of operating the facilities previously operated by the MTMUA.

Rosenthal said if there are opportunities for municipal officials to reduce operating costs by correcting redundancies, the council must look at those opportunities.

Hornik said his administration promised to look at all aspects of government to see if there were ways to make things better.

"We can't afford to keep running layers and layers and layers of government. Just because we did it 30 years ago doesn't mean we should do it today. It doesn't mean that we can afford to do it today," Hornik said, noting that evening's ordinances were opening the door to discussions on the topic and not final decisions.

"If people are offended at the way this was introduced, we apologize … but I am not going to apologize for trying to make Marlboro's government more affordable," Hornik concluded.

Attorney Louis Rainone, who works with the township's legal firm, presented the study's findings to the council.

Rainone explained that the establishment of the MTMUA occurred due to the rapid increase in population Marlboro was facing at the time the utility was created. It was determined in the 1960s that an authority was necessary to focus specifically on the creation and extension of the water utility.

Today, Rainone said, Marlboro is not expanding as much and the MTMUA now serves a managing and maintenance role.

Initial cost savings that could be achieved by eliminating current MTMUA positions and employee costs could be in the area of $800,000 Rainone said.

He said Wersinger's position as the director of the MTMUA provides him a salary of $176,000 plus benefits and pension costs. The total compensation package for the director exceeds $200,000. The MTMUA currently has 14 full-time employees and one part-time employee.

It was stated that Marlboro's business administrator, who works through a contract and is not a township employee, is paid $125,000 with no benefits and supervises more than 200 employees and a budget 11 times that of the MTMUA.

The report noted that Wersinger was given credit for his past independent contract position as the MTMUA's attorney (a position he held for more than 20 years) and began his term as the authority's executive counsel in 2006 with five weeks vacation and a salary and benefits equaling $185,000.

The MTMUA commissioners noted that while Wersinger's salary may be high, he acts as director and attorney for the water authority, thereby decreasing legal fees that might be incurred from a separate attorney.

Rainone said it was hard to determine just how much the authority is saving in legal fees by having Wersinger deal with legal issues.

The report also points to the executive counsel's secretary, who supervises an office staff of four people and is paid $68,500.

Rainone noted that revenues for the MTMUA have been decreasing. He also indicated that the authority has been using surplus to balance its operating budget, reducing the surplus balance from $1.7 million to $500,000.

The report states that the authority's current budget does not indicate whether any of the surplus would be regenerated.

Wersinger told the News Transcript that as of Nov. 16 the MTMUA's surplus account has a balance of $1.365 million.

Denton said once the commissioners realized connection fees were dropping due to a decrease in construction other sources of revenue were sought, including a solar energy field that was built on Tennent Road. She said that at the end of 2009, with less than a year of the solar panels being active, there will be a profit of about $300,000.

The MTMUA commissioners said they were planning to obtain a copy of the report and would rebut the findings and statements made by Rainone.

Councilwoman-elect Carol Mazzola requested that the matter be put off until the new year so that she and Councilman-elect Scott Metzger would have time to review the matter and take part in its vote.

The next hearing pertaining to the possible dissolution of the MTMUA is scheduled to be held on Dec. 10 at Town Hall.