By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
MARGATE – There was plenty of discussion about awarding a three-year city engineering contract to Remington, Vernick and Walberg across the dais at the weekly City Commission meeting Thursday, Feb. 22.
The week before, the city commissioners voted to approve the contract, citing a city statute that calls for engineering services to be contracted for three-year terms. Apparently the city has been unknowingly awarding one-year contracts for engineers in violation of the ordinance.
“Absent an ordinance prohibiting it, the professional service contract for the engineer shall be for a period of three years,” city solicitor Mary Siracusa said at that meeting.
Mayor Vaughn Reale spoke out against the three-year pact, saying the current commission should not “handcuff” the next administration with an engineer it did not approve.
Viewing the issue from a different perspective, Commissioner John Swift countered that a three-year deal serves to lock in the engineering rates for three years.
“They (the next administration) are not under any obligation to pay Ed Walberg and can bring in another engineer if they think someone else has expertise on a certain project,” Swift said.
He noted that over the past three years, engineer Ed Walberg has secured more than $600,000 in grants for the city for various projects, including open-space acquisition and handicap-accessible curbs.
“Whatever we have paid Ed, he has gotten back in grants,” he said.
Reale said that he had no problem with the engineer or the work that he has done for the city; it was the length of the contract that concerned him. When he voted to approve the three-year contact, he did so saying that it was because the city was bound to do so by statute.
Reale recommended at last week’s meeting that the city draw up an ordinance to establish a one-year term for all professional services contracts and sought Swift’s support to direct the solicitor to draft an ordinance on the change.
However, Swift refused to lend his support to the mayor, saying he didn’t see a reason to make the change. Commissioner Sigmund Rimm was out of town and not present at the meeting.
Of the neighboring communities on Absecon Island, Ventnor had in the past appointed its municipal engineer, Dick Carter, for a three-year term. That has since changed, as now Carter is employed by the city of Ventnor and no longer gets an annual appointment. Longport has an interlocal agreement with Ventnor for engineering services, which are provided by Carter.
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