NJ city spends $17K to defend $5 fee it charged resident

[Sweater Cows!]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/bridgewater_spends_17k_to_...

Bridgewater spends $17K to defend $5 fee it charged resident

BRIDGEWATER — A Somerset County town spent more than $17,000 defending a $5 fee it
charged a resident for a compact disc of a council meeting.

Tom Coulter filed a complaint with the New Jersey Government Record Council in October 2008, saying he should pay the actual cost of the CD
to get the recording.

The state council this year sided with Coulter and found he should have paid about 96 cents.

Bridgewater paid more than $14,000 in legal fees defending the case. It had to pay $3,500 to Coulter for his legal fees and give him a $4.04
refund.

Coulter says the case shows a lack of common sense.

Township Attorney Alan Grant tells The Courier News of Bridgewater the legal fees would have been substantially lower had Coulter settled, as the township had offered.

 

 

[XLFD]

Excellent piece, Lando, and pretty much what I have been trying to avoid for the last two years.  I paid $57.23 for some fee that has yet to be determined to get the simple fact that the City did not do its job in seeking competitive bids for painting the water tower.  Several hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money was wasted and still no comment from the peanut gallery. 

 

Here the township spent $17,000 of the people's money trying to overcharge a taxpayer by a factor of at least ten (one can get blank CDs for under $.25 on sale).  Seriously goofy.

[Dave]

And liberal's wonder why fiscally conservative minded folks like me and others want smaller government and tighter control on tax money. If I was in that community I would be looking to get the local government folks booted and get people with brains in there.

[AQUAMAN]

Imagine the magnitude of the EGOS over in Bridgewater, unbelievable, yet, maybe closer to home than we realize. If those citizens haven't already recalled those on the council, they get what they deserve, and so do other like-towns, imho.

[Willy]

I personally think that both the  Bridgewater officials and Mr. Coulter have loose rocks upstairs. It was stupid of Bridgewater to go overboard in trying to defend itself and as for Mr. Coulter, how stupid can you be to spend $3,500 to get out of paying $4.  As far as I am concerned Mr. Coulter got a bargain by only being charged $5 for a disc because he could have gotten a written copy of the Council minutes which, under FOIA, could have cost him a lot more.  $5 is not unreasonable. This only shows that there are many stupid elected officials who are voted in by even more stupid voters. There are far more important issues to deal with. Stupid, stupid, stupid.