Late Addition to Meeting Agenda Raises Questions and Tempers

At 12:30 Wednesday morning, at what appeared to be the end of a very long of the Howell Township Council, a late addition to the agenda clearly upset some of the residents who had made it through the marathon meeting.

After discussing the future of Town Hall, a resolution was introduced to enter into negotiations to buy a property known as the Global Buildings as a possible new site for the government offices.

While the resolution gave the township manager and attorney the authority to enter into negotiations to buy the building, Deputy Mayor William Gotto and other members of the council were quick to point out that it did not authorize the purchase of the building.

Gotto said after the meeting that after three plans had been presented of what could be done to replace or improve the 100-year-old current building, the resolution would give the council and the public a better idea of what the cost of the third option would be.

"We had a vendor, an architect come and give us options for future renovations, additions and expansion. One of those options included what would be necessary for the Global building" Gotto said.  "All we did was we listened for four hours to his presentation, to residents concerns and at the end of the day we have an estimate for renovations and additions." 

With the resolution, Gotto said, "We are pursuing the costs for what it would take for the Global building. We will take both of those and compare them side by side and discuss what the best option is. All we did with the resolution is to allow the administration to enter into a discussion to get a formal price for the building. We do not have that now."

Though the resolution was introduced and passed after the discussion period, members of the public had brought it up earlier in the meeting. At that point they were told that it was a draft resolution and was not a public document because it had not been introduced. 

Gotto said he asked that the resolution be introduced, "to provide transparency of what we as the council are asking the administration to do." He said he would have preferred it not be introduced so late, but said it was done in order with other items on the meeting agenda.

"I think in light of the fact that we had a four hour presentation from an architect there wouldn't have been a reason not to," he said. "We didn't buy anything, we didn't execute anything. If that was the case then absolutely everybody has a valid point."

Even with negotiations, Gotto said there was no assurance that there would be an agreement to buy the building. If no sale were to occur, then he said he would be in favor of looking at the other options. 

After all the discussions of the various plans, the lone vote against passing the resolution came from Councilwoman Pauline Smith. After the meeting, Smith said that after hearing from members of the public, including a man who worked on the Global site, she was not expecting the resolution to be introduced. "I'm surprised," she said. "After all that was said and what came out that they still decided to go forward I think is very foolhardy." 

While the money would reportedly come from an earlier bond and other saved money, Smith said she did not believe the money saved would be enough to operate the building. "It's an albatross," she said. "They're never going to know how much it costs to run heating and air conditioning because the whole building has never been in use. Why put it on the taxpayer's back when it's twice the size that we need."

Smith said even with the passing of the resolution, there was still a long way to go before any formal action would be taken. "There's a long way to go before there's going to be a final vote," she said.

An ordinance would have to be introduced and passed to change the use of the original bond, while another ordinance would have to be introduced for the purchase of the property. "They have time to see the wisdom of changing their minds and I hope that they do," she said. 

Gotto said that while he understood where Smith was coming from with her objections, he believed the resolution was the right thing to do. "At the end of the day I'm going to be more concerned with making a decision based on economics and the long term future of the town and not incurring more debt," he said. "If that means that I need to listen to that conversation a little bit more than I need to listen to what people think of the outside of the building, I'll do that every day."

For his part, Councilman Robert Nicastro said he agreed with the way the council handled the resolution introduction. "I believe you saw courage by the council to explain a vision to help create a better place for all of us by respecting and informing the people and telling them upfront, what the problem is and how we got here," he said.

The councilman said he also believes the council showed, "What the costs and benefits for all the options that were presented and why we think our approach will work better than some of the other options. Many people may not understand all the technical issues but I think people respect when you respond upfront and honest to their questions and that's what the governing body did last night."

The members of the council will be back on the dais next Thursday for a budget hearing. Their next regular meeting is slated for March 15.