At the Council meeting last Thursday, FIT Board member Donna Moore continued her frontal assault on harmful pesticides. Board Member Marie Hayes spoke about the hiring of Darren Sproles and Matt Stairs on March 30th. Their appearance only brought in $5,500 but cost $31,000- not a real good return on investment! Donna and I both spoke out against the City’s continued efforts to restrict Boardwalk buskers.
Finally, FIT President Dave Hayes addressed FIT’s decision not to go forward with a referendum on Affordable Housing. Here’s what he said:
“I want to address the Bond for 6.65 million dollars for Affordable Housing that was approved at the Council Meeting on March 28th.
After considering all the pertinent facts of the situation and conferring with our attorney, Fairness in Taxes has decided that it we will not pursue a referendum. Although we feel strongly that we would have gotten the necessary number of signatures for the referendum, it wouldn’t be in the best interests of the City, especially the residents of Beach Haven Manor and Peck’s Beach Village.
There were some good things that came out of this. We are very appreciative of the City’s cooperation in meeting and talking with us several times.
However, as with the purchase of the Klause property, the City needs to work on being more transparent with taxpayers. We heard many reasons from the City why, in 2015, they turned down a proposal that would have cost taxpayers almost nothing. In the end, the reasons don’t matter.
In turning down that proposal, the City saddled taxpayers with a project that will cost between $20 and $27 million. More importantly, the residents of Beach Haven Manor and Peck’s Beach Village deserved better. If the City had made the right decision in 2015, the residents would already be in their new housing.”