Politics & Government

Township Budget Hearing on Mute

Despite a decent turnout, no members of the public spoke at West Deptford's budget hearing Thursday night.

It was a budget hearing that might’ve inspired Simon and Garfunkel to pen a chart-topping hit.

Dozens of members of the public attended the West Deptford committee meeting Thursday night, but zero spoke when Mayor Anna Docimo opened the public budget hearing, effectively ending the hearing after mere seconds, to the sounds of silence.

Part of that seemed to stem from a confusion on the part of residents as to what the budget hearing entailed–at least some expected a budget presentation along with the comment session, similar to what happened at several school board meetings earlier this year.

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Though past years have seen either a budget summary or brief presentation at the township committee level, that wasn’t in the offing this year. While the budget had been published in at least one newspaper prior to the meeting, and could be found through a public notices search online, it wasn’t on West Deptford’s website as of Thursday night.

Deputy Mayor Len Daws said the committee missed out on a chance to showcase some of the work and difficult choices, and that, at minimum, a summary of the budget would’ve been useful.

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“Even if it’s just five minutes,” he said.

Township resident Harry Smith, who was part of a group of people who stayed in the room to talk afterward, could only laugh after the 20-minute meeting was over.

“You can’t even hear what’s going on, you can’t even understand what’s happening…and then the meeting’s over,” he said.

Smith, who served six terms on Penns Grove’s council when he lived there, said his experience with budget hearings through the years always included a presentation and back-and-forth with the public.

“I don’t remember anything…happening like it is here,” he said. “These people, they don’t explain anything, they don’t go through anything, they don’t give their opinions on anything.”

Republican committee candidate Sam Cianfarini, who held court in the middle of the meeting room afterward, said the full budget should’ve been posted on the township website, so that residents could’ve been better prepared for the meeting.

“How can you even ask a question?” he said. “We were all expecting a discussion of the budget tonight.”

Daws added that the published, state-required version of the budget, which has a general list of revenue and expenses for the current and prior years, is “almost totally useless.”

He said that rather than the standard version mandated by the state, it would be more useful to get the line-by-line budget out to the public.

“That’s the budget people need to have access to,” Daws said.

The township will now have to get final approval from the state before adopting the budget, which should come next month.


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