The Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders contemplates spending half a million dollars for an investigation of a bollixed energy project. Exactly what will this half million dollars (almost $10.00 for every household in the county) buy?
Our GOP Freeholders, including some of those currently seated on the board and others who currently represent us in Trenton, approved the project. They oversaw (or failed to oversee) its implementation. They decried the financial shenanigans and lack of performance of the contractors and professionals they hired. They ponied up an additional 8 million taxpayer dollars to rescue the project, presumably after investigating whether that rescue was appropriate. Now they’re about to spend another half a million dollars to do what -- investigate their own investigation, or lack of it? If ever there was a case to be made for bipartisan representation on the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, we’re looking at it.
What’s going on? Each and every politician who sat or is sitting on the Freeholder Board is obliged to use his or her best efforts and judgment to wisely spend taxpayer money, our money. It’s hard to comprehend why they need to hire half a million dollars worth of legal talent to tell them again whether they did that or not.
These articles that appeared in TAP into Sparta and TAP into Newton detail how a lackadaisical one party government created a quagmire into which it continues to sink.
Last Spring, Mike Grace, former Democratic candidate for Assembly, offered this detailed two part analysis of the debacle:
And negative ramifications and blowback resulting from the Freeholders’ poor decisions continue, reaching the municipal level.
But spending another half million dollars for an investigation? To what beneficial end?