By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Princeton Township Committee has approved $993,000 in payments to Princeton Borough, which the borough had billed it for joint municipal services in 2006 and 2007.
Township Committee approved the payment at its meeting Monday evening. At Princeton Borough Council’s meeting Tuesday evening, Councilman Roger Martindell acknowledged the payment as a positive development but questioned when the borough would receive the remaining $3.1 million it says it is owed by the township.
For certain joint municipal services, most notably those overseen by the joint Sewer Operating Authority, the borough funds projects, then bills the township for its share of the cost. The time it has taken the township to settle the joint accounts has been a touchy subject for Mr. Martindell and other council members.
”My concern is, we’ve never really had a dialogue with the township except at a staff level,” Mr. Martindell said. His interest, he said, is in “who is going to tackle the issue, what they are going to tackle, and when they are going to tackle it.”
Having to raise the issue of the township not paying the borough what it is owed “every week, for months on end, is tiresome,” Mr. Martindell said.
Princeton Township Mayor Bernie Miller and Deputy Mayor Chad Goerner — who were seated in the audience following participation in a joint meeting of Township Committee and Borough Council earlier in the evening — addressed the issue.
”First of all I’d like to say that both staffs have been working very hard on this issue. It has not been on the back burner,” Mayor Miller said. “We’ve made progress. The check today was evidence of that progress. We will make further progress,” he said.
”The implication that staffs on both sides are not working hard on this is incorrect,” Mayor Miller said. “We’ll continue to work,” he said.
A large portion of the bills pertains to refurbishment and repair of sewers and the township needs a better understanding of the Sewer Operating Trust and SOC operations before it is comfortable, Mayor Miller said. To that end, the township has hired an auditor to look over the trust and SOC, he said. “Things like that don’t happen overnight. They take time,” he said.
The township’s intent is to determine its true obligation, Mayor Miller said, noting that in some cases there appears to be an over-expenditure on the part of the SOC. “In other words, we are being billed for an over-expenditure on the part of the borough,” he said.
”There are other bills that we believe are improper charges,” he added.
Asked by Mr. Martindell when the audit would be completed, Mayor Miller said, “I can’t say.” He said the auditor has requested additional information from the SOC and SOC manager Bob Hough had not supplied all of it yet.
If the requests aren’t for too much information and too time-consuming to provide, “I’m sure Bob will cooperate and provide it,” said Borough Councilman David Goldfarb.
Deputy Mayor Goerner said the township is developing a spreadsheet that will detail every bill and enable both municipalities to work through the issue and resolve the outstanding bills.
Asked by borough Mayor Mildred Trotman when the borough could obtain a copy of the spreadsheet, Deputy Mayor Goerner said: “We went over a draft at Township Committee meeting last night and I would expect you to have a copy in your hands within the next week.”
In an interview Wednesday, Mayor Miller said under state law the township needed to have certain documentation before it could pay bills.
”Within a week or two we will be in a position where we can sit down with the borough and go over the remaining items with them and reconcile them,” he said.

