Kudos to Trustee Wayne Dockett for this week's scoop.  Dockett uncovered the embarrassing fact that Cobalt has already been paid $8,416.  

The story continues beneath the Read-More fold...

Why was no one forthcoming with this figure last month, during the Board's July 28th discussion of Cobalt's poorly received 3rd draft?  Several times Trustees asked what would be the cost of simply terminating the Cobalt contract..

July 28th:

[Dockett: Have we paid any money to these people? Does anybody know?
[Otto: We will probably owe something, but I'm questioning whether it's worth continuing...

July 28th:

[Dockett: Howard, did we give these people any money yet?

[Fink:  We have a... they have a very specific contract that talks about payments and things of that nature. We are gonna owe them money. They have done work. Um.

Is this what Transparency in Government means?   Answering questions as narrowly as the questions permit?  Volunteering nothing?  What is now obvious is that the cost was known down to the penny.

Back to August 25th.  The Cobalt Survey issue resurfaced when Supervisor Engstrom made a motion to Demand that Cobalt produce a survey within two weeks.  Everyone jumped on board.  "for the Planning Commission. "

Manager Fink accepted this as his marching orders.

"Oh, I get it. Two weeks - We want a survey. We want a survey for the Planning Commission."

That's irony.  At the July 28th meeting, Fink had carefully explained to the Board that Survey instruments were about

"the nuances of the conversation... it's not something that you have in a week or two weeks or three weeks..."

If you've forgotten, the Cobalt Contract was inserted - at the last minute - into the June 9th, 2015 agenda by Supervisor Engstrom.  It was given only 1 and 1/2 minutes of consideration, including the motion and vote to approve it.  In retrospect it appears that a bit more consideration was due the terms of the contract.

Good money is being thrown after bad decisions.

If you prefer an editorial-free version of what happened tonight, here is the August 25th, 2015 LiveAgenda coverage of this meeting..  Cobalt is discussed twice:  Here -- and Here.  8 to 10 minutes total.

• FYI: A LiveAgenda is something we cooked up for to make viewing meetings easier for you.  It is a meeting Agenda (pdf) with all the Agenda items and discussions turned into clickable links.  That means that you can read a LiveAgenda (or LiveMeetingMinutes) document, click on an item that interests you, and the meeting video will pop up as a YouTube video - at the precise point in the meeting where that item was discussed.   A LiveAgenda will be created the day after each meeting.  (It takes time.)
• LiveMeetingMinutes are like LiveAgendas, but with more detail.  They will be produced after each meeting's Minutes become available on the Township website.  Board Minutes are are posted regularly.  Planning Commission Minutes are two months behind.  (I extract the draft from the next Meeting's Packet)  ZBA Minutes haven't been posted since March 30.

August 25th BOT meeting links and documents:

• The 2015-08-25 LiveAgenda
• Click to watch the Meeting on Livestream  (skip this.  Use the LiveAgenda and watch only what you want)
  
• Click here to view or download Meeting Agenda
• Click here to view or download Meeting Packet
• Click here to view or download the Manager's Report
• Click to download the Meeting Minutes