TINTON FALLS – An audit of Tinton Falls’ municipal finances has produced no recommendations for corrective action, the borough’s chief financial officer told members of the Borough Council on Sept. 3.
During a meeting of the governing body, Chief Financial Officer Thomas P. Fallon reported on the borough’s 2018 annual audit.
“This is an excellent audit, clean, with no comments or recommendations for corrective action,” Fallon said. “This is a testament to the borough and its employees. It is a glowing audit report on the borough’s financial statements.”
During the meeting, the council members passed a resolution certifying to the New Jersey Local Finance Board that they had each reviewed, as a minimum, the sections of the annual audit entitled “Comments and Recommendations.”
Council President Gary Baldwin explained that in regard to the auditor’s findings, “this is a tremendous job by all who participate in getting us a clean audit. I have been in the business world and we pray for an audit like this.”
In other business, during public comment, Ellen Goldberg, who is a member of the Tinton Falls Environmental Commission and a 30-year resident of the borough, addressed the council on the issue of single-use plastic products and noted that some municipalities are banning the use of such products.
“I would like to encourage our town to get in line” with what other towns are doing, Goldberg said. “This is something we should be doing. We see the issues we have in town with the landfill (Monmouth County Reclamation Center). The idea is to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle.’ ”
Goldberg pointed out that the Red Bank Borough Council recently enacted a ban on single-use plastic products in that community.
Councilwoman Nancyanne Fama said Red Bank officials agreed to wait a year before having the borough’s new ordinance take effect. She said restrictions on single-use plastic products can have financial implications for the operators of small businesses.
“It is expected there is going to be a state law, possibly by the end of the year,” regarding a prohibition on the use of single-use plastic products, she said.
Instead of having each municipality enact its own regulations relating to single-use plastic products, “We are hopeful there will be a statewide ban and I ask that we wait for that before taking action on our own,” Fama said.
The council took no action that evening on Goldberg’s request.