School Board Pres.: Concerns Over Sports Complex Conflict Are 'Untrue'

A $2.5 project to redo the Manasquan high school athletic fields has fallen under state inquiry. The board president’s firm was used years ago to design the project's landscape plan, which was voted on the July meeting. 

Manasquan board president Tom Bauer said the concerns are unwarranted. His firm, Melillo and Bauer Associates, was used to draft the landscaping plans for a new athletic complex, called the Warrior Complex.

Bauer said he received a phone call from the State Board of Education, department of grants and loans, inquiring into the project after a local tipster called the office with a concern of a conflict of interest for the Warrior Complex plan.

The tipster called the state board to claim Bauer, and the school board were misappropriating and misusing federal funds, Bauer said. “This is a very serious allegation. And it is completely untrue.”

The board president defended the project, said the work was donated and that a conflict of interest did not exist. He said the tipster was negatively impacting the district, creating a concern where there was none.

Bauer joined the board in 2009, after his firm drafted the plans, he said. The firm donated its services and was not financially compensated, he said.

Previous incarnations of the plan were as high as $5 million, and in 2005-06 did not pass voters in a referendum. But a $2.5 plan for a new football-multi-use field and track passed board vote, 7-2 this month. The Melillo and Bauer Associates name still exists on the draft materials, but Bauer said these were created before he joined the board. 

Bauer said there was no profit from the work, that it was donated out of love for the town.

“You can hear individuals talking in town about how my firm, Melillo and Bauer Associates, a landscape architectural design firm, had profited from this project,” Bauer said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

However, during the lengthy public comment period at a special board meeting for the Warrior Complex presentation, more than one individual spoke on the firm’s involvement.

“I think that it is a conflict of interest for you to be voting on this matter,” said Michelle LaSala, a former board president who resigned in April.

“Your name is on the project. You can potentially generate business for the firm.”  She criticized the board going to vote on a project that bore Bauer’s firm name.

Bauer said the district used outside consultants to address the concern and worked hours to resolve the issue, he said.