Sewer rate bickering brings threat of lawsuit
HAMILTON >> Liar, liar, pants on fire.
Township business administrator Dave Kenny said at a meeting this week that Hamilton was pulling the plug on a rate study over a sensational sewer billing dispute with Robbinsville.
The Mayor Kelly Yaede administration contends Robbinsville owes a collective $2.8 million in outstanding sewer fees from the current year and 2018.
Kenny relayed at the meeting that Yaede no longer favored the rate study.
In an interview, Yaede repeatedly insisted — despite claims to the contrary from her trusted lieutenant — that she never supported a rate study, the costs of which Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried offered to split (and later said his municipality would foot outright) because it was a “stall tactic.”
Video Evidence
Since then, video has emerged online appearing to undermine the mayor’s claims that she and her administration never agreed to the rate study, which could have settled the million-dollar controversy between the municipalities.
The video, shot by township resident Terry Peifer who confirmed attending and filming the May 14 sewer budget workshop, captured interim chief financial officer Phil DelTurco saying the township informed its bond rating agency, New Yorkbased S&P Global, that it planned to conduct a sewer rate study.
“They have the budget. They did make notation about it, but we also indicated that we were going to pursue a rate study,” DelTurco said. “We were going to clean up things with our neighbors regarding the sewer plant. Again, hopefully, maybe with the rate study we can get a new contract in place.”
The Trentonian learned that a whistleblower contacted S&P, which issued the township an “AA-stable” bond rating in April, on Friday concerned that township officials “materially misrepresented” its plans for the rate study.
Hamilton could find itself in hot water if it wasn’t truthful with the bond rating agency about the steps it planned to take to shore up the sewer utility’s financial situation.
The township’s financial adviser, Anthony Inverso, who would have knowledge of the conversations Hamilton officials had with the rating agency, did not respond to a message left on his cell phone seeking comment.
It wasn’t only DelTurco who said the administration was on board with the rate study.
Kenny represented at past township meetings, and in conversations with township leaders, that Hamilton planned to move forward with the rate study.
He said the township would put out a request for quote (RFQ) and was captured on Peifer’s video saying as much.
If there was any doubt, DelTurco erased it when he again talked about pushing forward with the rate study.
“We’re on board on that,” council president Jeff Martin responded, according to the video. “You don’t have to keep saying that. It’s a nonpartisan issue.”
Men Lie, Women Lie
Backed into a corner with their words on the video, Kenny went on the offensive against The Trentonian in an interview Friday.
Partially throwing himself on the sword, he claimed that he and DelTurco spoke out of turn.
He then accused The Trentonian of having an “anti-Yaede bias,” criticized it for quoting one of Yaede’s arch-enemies, GOP challenger David Henderson, and suggested the newspaper was conspiring with Fried and Martin to make Yaede look bad.
“I don’t know why you want to defend Robbinsville,” Kenny said. “You have an anti-Yaede bias. It’s pretty evident how biased you are . ... How can you guys quote a man [Henderson] who has never told a truthful statement in his life?”
Kenny now says the mayor never communicated to him or DelTurco that she wanted a rate study. He said he wrongly assumed that was her position.
“I thought maybe she’d go along with it,” Kenny said.
The Trentonian confronted the BA about budget documents that show officials increased an auditing line item in the sewer budget from $8,962 to $23,962.
Martin said the $15,000 increase was for the cost of the rate study.
Kenny shrugged that off.
“There’s a lot of things in line items that don’t get spent,” he said.
Yaede Chimes In
Yaede on Friday viewed the budget workshop video and reiterated that she has never supported a sewer utility rate study.
“You will never see video of me as mayor that I agreed to a rate study to settle Robbinsville’s sewer issue,” she said. “I have not and would have not agreed to a rate study letting Robbinsville off the hook for what they owed. The rate study doesn’t alter what Robbinsville owes us.”
Yaede referenced the 4-minute mark in the budget workshop video when DelTurco says that a “rate study would cover multiple years 10 years out.”
In the mayor’s defense, Kenny said that Yaede clearly expressed her opposition to the rate study in a June 18 letter that Martin has confirmed receiving.
Martin said the mayor didn’t explicitly lay out her position on the rate study in the letter.
Yaede wrote, in all bold, a rate study “would only delay Hamiltonians receiving their fair share from Robbinsville of for its use of our sewer utility.”
She took umbrage with Martin calling her a liar.
“To sit and call a sitting mayor a liar when you now acknowledge you received the letter is disingenuous to the voters of Hamilton Township,” she said. “How can they trust him?”
Pay the Piper
Robbinsville paid about $1.9 million for sewer services in 2017. Hamilton Township has produced documentation showing Robbinsville owes a collective $2.8 million for 2018 and 2019 sewer service.
Hamilton billed Robbinsville $2.78 million for 2019 sewer service, but Robbinsville only paid about $1 million of that bill, and Hamilton billed Robbinsville $2.84 million for 2018 sewer service, but Robbinsville only paid about $1.7 million of that bill, according to the Yaede administration.
Kenny accused Robbinsville’s mayor of trying to use the rate study to get out of “paying the piper.”
“That would be like you billing me, and when I’ve defaulted, I say, ‘Oh, let’s do a rate study to see what I should pay you,’” Kenny said.
Fried said he doesn’t trust the Yaede administration’s numbers and wants an independent rate study to ensure his taxpayers aren’t getting stiffed.
“The video speaks for itself,” Fried said. “At this point, it’s very, very frustrating. In all my years, I’ve never seen any like this. I’ve never had an administration just flatout lie. They’re lying to the public, they’re lying to their neighbors, and they’re lying to the press. And they seem unabashed by it. The buck seems to stop everywhere but on the mayor’s desk.”
Kenny said he’s tired of the political gamesmanship.
After repeatedly threatening litigation, the business administrator said Robbinsville can expect to have a lawsuit dropped on it next week to force it to pay the outstanding bill.
“We have an attorney from North Jersey,” he said. “You’ll probably see a copy of it on Monday.”