Council Votes Against Paying Engineering Firm's Bill

The Township Council has voted against paying a $30,000 bill for from French and Parello, one of the engineering firms that was hired for a program to assess the impact of Superstorm Sandy on local residents.

Council people John Ducey, Jim Fozman, Susan Lydecker and Bob Moore voted against paying the bill at Monday's regular Council meeting, which was held a few days after Ducey sent out a press release to Patch and other local media that took aim at the program.

Ducey reiterated those concerns at the meeting Monday night, calling the program "horrible." 

Ducey said at the last Council meeting held earlier in July, that he had a problem writing a "$7 million blank check," and noted some of the $15 million that has already been spent has gone to engineering firms that, in his terms, "walked around, leaving hangers on doors."  He was referring to three engineering firms that canvassed Brick homes to see about repair or demolition statuses earlier this year.

Mayor Stephen Acropolis took aim at Ducey's comments, saying "I find it interesting that Mr. Ducey, who has absolutely no experience with hurricanes, would contradict our consultant who has been in the disaster business for 25 years."

Acropolis further noted that the three engineering firms have taken 39,000 pictures on the homes, which will prove "invaluable" to the township in terms of FEMA reimbursement.

Ducey maintains the photos and other work could have been done by workers who could have been paid less, including college students, and at the meeting, Fozman echoed those thoughts.

"This is what the engineers were going around with," Fozman said, holding up one piece of paper. "They could have sent that out to all those homeowners, and then could have sent a college student out [to do any follow up]."

If the bill is not paid by August 6, the company can attach interest to the bill, Acropolis said.

The Mayor said he will ask the firm to come and provide more information to the Council about what the return on investment might be for this program, and he told Patch that he expects the Council will vote in favor of paying the bill at the next regular meeting.