Nothing But Adult Bullies

We Called For This Meeting and Get Bamboozled.

This brief summary, illustrates some of the information from the meeting we called for on June 20, 2012. A meeting which actually yielded no results. Not one person from T&M Associates or the Sea Bright Borough has called us post-meeting, to offer any concerns.

A lot of Lying and No Real Answers. It’s Clearly Us Against Them. Here are the Highlights:

1. We rushed there from our jobs, only to be shown even more disrespect, when they kept us waiting for over a half hour behind closed doors — without knowing when the meeting would begin.
2. When the doors finally opened up, we entered the room that was already filled with a distinct feeling that clearly exhibited us against them. T&M’s engineer handed out a very small list of the meeting agenda to everyone. In all seriousness, we called this meeting, so what is happening here? It was a full-on attempt to cover herself for sure.
3. Apparently, they all gathered before this meeting, (because T&M’s Project Manager slipped on the phone and gave a different time). They all entered our home without our knowledge or consent. In fact, during this meeting, the Engineer said “I can enter your home anytime I want, because I am running the project.” Really? When did she actually start doing anything constructive? We have not heard from her in months, yet she claims she speaks with our neighbors, on a daily basis!
4. Everything we asked point blank, was redirected. A lot of lying and no real answers. They are obviously all aligning themselves so they can have the same story. The Architect’s structural plans are not done properly, which is why they keep changing things and making mistakes. Again, if the height was at the proper elevation, we wouldn’t have all these problems and we would have paid for it! A councilman and the Borough Clerk both lied, regarding height, because they were both at the meeting where height was a main focus. We have the meeting minutes. Mike Foley of FEMA was there as well. He looked disgusted. Foley said, “Sea Bright will never get another Grant.”
5. Our 8” block we paid the Builder for, but did not receive, was not even addressed! They desperately tried to cover up the height mistake by discussing the Borough’s restriction that had just passed. But, they had a difficult time with that one. They are not meeting their own code and they screwed up the height of the house.
6. T&M admitted to changing the numbers on the original contract we signed, by moving more dollars over to the engineering and architectural columns. But they did this without our knowledge or consent, after we signed something else. She said she did what was best for them, not us. This alteration put us, the homeowners at great risk. That subject too, was quickly changed.
7. Still, no professional timeline, as to when this project will be done! We are at week 11. They are all talking about fixing the neighbor’s property, but what about our property? We had a driveway, complete with decorative stone and cement pads. They destroyed the cement and the stone is forever buried under the big mound of dirt. It’s basically a mud pit. This property looks like a bomb went off! Our landscaping is ruined and our shrubs are covered in cement dust! We had 12 large bluestone 2’x3’ slabs as our walkway. We lifted them up and stacked them off to the side, to avoid being damaged. Yet all were broken by the rogue Builder — on purpose! Who is covering all of these damages?
8. At week 11, we mentioned once again, that the house is still not wrapped where water comes in! Windows were left open at the end of the day. We have to remove their ladder at the end of each day which they leave at the unobstructed entryway into our home!
9. They are all laughing at the pre-construction work we did, that was supposed to yield credits to the overall construction costs. I have this info in my meeting minutes, but they are magically unaware of this being discuss and executed. Dismantling one’s property before construction is unusual, don’t you think? So, obviously, it was discussed and executed to cut overall costs of the construction aspect!
10. No one seems to be able to handle this Builder. It’s kind of eery. Many construction mistakes have been made. He is supposed to have a performance review, but clearly that hasn’t been done. Otherwise, they would have thrown him off this property a long time ago.
11. The Builder used non-prevailing wage workers on a Government Funded Prevailing Wage Project.

The science only perpetuates the vicious cycle of cronyism, power-mongering, influence peddling, corruption, bureaucracy, all of that.

Deepak Chopra