Manalapan Election: Commission Seat 1 | Commission Seat 5
By Steve Plunkett
Feeling pinched by Robert’s Rules of Order and Florida’s Sunshine Law, town commissioners will hold what they hope is a less structured strategy session this month.
They might even sit around the table in front of their dais to get their brains storming.
“I hate the Sunshine Law. It works great for certain circumstances, but it ties the hands of public office-holders,’’ Mayor-elect Basil Diamond said after commissioners wrestled with paying $88,187 for new filter valves at the water plant and $35,840 to replace a leaking underground fuel tank at Town Hall.
“We seem to be always forced into some expenditure,’’ Mayor Pro Tem Robert Evans said during discussion of the fuel tank. ‘’I think the bigger question … is what do we do about this enormous overhead that we have for very few residents?”
“I think ultimately we have to look at the Police Department and say, ‘We’re spending a lot of money here. Do we need to?’ And figure out some way to reduce our per-capita overhead,’’ Evans said.
Commissioner Donald Brennan urged waiting 30 days before deciding whether to replace the tank.
“We have options here,’’ Brennan said. “And what is troubling me is that we don’t pursue the options in the interest of efficiency. We’re turning a bunch of discretionary decisions into mandatory ones — got to do it or Rome is burning down.’’
Such actions have a cumulative effect, Brennan said. “They incrementally add up to a huge number on top of a huge number,’’ he said.
Later, Brennan reported on his fact-finding mission into the status of Plaza Del Mar and said he was comfortable with its management company’s plans.
“These fellows clearly would like to make this thing work,’’ he said.
Brennan said the plaza is part of a real estate package with 11 other malls that is owned by an out-of-state pension fund. Its customer traffic is around 2,500, though; a fast-food restaurant requires 3,000, he said.
“The bridge thing is going to aggravate it, but not that much because they don’t really get much cross-bridge traffic,’’ Brennan said.
He said stories of potential tenants being turned away are not true, but that the management firm will not give information to callers who refuse to identify themselves. He also said the plaza cannot be foreclosed on because it is bundled with the other malls.
“What they’re looking at right now is to try to attract a food-type store that is willing to take the gamble on this subscale traffic,’’ Brennan said. “The other thing that makes sense if they can pull that off is a drive-through bank-type configuration.
“But as a high-end, retail, storefront plaza, it’s a tough haul,’’ he said.
At the March 23 strategy session, commissioners will not follow strict rules of procedure, which constrained their November workshop on the water plant, Evans said.
“We will just chat. We will just talk,’’ Evans said “We’ll have an agenda, of course, but we won’t have microphones, and we won’t have this formal setting.”
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