BCCT Slams Bristol Twp Board

Editorial from the BCCT this morning. They make the rhetorical statement, "Board should have sought an authoritative opinion before writing a check."

The Emperor can spend as he pleases and the opinions are as authoritative as he deems at the time. He used a contractor-admitted cursory building review to authorize building repair work that wasn't even completely necessary.

Then there's the line, "Answering questions in a public forum tends to have a purifying effect." It does, and it works in both directions. The BOARD needs to respond to the same questions and have the same accountability to the public.

Burning tax money?
Board should have sought an authoritative opinion before writing a check.

Since when does the Bristol Township school board have money to burn?

Board members voted this week to spend $90,000 for a union contractor to paint various parts of three schools — and have it done before classes begin in September. The about face decision followed last month’s vote against outsourcing the painting work after a representative for the district’s in-house maintenance workers told select board members that the guys on the payroll could get the job done.

What happened?

Apparently, board members opposed to paying a contractor were convinced that the inhouse crew of 21 covering 13 schools couldn’t get the job done before September. That maintenance workers were unable to complete last year’s summer projects list offers some reason to question the behind-the scenes assurance and, perhaps, evidence that the board made the right decision. Still, a spokesman for the maintenance workers said the in-house crew could handle it.

In the interest of accuracy and full disclosure, the board should have required the maintenance boss to sit before the full board at a regular meeting attended by citizens and say definitively if the in-house workers could get the job done or not. Answering questions in a public forum tends to have a purifying effect.

That’s the least the board should have done before voting to spend 90 grand on work the district might have been able to do at no additional cost to taxpayers.