Assembly takes heat for vote to disband RPAM board

PALMER – In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the borough assembly chose to disband the board tasked with advising them on potential uses for borough land.

Deputy Borough Mayor Ron Arvin, who initially proposed the idea to disband the Real Property Asset Management Board, said he was surprised at how much heat the issue generated.

“I’ve been accused of things that you can’t even imagine. I’ve got some sweetheart e-mails that I’m going to save for a long time. Whenever I’m feeling too proud of myself I’ll just read them,” he said.

Arvin had voiced a number of concerns about the board, saying that people with proposals that involve borough land have to come to the board but then also to the planning commission and to the assembly. Arvin argued that the RPAMB was an additional and unnecessary level of bureaucracy. Tuesday he brought up a new issue having to do with current state of the 11-member board.

“What may not widely be known is that there are six vacancies and they are vacancies that don’t have any names to move forward,” Arvin said.

He said that when was selected deputy mayor and almost immediately took over as acting mayor, one of his jobs became to nominate people for positions on boards and commissions. And the state of applications to serve on the RPAMB stood out. He noted that if the board was fully constituted and only five members showed up for a meeting, that wouldn’t be a quorum and the meeting would have to be canceled.

On the other side of the issue, RPAMB supporters said that the board adds more debate to the public process and provides expertise that is in short supply on the assembly and even in borough administration. Board chair Bishop Buckle said the board doesn’t even take any official actions.

“The only power that the board has is the power of suggestion. Our resolutions only suggest to the decision-makers an appropriate action to take on the issue at hand,” Buckle said. “Before the asset board is abolished I would hope that you seek factual data on the efforts of the board.”

Jamey Duhamel of Palmer also recommended against disbanding the board. She said that to say the process would be more efficient without the RPAMB didn’t make any sense. Subcommittees are generally set up to streamline the process, to vet and strengthen plans so the assembly doesn’t waste time rewriting poorly constructed legislation.

“You can show that you care about the interests of all of your citizens by not passing this ordinance today.

Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine moved to postpone the ordinance indefinitely, saying that the work RPAMB does is of assistance to the Community Development department. That department currently has a temporary employee in charge after the assembly voted during budget season to do away with the director’s position and hand those duties to the assistant borough manager. The assistant borough manager, in turn, is currently filling in as borough manager. Meanwhile, the head of Parks and Recreation has left and the temporary head of Community Development has taken over duties there as well.

“I would not be opposed, in fact I think it’s something we should do, to look at all of the boards and commissions. But to strap this department further is just not right,” Bettine said.

That idea of taking a hard look at the many boards and commissions — the borough has 25 of them — and looking for places to trim the fat found a lot of favor around the assembly table. In fact, as Assemblyman Jim Colver pointed out, that was a priority the assembly identified in January when it met to set goals.

Arvin has said previously that, as far as he’s concerned, he’s not looking to eliminate any other boards but would like to take a look at maybe consolidating them.

Bettine eventually voted against the ordinance along with Vern Halter and Warren Keogh. Halter said he objected mostly to the process.

“At budget time last year I thought we should review the boards and commissions,” Halter said. “I think that would have been a better way to present it than to single out one board. I just find that distasteful.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at Andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.