TIME TO REORGANIZE OUR THOUGHTS

The reorganization meeting on January 2^nd was a paean to our volunteers but the investiture of the new Mayor was, unfortunately, more Leno than LaGuardia.  It was amusing to hear Gary Schniederman trying to justify why Mike Rieber should not be the next Deputy Mayor.  After his rambling explanations, it really comes down to one thing – politics (duh!).  One other very interesting item raised by Gary and seconded by Steve – both were very irate that a BOE member had, as a private citizen, called the Democrats on their partisanship by having Rudy be a retread as Deputy Mayor.  They were both adamant that the BOE should stay out of Town Council business and that the Town Council should stay out of BOE business.  [That raises the question, therefore, of why they generated and passed that horrible Charter School resolution.  So much for staying out of each other’s sphere of influence!]

After what felt like the longest self-congratulatory speech on record by the new Mayor, including hearing that the #1 item he’ll hate to hear at meetings will be “And now we open to public comment…”, Steve Santola took office.  [It’s worth mentioning that both Steve and Gary ran unopposed for Town Council in 2008.]  I sincerely hope that all future meetings for the year will be kept somewhat more business like and especially more to the point.  After all the promises of getting LTV in to finally start televising meetings, do you think this might actually be the year?  Mr. Santola did not seem very optimistic; and we know if “they” don’t want it to happen, it won’t.

So, in very short order, I found that two of my three wishes for my second year in office were not going to be granted.  Less pontificating – that was blown in the first 10 minutes of the comedy routine.  And less partisanship – that was blown both by the re-running of Rudy as Deputy Mayor and by Gary and Steve taking issue with the letter published in the West Essex Tribune, calling the writer on it.  Well, let’s hope that my third wish – controlling spending and taxes - will actually come true.  Stay tuned…

A SHORT LESSON IN ECONOMICS FOR EVERY AMERICAN...

Before I actually get around to writing my next blog, I thought this was so brilliant and simple that I wanted to get it out ASAP.  Enjoy!

This rather brilliantly cuts thru all the political doublespeak we get...........

Why the U.S. was downgraded:

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts: $385

Got It ?????

OK - now Lesson # 2:

Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:

Let's say, You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood....and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do ......
Raise the ceilings, or pump out the “ah –ah –ah …..stuff”?

Your choice is coming Nov. 2012

CHICKEN VERSUS OSTRICH

At the Town Council meeting of December 5th, we passed a resolution to issue approximately $53 million in long term bond debt.  In my statement, I raised the issue of the severe impact that the servicing of that debt will have on subsequent Town budgets, especially as we will be adding $500,000 next year, $1 million in 2013, and $1.5 million in 2014.  Steve Santola’s response was to call me 'Chicken Little’.  The central theme of the Chicken Little story - The sky is falling! - has been applied to people accused of being unreasonably afraid, or those trying to incite an unreasonable fear in those around them. I, however, do not think it is unreasonable to expect that there will be an impact created by this increase in debt service.  Mr. Santola would rather be the ostrich and hide his head in the sand – neither taking responsibility for this debt (although the majority – if not all – was created on his too long watch) nor acknowledging its impact on our budget.

Of the $99.3 million in total debt that the Town currently has, over $31 million is directly related to the municipal complex.   Spending on roads and sidewalks, buses for seniors, cars for our police force is once thing.  However, it is no secret that I have disapproved of the profligate spending by the prior administrations on the buildings.  Over the course of both Steve Santola’s and Gary Schneiderman’s tenure on Town Council, they have overspent and overextended the Township resources.  But it is the Town residents that will have to put up with heating, cooling and maintaining these white elephants for the next 40 years.

Mr. Santola seems to have missed the point – just because you CAN take out this much debt, doesn’t mean you should.  So when you wonder what has become of rear yard pickup or leaf collection or free services for the elderly and underprivileged, you can thank Mr. Santola and Dr. Schneiderman’s “conservative” fiscal stance (not!).  So, Mr. Santola, I’d rather be a chicken with its eyes open than an ostrich with its head where the sun doesn’t shine…

DEER HUNT, FIELD FEES, AND NOR'EASTER - OH MY!

At the October 24th conference meeting, one of the items on the slim agenda was a deer management update.  Activity has already begun to start reducing the number of deer infesting Livingston.  With herds roaming through my backyard, and the children of several friends infected with Lyme disease over the summer, I look forward to a successful deer management season!

More discussion was held on field management fees and we will be hosting the stakeholders at the 11/14 meeting and, I hope, finally putting this to bed.  The Town has invested monies in the past several years to bring the fields more up to snuff; the fees to be charged to the users are not unreasonable and will be earmarked toward field maintenance.

I find it interesting that the Councilmen don’t see the difference between charging fees for field usage and waiving fees for the use of community resources.  The question had come from Cycle for Survival regarding waiving the fees for their usage of the Community Center for a fund raising event.  I voted no as the Township is NOT a charitable organization; however, the other 4 councilmen arbitrarily (to my mind) decided to waive the fees.

But, the great news was that LTV will finally begin taping and broadcasting the Regular Town Council meetings.  They will be presented uncut and unexpurgated at least twice after each Council meeting.  As far as I am concerned, they can run continuously  - all Council all the time!  Still pending is information on garage sale ordinances from other townships.  Given that some homes are abusing the ability to hold garage sales by having multiple sales per month, we need to figure out a way to stop the abuse without generating onerous requirements for the occasional garage sale holder. 

I was sorry to have missed the volunteer appreciation night; I had to make a choice between seeing my mother in the hospital and going to the event.  I heard a great time was had by all.  I did, however, make the dedication of the Library Endowment Fund quilt on Wednesday, November 2^nd and the Livingston Environmental Commission meeting on Thursday, November 3^rd.  Finally, I was delighted by the invitation from the Livingston Symphony Orchestra to be present at the kickoff of the 54^th season on November 5th.  My husband, Oliver, and I, very much appreciated the program and the LSO performed extremely well.

The great pre-Halloween Nor’easter impacted every household in Livingston.  On a personal note, we were without cable, Internet, and phone from Saturday until Friday with our power going out at least 5 times during that period.  But, we were VERY lucky as there were quite a number of people still don’t have power even I as write this blog.  In speaking with one Town resident whose power was not restored until Thursday, hearing that 95% of the Town has power is no comfort when you, as an individual, are 100% without!  I thank the DPW for their unceasing efforts on our behalf in trying to clean up the streets and dealing with the power lines alongside PSE&G.  Unfortunately, I think it will be some time before we can drive down the streets without dodging all the branches.

Trees, Trees, and More Trees

The main part of the conference meeting on October 10^th was to finalize the Tree Ordinance – which the Council has been working on since the Spring and which the Livingston Environmental Committee and the Planning Board have been working on for years.  The primary goal of the ordinance was to keep people from clear-cutting their property – as had happened in recent history on two properties in the town.   The hardest thing to do in the ordinance was to walk the fine line between intruding on how citizens managed their own private property and the Town’s desire to maintain the trees.  I was particularly happy with not being mandated to report every tree cut down that did not require a permit; the LEC will be tracking those trees where people voluntarily report it.

In keeping with the ‘green’ theme of that meeting, the Planning Board proposed an ordinance for Alternative Small Energy Systems that was approved by the Council and introduced at the October 17^th meeting.  The ordinance defines what and how alternative energy systems (i.e., windmills, solar panels) can be implemented in the Town.  So, don’t look for wind farms anywhere in town; they are prohibited by the ordinance!  And, do start looking for utility mounted solar panels – PSE&G will begin to install them in Livingston shortly.  The units will be 3’ x 5’ and will be 15’ above the ground.

Parette Somjen was awarded the contract without competitive bid to provide Architectural & Engineering services for the Monmouth Court Elevator construction.  I was the only one who argued against proceeding with a non-competitive bid and I had major issues with the proposed contract that Parette had provided.  I was assured that substantial due diligence had been done on Parette for previous bids.  I then expressed my concerns regarding the contract language that had been provided by Parette and was assured that the Town Counsel would be addressing those and that we typically utilized the ‘Town’ contracts and not the vendor’s.

The final item of concern regarding the environment was the issue of contaminated groundwater at Okner Field.  While this does not impact our drinking water (due to scrubbers at the affected wells close by), it must still be remediated.  The first step dictated by the DEP was to have Livingston hire a Licensed Site Remediation Professional to begin site investigation.  I am praying that this won’t turn into a soil remediation nightmare as occurred at the Town Hall site.  Stay tuned…

At the October 17^th meeting, we continued a conversation regarding both signage and garage sales that I had raised on the 10^th, based on a complaint that I had received from a Livingston resident about the biweekly garage sales taking place on her block.  I requested two action items from the Town Council:  a) to put in a public service announcement into the West Essex Tribune reminding people of the signage ordinance and that ALL signs must be out of the public right of way (i.e., the first 10 feet off the street) and b) to look at what other towns have in the way of controlling garage sales and see whether we want to adopt an ordinance limiting the number of garage sales an individual can hold a year.  In addition to the increased traffic and noise a garage sale brings to a street, we also want to avoid the situation of people running these as businesses out of their homes.

Believe me – I am not in favor of another ordinance.  We have a great many ordinances on the books that are imperfectly enforced.  Many of the ordinances are enforced only when a complaint is registered.  So – in the interest of maintaining good neighbor relations and keeping governmental interference to a minimum, your comments and suggestions as to how this issue might be controlled would be very welcome.

There were a number of presentations at the 10/17 meeting – and it is always terrific to be part of a group saluting a team of children who, as their coach said, ‘lived up to their potential.’  Congratulations to the 11 Year Old America Little League Williamsport team!  The Livingston Municipal Alliance Committee Chair was on hand for the proclamation of Red Ribbon Week – which is celebrated nationally from 10/22-10/29 – to bring greater awareness and support of drug free lifestyles.  And, we had a presentation from Cycle for Survival that is having a Livingston based event.  I’m not sure if Steve Santola, who announced that he has reached out to others to form a team of former mayors, is aware that his team would exclude the two newest members of the current Town Council.  Maybe he thinks Republicans don’t cycle?

Last but not least, the Community Outreach Committee – which started its life as the Asian Outreach Committee – was finally approved by the Council and adopted on 10/17/2011.  The citizens who originally proposed the committee were extremely disappointed that it took the Council this long to move this along and enthusiasm is somewhat dampened.  The other Councilmen objected to the original mission statement as they found it ‘not inclusive.’  Much of the hold up was trying to get the rewrite of the mission statement done (volunteered by Gary Schneiderman) so it would be more encompassing and not just geared to the Asian community.  I am looking forward to getting this off the ground.  There was one addition to the committee listing that I found very puzzling as that person had no involvement at all with the creation of the concept, the drafting of the original mission statement, and/or the original group that presented it and there were other individuals that had expressed an interest in joining.  However, I look forward to everyones contribution.

PAY TO PLAY - AGAIN (with a nod to the Livingston Patch for the great title)

Field usage fees have once again reared its ugly head.  Although the various organizations which are the big users of these fields have been polled regarding usage fees, and have had numerous discussions regarding the potential for fees, and theoretically have bought into the need for these fees – now there is apparently ‘push back’ on the actual implementation of field usage fees.  Given the need to implement these fees to help defray the growing cost of field maintenance and the negative response being received from the organizations impacted, there will be a meeting called of the ‘stakeholders’ in the fields (e.g., Livingston baseball, softball, football leagues, Township groups – Cerbo, Temple softball, etc.) to further discuss this issue. 

Also up on the 9/26 agenda was the review of the Vision 20/20 survey to be disseminated to the town.  Vision 20/20 is a town-appointed committee whose purpose “is to create a vision for the Township of Livingston that will improve the quality of life for the community, its residents, and businesses.”  I’m all for quality of life; I am obviously a Livingston resident as well.  However, given costs are rising, and we are trying to hold taxes down, rather than asking what more we should be doing for the Township, why not see what services might be cut back or charged a fee to use?  This, in fact, was the very sentiment raised to me by a member of the Vision 20/20 committee.  As the most basic Township expenses are rising (e.g., wages, benefits), and given an incredibly robust service offering we currently have, we have to realize that, while it is good to plan for the future, we may not be able to accommodate new services (or even maintain old ones) in the short term.  I do applaud the work that the committee has done and look forward with interest to the results from the survey.

Finally, I read with great interest the Zoning Board of Adjustment Annual Report for 2010.  The report provided a summary of the variances for residential lots and use variances requested.  It also made a recommendation regarding reviewing the accessory structure (e.g., garages, pool houses) provision – which engendered some lively discussion about 4 car garages.

The regular meeting gave me a sense of real satisfaction – we were giving citations honoring the 6 Essex County Senior Citizens Juried Art Show winners who were Livingston residents (the most winners from one township at this show) as well as the 2011 10-year-old National Little League Williamsport Team.  The art show winners shared with us information about their winning pieces or their art in general and the kids were just great!  I don’t remember the last time I saw so many ‘paparazzi’ in the room.

The rest was primarily housekeeping – including two change orders for road reconstruction/ resurfacing that were due to the increase in the cost of asphalt and passing a legislative appropriation in order to get $450,000 in funding from a Green Acres matching grant.

BUSINESS AS USUAL, ONLY LESS OF IT

In keeping with the winding down of summer, we have been having a lessening of the load on the Town Council.  Our September 6^th Conference and Regular meetings did not really bring anything unusual or controversial to the fore.  Closure on one issue, the construction of the Municipal Complex, was done through a final change order.  I still consider the building too overblown with a huge carrying cost for maintenance, property management, and energy costs – but at least there will not be any more change orders or costs to be paid for the building of the Town Hall.  I think this is a white elephant and will cost the town significant amounts of money over the course of its life.

Another item almost put to rest was the final hearing on the amendment regarding the posting of notices.  Given there had been some issue regarding religious symbols being placed in the Town’s right of way in violation of the ordinance, we had wanted to make sure that this issue was clarified so that there would not be any misunderstandings nor any inconsistencies regarding its enforcement.

One very important thing did happen in our Regular meeting on 9/6 – a post-Hurricane Irene thanks to the men and women of the Department of Public Works, Fire Department, and Police, who went above and beyond assisting the citizens with issue and problems created by Hurricane Irene.  In addition, and rightly so, kudos were given to the Mayor, Town Manager, and Deputy Town Manager for the activities during the hurricane weekend in disseminating information and assisting the townspeople.  Good preparation, well executed – Well Done!

I had the opportunity to ‘see the gang’ again at the very moving and poignant September 11^th ceremony on the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.  Bunnie Ratner did a wonderful job coordinating the solemn event and every note – from the selections sung by the LHS choir, to the Girl Scouts laying roses on the memorial, to the memories shared by some affected by the events on 9/11, to the playing of taps – was very affecting and rang true.  The number of townspeople who attended the memorial seems to have grown and it is good that the town could come together to mourn those lost and celebrate America’s triumph over adversity.

The conference meeting of September 12^th had two items, in my opinion, of major note.  First was the ‘Best Practices Inventory’.  State aid payment is impacted to a township based on implementation of these 50 best practices and, as Livingston scored 46 out of 50, the township will receive 100% of our 2011 State aid allocation.  One question, that I have raised before and will continue to raise, has to do with municipal health benefits.  At this time, Livingston does NOT exclude part time employees (less than 35 hours per week), elected or appointed officials.  That means that the Town Council members (excluding Mike Rieber and myself) get the same ‘cadillac’ benefits that full time employees receive.  It also means that part time employees (e.g., 20 hours per week) are also getting these benefits.  [In the first wave of health benefits reform in NJ in 2010, health and pension benefits were disallowed for part time employees (i.e., less than 35 hours on the State level and 25 hours at the local level).  Per the memo I received shortly after I was elected, this was going to be enforced for anyone not already covered as of May, 2010.  However, if you were already a part time employee or elected official as of that time, you would be grandfathered in.]

 There are two issues at stake – one is that the benefits plan currently offered to our Township employees is incredibly rich – with $5 copays, no deductibles, and no coinsurances.  This is unheard of in industry.  The second issue is that part time employees are included in the benefits plan – again, something that is not typically done in industry.  Why?  Because the cost of benefits is too high.  And the ‘richer’ the plan, the higher the premium cost.  At last blush, premiums for family coverage for one of the options in the plan were over $2,000 per month per member.  And this is coming out of our taxes – to the tune of over $3,000,000.  I think that this is something that we have to seriously look at and figure out a way to provide livable benefits to our employees without breaking the taxpayers’ back.  When I asked the question regarding bidding out the benefits, I was told that the cost (for the current plan) was cheapest through the State Health Benefits Plan as, so I was told, utilization was over 100%.  Well, people will use/abuse their health benefits when it doesn’t cost them anything!  We need to figure out a way to also ensure township employee wellness to bring our utilization costs down.  But, as is the issue is in America as a whole, most people will not properly manage their own healthcare and healthcare costs unless they have some ‘skin in the game.’ 

The other item has already caused some concern and controversy.  That is the issue of field usage fees.  My understanding – as was discussed in the meeting – was that the Youth Sports Council was involved in this proposal from the start.  The Town Council in previous years had allocated funds to the improvement of the fields so that, when usage fees would ultimately be charged, the fields affected would be in good condition.  The fees to be charged in no way cover all costs associated with their maintenance but begin to have the people who most benefit from and use these fields start to contribute toward their maintenance.  This issue is very similar to the one created when sports clubs and teams began charging fees to their participants.  We all pay high taxes and believe that all town services should be included.  Unfortunately, that is no longer a realistic viewpoint.  The Town needs to provide basic services to the entire citizenry; but field usage fees are only charged to those limited people who actually use the fields for sports.

This is not an easy change to implement and will impact unequally on our townspeople.  I encourage everyone who is opposed to this issue to make his/her comments known prior to our next meeting on 9/26.  At that point, it may be too late to be effective in changing the course of action currently set on by the Council.

Finally, the Council discussed an Anti-Idling resolution.  Now, I’m all for education regarding idling and support anti-idling law.  But to enact a resolution?  In general, the powers of a municipality are effected through the enactment of ordinances and resolutions by the governing authority of the municipality. The permanent rules of conduct or government of a municipality are enacted by ordinances. Ordinances are considered to be local laws and have only local applicability, unlike state laws which have general applicability. A resolution is a less formal and more limited action, not considered to be a law, usually dealing with administrative functions.  [See uslegal.com definitions.]  The proposed resolution provides some education on anti-idling and culminates in resolving that we enforce the existing laws and encourage activities limiting exhaust emissions.  I agree with the thought but would prefer that education be done through other means (public relations campaigns, schools, newspaper ads) than by wasting time discussing and passing this resolution.