Contract Modified Without Our Knowledge or Consent
On April 6, 2012, we picked up some of the Grant information that was circulated to the Council. The top page was a document that we signed back on December 15, 2010. This stated, that as the homeowners, we would assume any additional costs beyond those covered by the mitigation project. Confident that $241K in Federal Funding was MORE than enough for this project, we had little concern with initially signing. Also contained in this package, was an agreement between the Borough and the NJOEM (New Jersey Office of Emergency Management), “modifying” the terms of our Grant. This letter addressed to Kathy Lear, from the Borough Clerk, was dated June 10, 2011 and was copied ONLY to T&M Associates (the Borough’s newly contracted Engineer). In this modification, the Engineering and Architectural costs of $20,150 were modified to $73,000.
Upon seeing this, we were thoroughly enraged, dissappointed and terrified.
The challenge for capitalism is that the things that breed trust also breed the environment for fraud.
James Surowiecki
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