Borden Calls Haddonfield Sun Media Contract 'A Colossal Failure'

Borough Commissioner Ed Borden said he thought the “one year experiment” of having borough communications handled by the editorial staff of The Haddonfield Sun newspaper was “a colossal failure.” 

Borden made his comments after a commissioners meeting earlier this month.

The Sun did not seek to renew the contract it won last year to provide media services, including a bimonthly newsletter, media releases and other promotional material. Alan Bauer, general manager and editor of Elauwit Media, publisher of the Sun and six other weekly papers in South Jersey, told Haddonfield Patch in January the arrangement with the borough was a “conflict of interest” because his paper reports on the borough while doing public relations for it.

The Sun won the bid last year by undercutting David Hunter, publishers of What’s On Haddonfield, a monthly newspaper that bills itself as a calendar of events.  Hunter had held the contract since the borough started outsourcing its communications services nearly two decades ago.

The Sun has said in published editorials that it bid on the contract to “save taxpayer money.” It contends Hunter’s fees, which in some years were as much as $22,000, were excessive. The Sun won last year’s contract with a bid of $7,200 and had been paid $3,821.50 through mid-January. The weekly newspaper said it intends to donate all proceeds from its contract to a local charity.

Published reports over the last five years in the Sun and The Retrospect, a weekly paper that covers several Camden County towns including Haddonfield, have criticized Hunters contracts. The reports raised questions about his work on the campaigns of Mayor Tish Colombi, one of three borough commissioners who are Haddonfield’s highest elected officials.

Hunter recently dismissed any allegations of favoritism. He said he has been “a close friend” and supporter of Colombi for years, but his work for the borough handled a number of tasks, including creating and writing the Municipal Matters newsletter and publishing it in his newspaper. Colombi said allegations of favoritism were unfounded.

“The best person got the job,” she said early this month. “I think some of this is just sour grapes.”

Hunter said he didn’t bid on the contract this year because he “wasn’t interested in playing [the Sun’s] game.”  He said the Sun was only interested in wresting away business he had with the borough.

The Sun published an editorial on March 2 challenging the borough to stop paying for media services. It said the borough could save money by writing its newsletter in-house and publishing it on its website. The newspaper also offered to publish the newsletter in its editions for free.

Borden said he’s heard these promises before. He said the borough cut the cost of its communications contract in 2009 when it took up an offer from the Sun to publish the newsletter for free. He said the Sun withdrew the offer midway through the year and the newsletter has not been published in print since then.

Bauer cited a January 2010 news article and the March 2 editorial, both in his paper, as his response to Borden.

“Our intent was to publish this information for free, thereby saving Haddonfield taxpayers, one of whom happens to be an owner of this company, money,” Bauer said in the January article. “However, it’s clear that some commissioners are determined to spend the money.”

Colombi disagrees with Bauer and said she was also disappointed with his performance.

“I disagree with him that you don’t have to spend some money communicating with our residents,” she said.  “Currently, our borough newsletter is not great. We’re trying hard to figure out the best way to ensure news is getting out to our residents. In whatever way we do it, we’re going to have to spend some money.  One of our obligations is to inform our residents about what we’re doing, especially if we’re making changes.”

Commissioner Jeff Kasko said he thinks the borough ought to try to produce it’s own newsletter.

“There is no reason for us to have to pay outside vendors for this,” Kasko said. “We should increase our utilization of online and social media, the borough's website and email capabilities, and the use of free print media opportunities.

“Well before I ran for commissioner in 2009, I was critical of this practice. It was, and still is, my belief that most of the borough's publicity does not have be written and disseminated by paid consultants—especially now, in an advanced electronic age.”

The borough is currently soliciting bids for communications services and has included $7,000 in the proposed municipal budget, which is currently under consideration.