February 6, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 Area Gabbert: NBCUA stipend acceptance is legal by John Koster Ridgewood Village Manager Ken Gabbert said in an exclusive interview on Jan. 31 that his decision to accept a stipend from the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority was entirely legal based on the decision of a judge. Gabbert’s decision to accept a $5,000 stipend as a commissioner came into question last week when the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders overturned by a 6-1 vote Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan’s attempt to veto the Jan. 8 NBCUA minutes. Donovan’s veto was the latest in a series of moves she has made since taking office in 2011 in an effort to stop the commissioners from accepting stipends and health benefits. In April, 2012, she sent seven NBCUA commissioners dismissal letters. In June, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Alexander Carver III ruled the dismissed commissioners could retain their jobs, compensation, and benefits, finding that Donovan had acted beyond the scope of her authority when she attempted to fire the commissioners for refusing to stop accepting their medical benefits and $5,000 stipends. Judge Carver also overturned Donovan’s vetoes of the authority’s minutes. Donovan’s appeal of Judge Carver’s decision is pending. Before Judge Carver rendered his decision, the Bergen County Board of Freeholders voted unanimously to halt pay and benefits to future NBCUA commissioners, thereby rescinding a 1979 ordinance. However, freeholders contended -- and Gabbert separately agreed -- that stipends cannot be eliminated in the middle of an appointed term, as Gabbert’s stipend would have been had he accepted the attempt to relieve him of the stipend he accepted when he took the appointment. “Judge Carver, as I recall, allowed the utilities authority payment of the stipend to commissioners appointed prior to a specific date in 2012,” Gabbert explained last week. “I was appointed prior to that date and was so advised by the utilities authority counsel, and I elected to receive the allowed and approved stipend. For appointments after that date, Judge Carver agreed, again as I recall, that formal action of the county freeholders had removed the stipend to future appointees.” Gabbert, a former mayor of Upper Saddle River, said he understood the need for cost cutting at the county level, but that his legal right to the stipend -- actually about $4,200 rather than the reported $5,000, he said, and with no health benefits -- had been established by a judge’s decision. “I support the county executive’s task to reduce expenses and believe there is common ground for the executive and the utilities authority to resolve the budgetary issues by discussion and within the rules of the court,” Gabbert added. Last year, the county counsel’s office filed a lawsuit to recover the compensation paid to the seven commissioners since November 2011. The commissioners were charged with accepting the stipends and health benefits despite Donovan’s vetoes, which were upheld by the New Jersey Division of Local Government Services. The NBCUA’s suit in front of Judge Carver challenged Donovan’s vetoes and her right to fire the utilities authority’s Borough introduces sewer system ordinance by Frank J. McMahon commissioners. Republican Freeholder Maura DeNicola of Franklin Lakes cast the only vote in support of Donovan’s veto last week. Republicans John Mitchell and John Felice joined Democrats David Ganz, Joan Voss, Steve Tanelli, and Tracy Silna Zur in opposing the veto. The Franklin Lakes Council has introduced an ordinance that establishes the regulations and service charges that will apply to the use of the municipal sewer system the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority is now installing in the business district. The borough entered into an agreement with the NBCUA in 2006 to consider sewers in the business district. Based on a feasibility study in 2005 and in 2008 the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection approved the plan for that system. A new agreement with the NBCUA is being negotiated. Borough Attorney William Smith has indicated in a letter to the NBCUA that he hopes the authority will proceed with the agreement now that the ordinance has been introduced. The sewer system is being installed along Franklin Avenue and along Susquehanna Avenue extending to the Mountain Shadow condominium complex, and in the Commerce Street commercial area. The project also includes the construction of a pump station at the Franklin Crossing Shopping Center to pump the sewage flow along Pulis Avenue to the Chapel Road connection to the existing interceptor in Mahwah. The NBCUA has agreed to extend the sewer line along Pulis Avenue to provide for the future connection of the municipal building complex to the sewer system. The rules and regulations in the ordinance pertain to all aspects of the use of the borough’s sewer service, including the charges property owners will have to pay to use that system. The ordinance establishes a sewer service charge for the use, operation, and maintenance of the borough’s sewer system. That charge will be levied on the owners of properties that connect to the sewer system, which is not mandatory. Single family residential dwelling units will pay $462 per year. Two family residential dwelling units will pay $519 plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons for flow in excess of 156,000 gallons; three to five family residential units will pay $250 each per unit plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons for flow in excess of 208,000 gallons. Commercial users will pay $462 plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons for flow in excess of 104,000 gallons; commercial users with one separate detached residential unit will pay $854 plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons for flow in excess of 145,600 gallons; users with one residential unit within the same structure will pay $619 plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons for flow in excess of 145,600 gallons; and users with two to five residential dwelling units will pay $462 per residential unit plus $2.70 per 1,000 gallons for flow in excess of 104,000 gallons plus 41,600 gallons per residential dwelling unit. These charges will cover all the expenses related to the sewer service including the (continued on page 5)