We don’t do a lot in Salem County here at The Bob & Steve Show. In fact, the last time we did anything in Salem County we wondered if taxpayers paid for the orange juice Bob Gant spilled on his shirt before beating an inmate at the old county jail.

Well, it’s election season and we’re back in Salem County. Remember the time a client in the state’s Personal Assistance Service Program (PASP) performed volunteer community service hours such as “removing rust off” former Salem County Freeholder Beth Timberman’s fence? Neither do we, because no one ever reported it. But it’s true, according to the volunteer’s own log (and an email) volunteer hours were performed on Timberman’s fence while she was serving as a county Freeholder.

Apparently, one of our sources knew this happened because in an email dated October 24, 2014 a county official responded to “OPRA 167.” I’ve copied and pasted the email below. I, simply because I can and I felt like it, chose to redact the names of the county official and the person who filed the Open Public Records Act request.

From: "XXXXX, XXXXX" <xxxxxx@salemcountynj.gov>
Date: October 24, 2014 at 12:05:04 PM EDT
To: "xxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com" <xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com>
Cc: "XXXXXX, XXXXX" <xxxxxxxxxx@salemcountynj.gov>
Subject: OPRA167 Shirlee Manahan Project Freedom PASP: response

Dear XXXXXX:

Attached please find two PDFs relating to your OPRA request for “Correspondence promoting or reflecting relocation to Project Freedom” and “Volunteer work assignments (hours and locations clients reported) for disability clients in the PASP program from 2005-2012.”

There were redactions of the client names per HIPAA privacy regulations.

Because redactions can be considered a partial denial, you have denial rights of appeal.

A screen shot of your rights are provided below.

Please contact me with any questions.

Thank you.

XXXXXX.

Below are the two PDFs referenced in the above email. Scrolling through you will find interesting items including required reports of volunteer hours with items including, “helped my landlord paint a fence and clean up brush 8 hours” and “beth timberman continued removing paint and rust off 2 hours”

There is also an email that says, in part, “I am working on Beth Timberman’s gates removing all the rust off them for her to paint them. I am doing so well with them that Jeff Ridgway wants me to do the same for the fences near the courthouse.”

As you scroll through you will also notice lots of volunteer hours at Salem County Democratic Party in 2007.

As you review the documents below you might want to ask yourself why an elected official who wants to be an elected official again would have had a person with a disability performing volunteer work at her house. Is that the type of person you want to vote for?