West Wildwood Deserves Better

To the Editor:
The Herald reported May 20, “West Wildwood Budget Has 7.4-cent Tax Rate Hike.” The article stated, “Reasons as explained by (Mayor) Fox and (Commissioner) Golden, for this increase range from lawsuit settlements, regular increases, debts and even pending results from the school board.”
“The law suits are from the past administration,” Golden clarified. “Not us.”
Golden has intentionally misled the public with his quote above. The lawsuit Golden is referring to was filed against him as commissioner along with the Borough of West Wildwood May 30, 2012. That is after the past administration was out of office.
The suit was for harassment and contract violations and was filed against Commissioner Scott Golden in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey entitled “Plaintiff v. Borough of West Wildwood,” Scott Golden and John Does as defendants.
No members of the prior administration, other than Golden, were or ever have been listed or involved in the aforementioned litigation that Commissioner Golden so boldly stated was from the prior administration. Commissioner Scott Golden’s quote was and is a blatant untruth!
Further, a West Wildwood resolution “authorizing settlement of pending litigation” was approved at a borough workshop meeting April 27. Yes, a workshop meeting that the public rarely attends, to keep the lawsuit settlement hidden from general public’s knowledge.
Such a resolution should have be presented and approved at a regular commissioners’ meeting where the public could have questioned the action.
The settlement cost to West Wildwood taxpayers:
$100,576 settlement agreement against Golden and borough + $67,434 insurance deductible attorney costs
$168,010 Total cost of lawsuit caused by Commissioner Scott Golden
That is being passed on to borough taxpayers. The property tax hike caused by Commissioner Golden’s law suit caused the 2015 tax hike of 6.5-cents of the 7.4-cent total tax increase for taxpayers’ in West Wildwood.
An average $100,000 assessed property in West Wildwood will experience an increase in property taxes in 2015 of approximately $650 due to Golden. A $200,000 assessment will be an increase of $1,300 all due to the lawsuit caused by Golden.
No wonder Commissioner Golden, Mayor Fox and Commissioner Maxwell, by voting to approve the lawsuit settlement caused the great tax hike for 2015 tried to hide the settlement resolution caused by Golden by approving it at a caucus meeting that the public rarely attends hiding the truth about the costly suit settlement.
To make things worse, Mayor Fox and Commissioners’ Golden and Maxwell lied to the public in a newspaper article by blaming an innocent party for their screw up. They knew they did wrong by trying to hide the truth by hiding the settlement resolution but got caught at their own game of tricks.
The people of West Wildwood deserve better!