HAMMONTON BLOG

Date: 09:16 AM Mar 31, 2010

HF's Chickens are coming home to roost!!!!

Date: 10:08 AM Mar 31, 2010

Anonymous wrote:

Well, Steve DiDonato mentioned in this week's Hammonton News that the pension is under-funded by 300K

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20100331/HAMMONTON01/3310307/Municipal+employees+await+word+on+layoffs

That could mean only one thing...his brother John deferred pension payments so that we could pay for all his pet projects. So because of HF's free-spending ways we are now going to lose cops.

I wonder if the Canoe Club will be worth it when crime increases in Hammonton.

The Canoe Club can easily be made into a holding cell or mini police station.

Date: 01:02 PM Mar 31, 2010

Anonymous wrote:

Well, Steve DiDonato mentioned in this week's Hammonton News that the pension is under-funded by 300K

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20100331/HAMMONTON01/3310307/Municipal+employees+await+word+on+layoffs

That could mean only one thing...his brother John deferred pension payments so that we could pay for all his pet projects. So because of HF's free-spending ways we are now going to lose cops.

I wonder if the Canoe Club will be worth it when crime increases in Hammonton.

If you read everything carefully, you would know that both the town and the school paid all their pension payments as requested. However, the State of New Jersey is billions of dollars behind. So everyone gets to pay more.

You might want to be more informed before you start bashing.

Date: 03:02 PM Mar 31, 2010

There is no doubt the Town paid pension this obligations this year...the doubt is if they paid them in previous years. Now, we have to pay this year and previous years. But hey, the Canoe Club was expensive!!!!!

We can only go by what we read in the papers since there is no open budget workshops, the audits and this year's budget is not online and we only learn information right before we vote on it.

For "Open and Honest" Steve, it seems like the other towns were way ahead of him in discussing the budget.

Date: 02:01 PM Apr 1, 2010

Actually, if you read the papers you would know that Hammonton has made the full amount of pension contribution requested by the State each year.

However, if you were actually informed you would know the State has an underfunded pension plan.

Date: 02:39 PM Apr 1, 2010

What papers...the Hammonton First Gazette???

Well, announce it at the meeting tonight since you have the inside scoop. Leads me to believe that you should actually be prepping for the meeting.

Also, explain why we were supposed to be in so so much better shape than other towns with our "surplus" and yet we are a million short. Explain why we hired a 60K lobbyist but are laying off cops. Explain why we hired a consultant for the small cities program. Explain what happened with the Little Italy money. Explain why the solicitor did not take a rate cut. Explain the we never got grants for the Canoe Club. Show us the Memorandum on Stockton. Tell the people that the Downtown Advocate was listed as the point of contact with the funding requests sent to the Senator's offices. Explain to us why we are having trouble at Boyer Ave fields. Tell us how we took the NJ Gas money from the water and sewere loaned it to the school and then when we got it back, put it in the general fund and spent it. Now, our revenue is down. Tell us why Members of Council did not pay their taxes yet donated to their own campaign. Tell us what happened with the dirt at the airport.

Answer these things in the Council chamber tonight. You seem to be on the inside.

Date: 04:59 PM Apr 2, 2010

Anonymous wrote:

What papers...the Hammonton First Gazette???

Well, announce it at the meeting tonight since you have the inside scoop. Leads me to believe that you should actually be prepping for the meeting.

Also, explain why we were supposed to be in so so much better shape than other towns with our "surplus" and yet we are a million short. Explain why we hired a 60K lobbyist but are laying off cops. Explain why we hired a consultant for the small cities program. Explain what happened with the Little Italy money. Explain why the solicitor did not take a rate cut. Explain the we never got grants for the Canoe Club. Show us the Memorandum on Stockton. Tell the people that the Downtown Advocate was listed as the point of contact with the funding requests sent to the Senator's offices. Explain to us why we are having trouble at Boyer Ave fields. Tell us how we took the NJ Gas money from the water and sewere loaned it to the school and then when we got it back, put it in the general fund and spent it. Now, our revenue is down. Tell us why Members of Council did not pay their taxes yet donated to their own campaign. Tell us what happened with the dirt at the airport.

Answer these things in the Council chamber tonight. You seem to be on the inside.

I think the answer is that is you believed them. All this talk of us being "better" than other towns and no one ever asked for specifics? It seems like whenever people here are told whatever we have here is "better" than what others have, we take that at face value but never ask for proof. Now you see our town and our schools with all the layoffs are just the same as all the other schools and towns going thru the same thing. Next time you go bragging about being "better" think twice.