Finance Committee: Put Lower Merion Township's Checkbook Register Online

The Finance Committee of the Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners voted 8-5 to recommend to the board that the township post its checkbook online, in PDF and downloadable formats, with any confidential disbursements redacted.

Commissioners Daniel Bernheim, Richard Churchill, Jane Dellheim, Steven Lindner and Liz Rogan cast the dissenting votes. Commissioner Philip Rosenzweig was not present.

Commissioner Scott Zelov said putting the checkbook online would create “transparency,” and Commissioner Jenny Brown agreed.

“This is a matter of disclosure and transparency and the taxpayers having reasonable access to knowing how their tax dollars are being spent,” Brown said.

Zelov said Lower Merion’s idea is not unique and that anyone who does a Google search will find many municipalities already have checkbook registers online.

Other commissioners said they were concerned about how much time township staff would need to spend on updating the online checkbook and answering the public’s questions about what they saw.

“I do not see the point,” Dellheim said. “Anyone can get a copy of the checkbook through the Freedom of Information Act. And I do not want to burden the staff.”

Bernheim said the township’s finances are already made public regularly through financial reports.

“If you’re looking at just the checkbook register, it’s even more difficult to extrapolate from the line entries than it is from the report,” Bernheim said.

During public comment, four residents spoke in favor of posting the checkbook register online, and one resident spoke against it.

Bob Guzzardi of Ardmore said viewing the checkbook would allow the public to look at who was writing checks to whom, to see if there were any conflicts of interest, match township contracts to campaign contributions, and see how much township consultants are getting paid.

Put the checkbook online, Guzzardi urged the commission.

"Anything less means you have something to hide," he said. "You have to put this online because anything less raises a question.”

The one person who spoke against putting the register online said she could not understand why there were residents of the township who feel the need to manage individual items in the check register.

Other Issues

Commissioners also discussed three proposals during the Finance Committee meeting, voted on during a special Board of Commissioners (BOC) meeting that immediately followed the Finance Committee: the appointment of bond counsel; the appointment of a financial adviser; and a 2011 bond issue refinancing. (The board did not vote on the checkbook register proposal during the special BOC meeting.)

The board voted 9-4 to reappoint David Unkovic of Cozen O’Connor as the township’s bond counsel for a three year term (2011-2013). Commissioners Bernheim, Brown, Brian Gordon and Zelov voted against the reappointment.

The board voted 12-1 to appoint Daniel Kozloff of Public Financial Management Inc. (PFM) as the township’s financial advisor for 2011, and PFM Asset Management LLC to serve as investment advisor in connection with the escrow related to the 2011 bond refinancing. Brown voted against the proposal.

On the third issue, the board voted unanimously to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to refinance various series of prior outstanding general obligation bonds. The refinancing will save taxpayers about $350,000, Commissioner Brian McGuire said.

Library Committee

In other meetings, the Library Committee voted to recommend that the township manager be authorized to enter into an agreement with the vendor, Sentry Technology Corp. of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., to furnish and install a library security system. It would include asset management and a means of electronic self-checkout for the six libraries of the Lower Merion Library System. Total proposed cost: $668,420.

Commissioners Zelov, Gould and Cheryl Gelber voted against the proposal. 

Prior to the vote, Zelov said he would only back it if the motion included an amendment stating the library staffing budget would be reduced by at least two full-time staff equivalents. He said this would not result in any layoffs because the positions were vacant.

Rogan, however, amended it to exclude the library staffing reduction. The committee voted to approve her motion.

Christine Steckel, director of libraries for the Lower Merion Library System, had initially recommended that the township manager go with another vendor, 3M library systems of St. Paul, Minn. But at a May 5 Library Committee meeting, Steckel and Township Manager Douglas Cleland asked that the committee to give them more time to consider the top two vendors, 3M and Sentry, before taking a vote.

Steckel said additional research on the vendors’ bids revealed that although 3M initially appeared to have a lower bid than Sentry, with 3M, there would have been $8,000 to $25,000 in additional costs incurred over the course of the five-year contract.  

Sentry’s bid is a fixed fee, Steckel said.

“We believe Sentry is the lowest cost and provides all the services that we want,” Cleland said.

Public Works

The Public Works Committee gave its blessing to Director Don Cannon to install gates to close the Righters Mill Road ford for winter safety, as has been done since 2005 at the Old Gulph Road ford.

The installation of gates did not require committee or board approval, but Cannon said he was seeking the commissioners’ endorsement.

Righters Mill Road ford is blocked with barricades during inclement weather, but drivers often disregard the barricades by driving through and knocking them over, Cannon said.

Cannon said they continue to have incidents with cars getting stuck during times of high water or ice.

Cannon said the township tries to err on the side of caution by closing the gates “too early” before inclement weather, rather than risk injury to people in cars—as well as the people involved with swift water rescues.

The consensus of the committee was for Cannon to go ahead and install the gates.