Hometown Utilicom discussed @ Nov. 27, 2001 Council Meeting ( from minutes, pages 15575 through 15578)
The Borough Council, under the influence of Former Borough Manager\Treasurer Hill and Information Technology Director Caruso, was illegally financing Hometown Utilicom in 2001. The following is all discussed under Telecommunications.
(1) Borough Council voted unanimously to pay $15,000 to Atlantic Engineering for a tower foundation before they had a contract and without a public bid.
(2) Borough Council voted unanimously to enter into an agreement with National Cable Television Cooperative to purchase video programming for Hometown Utilicom. There was no purchase price mentioned, Mr. Hill and Mr. Caruso have authority for any purchase price. Again there was no public bid.
(3) Borough Council voted unanimously to add cameras to the Borough’s Closed Circuit Television Security Monitoring for $25,000. Again there was no public bid.
(4) Borough Council voted unanimously to pay Metropolitan Edison Company $25 a pole to attach fiber optic equipment to them. No total or maximum amount was noted for the agreement.
(5) Borough Council voted unanimously to purchase equipment for the Automated Meter Reading System for $360,000. Again there was no public bid.
The above action by the Borough Council demonstrates the influence Former Borough Manager\Treasurer Hill and Head of Hometown Utilicom Caruso had over the Council. All of the Council’s decisions were based on Mr. Hill’s and Mr. Caruso’s opinions and recommendations. All of these illegal actions took place with the approval of the Borough Solicitor who was present at the Council Meeting. All Council Members were very happy about spending the Borough’s funds without more investigation or review.
Mr. Hill estimated in the minutes that the cost of the Automated Meter Reading System (AMR) will be paid for within 5 years based on the return on investment. Here we are more than 6 years later not only the system isn’t paid for it has not even been installed. And it may never be installed because many residents, including myself, will not let the Borough install the equipment because it is not mandatory and the Borough intends to charge residents $3 or $4 for each meter reading when our meter reader only costs us about fifty cents a reading. The $3 or$4 will be transferred illegally to Hometown Utilicom.
On page no. 15577 Mr. Hill states that competitive bidding is not required on the AMR System ($360,000) because the equipment has patents on several of its components. Having patents on components of equipment does not always eliminate other bidders. The Borough Code states no bid is required if a bidder has excusive or specialized service or product that no one else can provide. I don’t know why Mr. Hill mentions this because he gave out the Fiber optics contract for over $2 million and the Cable TV Dish for about $900.000 without a public bid. By law as per the Borough Code all contracts over $10,000 must be bid publicly.
The above actions by Mr. Hill, Mr. Caruso and the Borough Council clearly show that they knowingly acted illegally and knew what they were doing. Mr. Hill and Mr. Caruso convinced the Borough Council that HU would make tremendous amounts of revenue and the Council gave them everything they asked for. Seven months later in 2002 Mr. Hill realized that his idea was a failure and filed a harassment suit against the Borough and myself and resigned in October of 2002.
Please visit my website: www.marinoreport.com for news of Kutztown. Thank You.
Jerry
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