Loose ends unreconciled in billing gap between township and borough

Borough awaits report on payment status

By: Nick Norlen
   Princeton Borough is still awaiting a report from the township on its payment status of more than $2 million in old capital ordinances, but Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said the process is intended to reconcile funding discrepancies, and could even reveal that the borough is on the paying end.
   The set of documents sent to the township in June 2005 and September 2006 included information on $2.16 million spent on joint capital projects with Princeton Township.
   Some of those expenses, which range from vehicles to infrastructure improvements, are more than a decade old — a fact that prompted Township Administrator Jim Pascale to state that "someone in the borough should be fired."
   Although Borough Councilman Roger Martindell suggested the possibility Tuesday that those comments were an "attempt to divert attention from the township," Mr. Bruschi said the situation has been blown out of proportion.
   He characterized the process as "more of a bookkeeping" and administrative task.
   Even if the township does in fact owe the borough the money, "I’m not all that concerned about it. I think they’re good for it," he said. "If vice versa is true, we’ll make sure we get payments to them."
   Although Township Chief Financial Officer Kathy Monzo said previously that the township has not billed the borough for capital projects since approximately 2002, Mr. Bruschi said the process could reveal that the borough owes the township money.
   "All things being equal, we know that we’re going to be owing them some money," he said. "The best of all worlds is it washes 100 percent what that number would be."
   Waiting to cancel one another’s debts is better than exchanging payments back and forth, he said.
   "It frees up debt capacity," he said. "It’s good practice."
   At Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Bruschi advised council that he has been in communication with the township, which he said is reviewing the documents.
   He said Monday that he doesn’t "have any expectations" of what that response will be.
   "What we’re trying to do is close the loop with some open items," he said.
   Ms. Monzo seemed to agree.
   "This is routine. It’s just that it’s a large bill. They haven’t billed us in several years. It took them a long time to put together the documents to get to us," she said. "It’s certainly to take that much time going through it."
   Mr. Bruschi said the discrepancy stemmed from the fact that many of the payments were "let go for a number of years by the borough."
   He added, "For a number of years, for some reason — and I can’t explain why, and most of this predates myself and (Assistant Administrator) Sandy Webb — the borough didn’t always bill in a timely manner down to the township," he said. "We have a much better system in place."
   As for the township’s review, Mr. Bruschi acknowledged that "it’s a huge task. We’re cognizant of that. We just want to make sure that it doesn’t slip."
   Ms. Monzo said she’s unsure of when the review will be complete.
   "I haven’t really mapped out a time frame that I’m going to be finished, but I made some good progress," she said.
   Ms. Monzo said she will be able to devote more time to the review after focusing on issues such as the annual budget and tax billing.