This was found in my mailbox, and it shows that there are A LOT of individuals in this town, who want HONEST answers concerning the township's budget.
OH MY GOD…watching the Council meeting Monday night on T.V. I could not believe what the Mayor said in response to the question; "when did you learn that you needed to take money away from the volunteer firefighters to pay for the SAFER grant firefighters?" His response; "2010"! They applied for the grant in 2008, received the grant award in September 2009 and held the grant for over a year. In October, 2010 they hired the paid firefighters. AFTER they hired the paid firefighters, the Mayor and Director of Public Safety called our Chiefs and Presidents to a meeting at the township building. They WOULD NOT tell these officers what the meeting was about before they arrived! Once there, they announced that they would be taking $24,500.00 from each fire company to pay for the paid firefighters! Simple math tells us $24,500.00 times 6 equals $147,000.00. Four paid firefighters at $44,500.00 each plus benefits equals $178,000.00. This is a minimum of a $40,000.00 shortage just for the paid firefighters. This does not include apparatus, insurance, equipment, fuel, etc. When asked…NO ANSWERS. We now believe there was no plan, no foresight and idea what to do with the paid firefighters when we hired them.
Now we learn there is ANOTHER budget deficit looming. When the Mayor was asked, his response was will tell you when we think you need to know. Well, we think we need to know now!!
They closed a sister fire company without telling them why or us why! The Director of Public Safety said the fire company was a danger to the public and the fire service! If that is true, don't you think it would be prudent to tell the fire companies what kind of dangerous actions they were accused of? Wouldn't it be important for us to know?
We have learned from members of the Union Fire Company that many of their members are afraid to come around the fire station due to harassment from the office of the Director of Public Safety. Members of that fire company were harassed at their place of employment, threatened with arrest and had unfounded criminal complaints filed against them from within the Department of Public Safety!
We are now waking up and realizing our companies can be next! Why? Because they want to take our Relief Association money and pool it. This would benefit the township and the one fire company that has a history of mismanaging their money! When is enough, enough? The township's failure to properly manage the SAFER Grant program is not our problem. Maybe they should ask the fire companies that have properly managed their funds how we are doing it instead of attacking us for properly managing the money we are entrusted with!
Maybe we should start looking into the township funds and find out how many times we have operated in a deficit and why. The more questions that have been asked of the township government, the fewer answers are given!
Apparently the ONLY difference between Washington DC, and Bensalem township, is the LOCATION!!
This is definitely further evidence of Harran's dictator like and Despotic attitude, which needs to be stopped. Its time that Fred Harran, Pat Ponticelli, and Joey D be held accountable for their actions, and the best start, is FIRE Harran and Ponticelli!!
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