ASBURY PARK PRESS

APP.COM $1.00

MONDAY 10.12.15
How a new assessment program boosted
profits for companies while draining your wallet

THE TAX

Brick Police Chief Nils Bergquist after his

appointment to the post in 2008. Hell retire
effective Dec. 1.

Matthew Clark
is Monmouth
Countys tax
administrator. He
created the Assessment Demonstration Program
(ADP) and wrote
most of the law
that created the
program. He
oversees its rollout in the county.

Daniel Kelly
was a Monmouth County
tax board commissioner from
2005 to 2013.
He became an
owner of Realty
Data Systems
LLC four
months after
his final tax
board meeting.

Michael Panter
is Kellys childhood friend
and one of the
original three
owners of
Realty Data
Systems, the
company that is
receiving much
of the revaluation business
related to ADP.

Neil and Steven

Rubenstein own
Realty Appraisal
Co. LLC, which
has won 85 percent of the revaluation work in
Monmouth County. The two started Realty Data
Systems with
Panter in February 2013.

William
FitzPatrick
is Wall Townships municipal tax assessor. He is also
a part-owner
of Value
Added Systems LLC, a
subcontractor
for Realty
Appraisal Co.
THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER/ASBURY PARK DESIGN STUDIO ILLUSTRATION

Brick police
chief retiring,
will receive
$58K payout

WINDFALL

Bergquist spent 35 years

serving on township force
AMANDA OGLESBY @OGLESBYAPP

BRICK Nils Bergquist wanted to be a police officer

since he was a child, and for the past 39 years the Brick
resident has lived his childhood dream in police departments around Ocean County.
Bergquist, Bricks police chief, will retire from the
job he loves on Dec. 1, ending 35 years on the townships
force.
Its a job, since a young child, I always wanted to
do, he said.
From an early age, he saw police work as an opportunity to do good things, he said.
Bergquist, 59, started police work in 1977 in Seaside
Heights after graduating from Point Pleasant Borough
High School and attending Northwestern Universitys
School of Police Staff and Command. In 2008, he was
named chief of Bricks force.
Now he is preparing to end his career and spend
more time with his family and grandchildren.
The chief, whose salary is $186,993, will collect
$89.90 an hour for 562 hours of unused vacation time,
totaling $58,614.80, provided he collects no more vacation time this year, according to Brick Business Administrator Joanne Bergin.
After retirement, Bergquist will collect $10,890.92 a
month in pension payments, or $130,691.04 annually, according to the state Treasury Department.
For unused sick time, he was paid $32,960 in 2009,
$32,858.97 in 2010 and $32,041.50 in 2011. Under state
rules, he can be paid for a maximum of 125 days of unused sick time. Having met this maximum, he will receive no more this year, Bergin said.
After nearly 40 years in public safety, Bergquist has
worked as a patrolman, detective and supervisor in var-

Scott Imbriaco
is Tinton Falls
municipal tax
assessor. He is a
part-owner of
Value Added
Systems, a subcontractor for
Realty Appraisal
Co.

George
Snedden is
Matt Clarks
father-in-law.
He is coowner of
Value Added
Systems with
FitzPatrick
and Imbriaco.

Value Added
Systems takes
photographs of
buildings for
Realty Appraisal
Co. Value Added
Systems is owned
by FitzPatrick,
Imbriaco and
Snedden.

Realty Data Systems was created

by the Rubenstein
brothers and Panter, with Kelly later
being named as an
owner. It has won
the majority of the
inspection contracts
under ADP.

Realty Appraisal
Company is the
Rubensteins
property appraisal company. It has
won all but two
of the revaluation
contracts required under
ADP.

Sources: New Jersey Department of Treasury records; Assessment Demonstration Program contracts from all 53 Monmouth County municipalities; Asbury Park Press research

SUSANNE CERVENKA @SCERVENKA

Second in a weeklong series.

... and that shows in his dedication to

the town. He did an excellent job as

gram, or ADP, through a complex web of personal and business relationshipsand clauses

chief. And the towns gonna miss him.

in bid requirements that stymied competition. h For taxpayers, it has become effectively

BRICK MAYOR JOHN G. DUCEY

a double assault on their wallets: They not only have to endure new assessments that lead

See CHIEF, Page 8A

Thirty-five years he was here in Brick

onmouth Countys embattled new property appraisal system

signed into law amid claims it would eventually bring true tax reform to New Jersey has become a multimillion-dollar money machine for some private companies, including one run by a now-former
county tax commissioner who helped create the program. h These

companies won contracts for the new system, called the Assessment Demonstration Pro-

to unexpected, higher property tax bills, they are now paying millions of dollars to implement the program across 48 of the countys 53 municipalities.

Historic, haunted and

hurting: Saving a
Matawan landmark

See TAX, Page 4A

SOUND OFF

MORE ONLINE

Sign the change.org petition to demand lawmakers find

a way before the end of the year to cut your property
taxes. Visit http://bit.ly/njtaxcutnow and share the link
with your friends and family. The Asbury Park Press will
present the final petition to lawmakers.

Be sure to visit us online at www.APP.com/taxcrisis to

go deeper inside the tax series with videos, interactive
graphics and much more.

JERRY CARINO CARINOS CORNER

MATAWAN The bad guys were coming for him, and John Burrowes knew
it.
An officer in George Washingtons
Continental Army, Burrowes was visiting his Main Street home in May of
1778 when patriot spies delivered a tip:
British loyalists were marching toward
his mansion to capture him.
Burrowes had just enough time to slip out a back
window and escape by swimming across the Matawan
Creek. What happened next, according to Matawan
historian Al Savolaine, is right out of the movies.
The Tories barged into the home and were confronted on the staircase by the captains 18-year-old
wife Margaret. Frustrated by her husbands escape,
the invaders demanded she relinquish her shawl to
bind the wounds of injured British troops nearby.
The girl makes this speech, Ill not give my shawl
or anything in this house to the British, Savolaine
said. They charge up the landing and a Tory officer
hits her on the chest with the handle of his sword.
Incensed, the Tories burned all the furniture on the
front lawn and set fire to the house.
The wound eventually killed Margaret Burrowes,
See MANSION, Page 6A

TWIN BOMBINGS DIVIDE TURKS

PAGE 1B

Four cool places

you have to see
Looking to break your same old routine? Check out these
four cool attractions in New Jersey, ranging from the worlds
largest model railroad to a Freehold brewery where you can
whip up your own personal beer. @Play, 1C

ADVICE
BUSINESS
CLASSIFIED
COMICS
LOCAL

4C
12A
6C
5C
3A

LOTTERIES
OBITUARIES
OPINION
SPORTS
WEATHER

2A
13A
15A
1D
10D

VOLUME 136
NUMBER 244
SINCE 1879