Assembly votes to end Real Property Asset Management Board

PALMER — The borough assembly voted Tuesday night to do away with the borough's Real Property Asset Management Board.

The board dealt mainly with the use and disposal of borough lands, often stepping in to offer recommendations when the borough buys or sells land or when borough land is to be used for things like timber harvesting or gravel extraction.

Deputy Mayor Ron Arvin set the ball in motion to do away with the board, touching off a flurry of controversy.

Voting with Arvin in favor of the motion to do away with the board were Assembly members Mark Ewing, Jim Colver and Noel Woods.

Arvin argued that the borough has too many boards that eat up staff time and add additional layers of bureaucracy for commerce and industry in the Valley to navigate.

On the pro-board side, board members and their supporters argued that the board's expertise is useful in facilitating the public process and that it focuses more scrutiny on proposed projects.

Members of other borough boards warn that Arvin isn’t going to stop at this board and plans to disband others.

A quick count on the borough's website shows 25 named advisory boards and commissions. Adding in community councils and boards for things like road and fire service areas, that number climbs to around 60.

Arvin said he's not planning to disband any other boards, but would like to take a hard look at consolidating some of them.

Ewin said Wednesday that he supports the idea to consolidate other boards, too.

“There's a couple of other boards that I think we should be looking at,” he said.