WEST WINDSOR: Councilman sues mayor over budget process

By John Saccenti, Staff Writer
   WEST WINDSOR — Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh is facing a lawsuit filed against him by Township Councilman Charles Morgan.
   The suit, filed in Superior Court of New Jersey on Jan. 16, says the mayor has not complied with his Oct. 27, 2009 request for a report listing “the zero-based and other budget alternatives” that will accompany the budget the mayor plans to submit to the council for 2010.
   ”I would much rather work with the man,” Mr. Morgan said of the mayor. “If he’s going to refuse to follow demands, then he should say it.”
   Mayor Hsueh called the lawsuit unwarranted and said the council will receive all the data it needs to consider scenarios for a zero-increase in taxes and the impact on the budget and the public. The mayor also said the state has extended the deadline to submit municipal spending plans from Jan. 15 to March 19.
   Council President George Borek said he would have liked to see budget numbers earlier than March so that the council could get a head start on the budget process.
   ”We understand the severity of finances in the state of New Jersey this past year and a half, -people are losing their jobs, but we just wanted to get an early grasp on it so our backs aren’t up against the wall,” he said.
   Mr. Borek said he and other council members weren’t notified that Mr. Morgan would be filing the lawsuit.
   ”Anyone has the right to do anything they want, but it has to be truthful. If its factual and if something was done illegally, certainly people need to be held accountable. Charlie’s doing this outside the council,” he said.
   Mr. Morgan said the mayor was to blame for necessitating the lawsuit.
   ”This is a lawsuit establishing a law that you can’t ignore councilmen when a request for a report comes in,” he said. “We should be able to know ahead of time what the administration would cut if the township were to go to zero percent (increase). It’s our prerogative and our responsibility to approve the budget and if we say we want to see the option, we should.”
   Mayor Hsueh said the lawsuit will only generate unnecessary legal costs for the township.
   ”The reality here is the township will have to hire a lawyer for me and that will cost taxpayers money. He can drop the suit,” said Mayor Hsueh. “State statutes allow him to complain through (the Department of Community Affairs) and that will not cost too much money. Instead, he went to Superior Court.”
   The mayor told the Township Council on Monday that it is his understanding that the mayor and administration can only submit one budget, but that when he does, he will provide a list of items that will be cut so that the council can review them item by item.
   Items such as garbage pickup, which cost $2.5 million, can cost taxpayers 3 or 4 cents on the tax rate, but if it is cut and homeowners are forced to seek private alternatives, it could cost much more per household.
   ”They can either take the whole thing apart and edit and modify the whole thing,” the mayor said referring to the budget. “That’s the procedure with municipal budgeting. We’re itemizing so they can cut it to zero increase or have a (decrease).”
   Councilman Kamal Khanna said he wasn’t notified that Mr. Morgan would be filing the lawsuit and dismissed the action, saying it would cost the township to defend the mayor.
   ”This whole thing is so insane and a waste of council’s time and taxpayer money. It doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.
   ”I don’t know what got into him, I don’t know why he did it. I didn’t have a clue. He sprung this on the mayor it takes a lot of money and cost a lot money.”
   Mr. Khanna said he wants the administration to come up with one budget and realizes that even that will be difficult until information such as state aid is announced.
   ”I said very specifically and emphatically that I would like to have a budget, and also said I don’t want an incomplete budget because they’re missing a lot of information from the state,” he said.
   This is not the first complaint against the township by Mr. Morgan. In May, Mr. Morgan requested that the Mercer County prosecutor’s office look into whether or not Mayor Hsueh and Councilwoman Linda Geevers used township resources to assist in running their campaigns for re-election by having professionals analyze a budget proposal of Mr. Morgan’s. Mr. Morgan was vying against Mayor Hsueh for the mayor’s seat.
   In October, the prosecutor’s office said Mayor Hsueh and Ms. Geevers played no role in getting Mr. Morgan’s plan analyzed.
   In response, Mr. Morgan said the investigation was not thorough and blamed the outcome on politics. He also said he would ask the prosecutor’s office to reopen the case because “the fact of the matter is they just ignored key facts. If they decline, then I will be filing a private complaint.”
   Mr. Morgan said, “This is about a mayor who is oblivious to the need to keep expenses down and manage this government, rather than let it be a governmental bureaucratic inertia machine,” said Mr. Morgan.
   He pointed to hiring Robert Hary as township administrator in 2009 as an example. He said Mr. Hary received an increase above what the previous administrator was receiving without the township soliciting outside candidates.
   ”I asked, why are we giving Mr. Hary an increase and how many resumes did we get from around the territory to see what the market was for good people,” Mr. Morgan said.
   Mr. Hary, a township employee for more than 20 years, was Mayor Hsueh’s choice to replace Christopher Marion, who resigned his post in 2009 after five years as business administrator. During his time there, Mr. Hary served as director of Human Services, a responsibility he still has. He receives $135,000, more than the approximately $118,000 the previous administrator received.
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