Councilwoman-At-Large Charlene Storey has accepted the appointment of Roselle Park’s Commissioner for The Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority (RVSA) for five years. The only issue is that she will only be able to attend 8 out of the RVSA’s 20 meetings and only one of their regular meetings scheduled this year. Each commissioner is paid $30 a meeting for a maximum of $600 and the councilwoman will not be an effective member since she will be absent for 60% of their total meetings and 90% of the RVSA regular meetings in 2016. Either that or she will be absent for part or all of 50% of Mayor & Council meetings in 2016 because the RVSA holds their regular meetings on the same night and time as the second monthly Mayor & Council Meeting. Their meetings are held in Rahway – a 20 minute drive not counting traffic or parking – from the Roselle Park Municipal Complex.
The RVSA is an autonomous agency that owns and operates a trunk sewer system and a wastewater treatment facility in Rahway. It is governed by a Board of Commissioners composed of one representative from each member municipality, which includes Roselle Park. Commissioners are expected to attend their Engineering Committee Meetings, Finance Committee Meetings, and general Regular Meetings. Financial Committee and Regular meetings are held the same evenings. Even though both committee meetings are important, no action is taken at either of them. The RVSA Regular Meetings are when commissioners decide and vote on things such as budgets, the payment of bills, and the hiring of contractors and professionals.
Councilwoman Storey, as a commissioner, will be responsible in deciding how the RVSA uses the fees that Roselle Park and the other municipalities pay to it. Last year, in 2015, Roselle Park taxpayers paid $550,226 to the authority.
The sewerage authority is a half decade appointment which was last held by resident Attilio ‘Sonny’ Venturo for at least a decade. He was last re-appointed in 2011 under resolution 46-11. This year, Councilwoman Storey first was appointed at the Municipal Reorganization Meeting on January 7, 2016. She was appointed again two weeks later with Resolution 40-16. Her appointment ends in February of 2021 which covers the duration of her current term as Council-At-Large and will have her being paid up to $3,000.
By way of comparison, the five-year attendance record of Sonny Venturo was reviewed against one using the meeting schedule of a councilmember for the same years if one was appointed. The first table below includes all meetings that were held for each year.
| Year | Meetings | Attendance Rate | Attendance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | |||
| 2012 | |||
| 2013 | |||
| 2014 | |||
| 2015 |
As can be seen above, a councilmember would never be able to attend – at most – more than half of the meetings that were held. Over the half decade span, a member of the governing body would have missed an average 3 out of every 5 meetings.
The second table, listed below, provides a comparison of the important general meetings – where votes were cast and action was taken – for Mr. Venturo and a proposed member of Roselle Park’s council. In such an analogy, a council representative would have averaged an absentee record of 80%.
| Year | Meetings | Attendance Rate | Attendance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | |||
| 2012 | |||
| 2013 | |||
| 2014 | |||
| 2015 |
Calls left for Councilwoman Storey to allow her to comment on this article were not returned.
A listing of meeting dates is available below. Bold red meeting dates signify a conflict with a municipal regular meeting or a municipal budget workshop.
| DATE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| February 11, 2016 | |||
| February 18, 2016 | |||
| March 10, 2016 | |||
| March 17, 2016 | |||
| April 14, 2016 | |||
| April 21, 2016 | |||
| May 12, 2016 | |||
| May 19, 2016 | |||
| June 9, 2016 | |||
| June 16, 2016 | |||
| July 21, 2016 | |||
| August 18, 2016 | |||
| September 8, 2016 | |||
| September 15, 2016 | |||
| October 13, 2016 | |||
| October 20, 2016 | |||
| November 3, 2016 | |||
| November 10, 2016 | |||
| December 8, 2016 | |||
| December 15, 2016 | |||
| January 12, 2017 | |||
| January 19, 2017 | |||
| February 9, 2017 | |||
| February 16, 2017 |