February 6, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • 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 dis- cussion 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 authority’s 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. Mahwah Council joins concern about use of Bear Swamp Road by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Council has joined the concerns expressed by several residents about the potential use of Bear Swamp Road as a route for cranes, heavy equipment, pipes, and even explosives during the construction of a pump station and a parallel gas pipeline in the Ramapo Mountains. The pipeline is part of a $400 million gas line expansion program in northwestern New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The council voiced its concern when Peggy Bost, a resident of Deerhaven Road, which is accessed from Bear Swamp Road and Ramapo Valley Road (Route 202), expressed her concern that the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company plans to use Bear Swamp Road as a route for construction access to the company’s 7.6-mile gas pipeline expansion in New Jersey. This line is part of a larger pipeline expansion program by TGP, known as the Northeast Upgrade. That upgrade is intended to increase the amount of natural gas that is extracted in Pennsylvania through fracking, a hydraulic fracturing process that uses water and chemicals to break up the bedrock in order to release the gas. Bost claims that TGP’s original traffic safety plan was to use Bear Swamp Road only for trucks to transport employees, but now Bergen County has provided her with (continued on page 10)