Camp Sussex, unspun

BY SALLY RINKER
The saga of attempts by Vernon's mayor to purchase Camp Sussexhas evolved once again. Shortly after taking office in 2011, Mayor Vic Marotta set his sights on the three trust funds that held the most money; the fire official department, the recreation department, and the open space trust funds, the use of which are strictly guided by state law. According to the guidelines of the state laws, much of the money was used in contradiction to law.

The Open Space trust fund totals approximately $1,000,000. Only several months after taking office, the mayor set his sights on using this fund for a purchase of Camp Sussex; an ill-conceived, nonsensical, unpopular idea. The members of Vernon’s Environmental Commission, at that time, would not give a blind faith affirmative recommendation and the public expressed doubt and dissatisfaction with an idea that did not make sense and had no plan. This is well documented in the public sessions of the council meetings in 2012. The mayor dropped the idea at that time due to the political heat, as it did not bode well at the same time of his enormous salary increase request.

In 2014, the subject was resurrected by the mayor and his newly appointed Environmental Commission chairperson. He said it was her idea. She said it was his idea. Then there was the notion that because we were getting free trees from the state, we needed to buy Camp Sussex for a place to plant them. Then there were stock photos of hypodermic needles from the Internet that the mayor used to convince Vernonites we needed to clean up the property — a property that belonged to someone else. The $1.95 million dollars in fines due to Vernon still exists on the property. The mayor stated at council meetings that the purchase price was about half of the Open Space fund. Further, in a letter dated May 5, 2014, sent to N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, the mayor requested grant money to assist in the purchase stating he had negotiated a purchase price of $510,000. In June 2014, he also told the Land Conservancy, an agency hired by Vernon to assist with our Open Space purchases, that he had negotiated a purchase price of $510,000 and upon that information, the Conservancy pledged $161,000 toward the purchase.

Due to the lack of information, erroneous information, and concern that the Open Space trust fund money would be wasted on a project that was not open space, the Vernon Taxpayers’ Association circulated a petition so the public would have a chance to decide on how their tax dollars are spent. The town clerk validated the petition. The mayor brought the matter to court to overturn the petition and the judge ruled that the petition could not be validated because there was no time limit in the petition. Our form of government does dictate that when an initiative petition is validated, the question goes to the election ballot, and the vote of the people binds that decision for three years. I maintain that our form of government covered the judge’s concern. Nevertheless, by this time, the petition process had been successful insofar as it educated the public on the Camp Sussex issue. The mayor knew, once again by public comments, there was far too much political heat to push this issue forward in his re-election campaign year. He had hoped the purchase would have been accomplished long before his re-election bid.

The mayor had to find a reason to drop this issue like a hot potato. Without conscience for truth to Vernon taxpayers — he now claims that the owners of Camp Sussex wanted $900,000 for the property and so the numbers were too far apart to proceed. What? Wait a minute. My question is — is this amount of money, which is now being heard for the first time from the mayor, his typical disregard for the truth, or was he trying to defraud the state government of grant money in his letter of May 5, 2014, and The Land Conservancy in June of 2014? For now, the trust fund is safe. Is there anyone who would bet against my belief, that if the mayor is re-elected in November, this issue would resurface once again?

Editor's Note: Sally Rinker is president of the Vernon Township Taxpayers Association and a former township mayor.