Chester Trustees Trade Barbs During Marilyn Drive Discussion

May 23, 2013

By Diane Ryder
The Chester Township Trustees meeting last Thursday night was only minutes old when it erupted into a heated exchange over the placing of a road repair issue on the evening’s agenda.
Shortly after trustee Chairman Mike Joyce asked to move three discussion items to the top of the agenda to accommodate Deputy Engineer Shane Hajjar’s schedule, Trustee Ken Radtke questioned the third item’s placement on the list.
The question dealt with approving the plans and specifications for improving the outlet structure on Marilyn Drive, as prepared by the county engineer.
Two other issues, to approve chip and seal projects, and to approve asphalt resurfacing projects, passed unanimously without comment
“When was this added to the agenda and who added this to the agenda?” Radtke asked. “The draft agenda didn’t have it and at 4:54 today, the agenda had it. Who added it and when?”
Before each trustee meeting, Administrative Assistant Mary Lou Florentine issues an electronic rough draft of the upcoming agenda.
Items are sometimes added or subtracted for the final agenda, which is available by hard copy at the beginning of each meeting.
“It was not added by me,” Trustee Judy Caputo said. “I did not look at the draft. Whether it was missed and put on, I don’t know.”
Joyce asked Radtke if it was relevant.
“Of course it’s relevant,” Radtke shot back. “I don’t recall seeing that and did not anticipate it being on the agenda. This has a large impact on the community. I need time to think about it and we need to invite the residents in so they can find out about the impact this will have on them.”
He added, “This is one example of my being out of the loop on things.”
Hajjar, who said he was attending the meeting to clarify any questions about the three projects, said he had been in contact with Joyce on May 1 about putting all three items on the May 16 agenda.
“I need better preparation. Was this on the draft agenda?” Radtke asked again.
Joyce said the project has been planned for about a year.
“The flooding problem goes back probably 50 years,” Radtke said, adding he needed more time to research the issue before voting on it.
“I will ask Mary Lou when it was put on the agenda,” he said.
Hajjar repeated he had been in communication with the township on May 1 and had prepared to discuss the issues at the May 16 meeting.
“Given that this problem has been going on for 50 years, another two weeks shouldn’t matter,” Radtke said. “The residents should be notified. I’m not prepared to discuss it at this time.”
Caputo said the project has some deadlines and trustees had hoped to begin the bidding process so the project could begin by the end of June.
“Does it need to be approved by all three of us tonight?” she asked.
Joyce said it has to be approved.
“I don’t understand this,” he said.
Caputo added, “I don’t either.”
Radtke again asked for another two weeks to review the specifications.
Caputo, visibly angry, told Radtke, “You’ve had the outlines. We’ve all looked at it a million times in the last year and a half.”
“Did either of you authorize the assistant to put it on the agenda?” Radtke pushed again. “I don’t recall seeing it on the draft agenda. This is too important a project to be rushing ahead.”
He said this is a team effort, from which he has been excluded.
“I resent that and I deny that,” Joyce said, visibly angry. “This is going off on a tangent, which you often do.”
Radtke said Joyce is “shortchanging the township”?by moving forward with the project without a review.
“This is a public meeting and you shoot off emails the day of the meeting and I resent that,” Caputo said.
Radtke said Caputo never answers his emails and accused her of keeping her cell phone mailbox full so that it could not receive his messages.
“So you choose not to communicate with me,” Radtke told Caputo, adding that’s his understanding.
“It’s not my job, nor is it your job, to micromanage,” Caputo told him. “You’re a big boy. You can do your prep work on your own. I don’t like how you treat emails. Call for the vote.”
The issue passed with Joyce and Caputo in favor, and Radtke abstaining.
“You’re good at that,” Joyce told him.
Two women yelled “Uncalled for” from the back of the room. Trustees ignored the outburst.
Joyce allowed former Trustee Ron Cotman to ask Hajjar two questions, about how he came to be at the meeting and how much the three projects will cost.
“My boss asked me to attend in case there were any questions; he wants to have more presence at township meetings,” Hajjar answered.
He told Cotman the chip and seal will cover 2.6 miles of roads at a cost of $125,000; the resurfacing project will cover 2.4 miles and cost $630,000, and the Marilyn Drive drainage repair will cost $150,000.
The Maple Leaf has since obtained copies of emails between Radtke, the engineer’s office and township officials sent the afternoon before the meeting and an email sent Friday in response to the Thursday meeting.
At 3:41 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Radtke sent an email to trustees, township officials and the engineer’s office stating that he had discovered during a conversation with Hajjar that the Marilyn Drive project was going to be on the agenda.
He said that, because it had not been on the draft agenda, he was not prepared to vote on the issue because he had a number of questions. He also asked that Marilyn Drive residents be notified previous to any vote, as a courtesy.
At 3:53 p.m., Hajjar sent an email to Radtke, stating, “The plans and resolutions to the order for Marilyn Drive were sent to all township trustees a week ago on 5/9/13 with the intent and expectation that this would be in tonight’s agenda for approval. Hopefully we can resolve any issues prior to this evening and keep this project moving forward.”
Friday morning, Joyce sent an email to Hajjar, saying, in part, “I apologize for any uncomfortable time you spent at our meeting tonight. You are always welcome at our meetings and I do thank you for being willing to come to Chester to keep this project on track.
“I can recall that some of the worst flooding of the Marilyn Drive area in the history of Chester took place on Memorial Day a few years ago. I had always hoped that this project, that represents the first real hope of improvements possible in the area for over 50 years, would have been further along than it is,” Joyce wrote.
Reached Friday, Hajjar said the Marilyn Drive flooding problem has been plaguing residents for about 50 years and his department has been working with trustees to solve the problem for about a year and a half.
When asked about the previous night’s trustee meeting, Hajjar said, “I definitely do not want to have any comment. That’s a matter between the township and the trustees.”