The advances in technology that have taken place over the last decade provide new opportunities for bringing previously disenfranchised citizens into the process of governing. Up until recently, unless you had time to go to your local municipality and research the latest ordinances and resolutions passed or being considered by your town, you probably had little connection to what your locally elected officials were doing. Sure, you might read a headline in the local newspaper or show up a rare meeting if the local Zoning Board was about to allow some major construction project at your backdoor, but the activities of local government typically occur beyond the focus of the average citizen. We now have the tools to change that.
Imaging tools, youtube, broadband and digital technology allow us to transfer images, voice and video to the internet for widespread consumption. These advances in technology should bring local government to your desktop. Resolutions and ordinances being considered by local government should be accessible on the Township website. Meetings should be broadcast on local cable and then made available online. Minutes from meetings should be posted. Citizens should be able to contribute ideas, make representatives of local government aware of issues and generally participate in the governing process all through their desktop computers. I am not naive enough to believe that this will result in a tidal wave of participation in local government, but for those citizens interested in what's happening, and perhaps willing to get involved, the ability to do so should be far easier than it once was.
In Middletown, Patrick Short and I have co-sponsored a resolution to post all proposed ordinances and resolutions on the Township's website before meetings. Under the current procedures, if a resident shows up at a meeting, the only information he or she receives is an agenda. Unfortunatley, that agenda does not provide any detail on the specific resolution that will be voted upon. As a result, residents frequently sit and listedn to the
Township Committee discuss and then vote on matters without the benefit of anything describing what is being voted upon. Someone attending the meeting must wait until the public comments portion of the meeting to ask questions about what the Township Committe was voting on. This hardly makes sense. Residents should be able to go to the Township website and review or print any resolution pending for vote by the Township Committee. More important perhaps, they should have the opportunity to comment before the vote takes place.
From my perspective, the existing procedures are the product of a lengthy period of one-party Government in Middletown. Many of the important issues facing the Township were voted as part of a "consent agenda". In other words, all the agenda items requiring a vote would be lumped together and voted on at the same time without discussion. It made for quick meetings, but provided for almost no public input. Opening up the governing process by taking advantage of the technologies available to us will allow the ordinary citizen to keep closer tabs on the activities of elected officials. This is a good thing. Local governments are far less likely to stray from their mission when no one is holding them accountable.
I am hopeful that my joint motion with Mr. Short to post our resolutions and ordinances on the Township website (and make them available in print at the meetings) will be passed and thereby provide greater transparency into the activities of our local government.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Budget Time
It's budget time in Middletown. I'm still learning, but I've been in the job long enough to see that the system is broken. We are one month into the year, and we are just starting to discuss how to cut the budget and manage our resources. At a minimum, this process should have taken place last summer. In August 2008, I offered a motion to create a Finance Committee that would engage the Department Heads in early budget discussions, review our operations and make specific recommendations on what aspects of our business might be cut. Patrick Short supported me, but everyone else voted it down. Opposition to this Finance Committee (a committee which exists in almost every municipality and any large organization) is hard to understand. It's baffling. Rather than allowing a small group to meet regularly with Department Heads and start taking a knife to some of our operations, the five Township Committee members are left to review the entire budget, meet separately with Department Heads, and make recommendations for the budget. No coordination, no tossing ideas around, just five people running in five different directions. Confronted with the greatest financial crisis of our generation, with the 2009 budget it's business as usual.
This process is especially ill-suited for a public entity. Even if the Township Committee decided to hold a number of meetings to get together and wade through the budget and discuss changes to our spending patterns, we have to have a full-blown public meeting, which is hardly conducive to getting alot done in a short space of time. I simply thought it would be better to delegate this work to a Finance Committee that could dig into the Township's finances and come back to the full Committee with specific recommendations before we started spending the money we are trying to save.
Since this type of proactive, planned approach to budget cuts has been voted down by everyone but Mr. Short, I see no other option but to either freeze spending at last year's levels (with the exception of agreed upon employee contracts) or even cut our spending to 5% to 10% below last year's levels. While I would prefer to impose cuts by focusing on our business and the services we deliver and studying what needs to be done and how services could be delivered more efficiently, it is too late to take this approach. By imposing an across the board spending freeze or cut, the onus for choosing how to reduce spending would be placed on the department heads, who are the people with the best understanding of what can be cut and what cannot. Yes, this might mean the loss of some programs. There might be fewer concerts in the park in the summer. It might take a little longer to get information from one of the Township's Departments. We might skip Middletown Day for a year. We might even have to organize some of our recreational supporters and participants to help with the maintenance of some of our fields (but my guess is that these folks are willing to help to cut costs). But these are extraordinary times requiring severe measures. We must provide safety and emergency response, followed by sound roads and public works. Much of what remains is discretionary and should be prioritized. As for union contracts that come due this year, given the state of the economy, we need a freeze on wages. Anything else would ignore the economic reality facing us. There is money to be saved, but it won't happen magically. Since we have already started spending 2009 budget dollars, we must move swiftly to implement the spending limitations discussed above.
This process is especially ill-suited for a public entity. Even if the Township Committee decided to hold a number of meetings to get together and wade through the budget and discuss changes to our spending patterns, we have to have a full-blown public meeting, which is hardly conducive to getting alot done in a short space of time. I simply thought it would be better to delegate this work to a Finance Committee that could dig into the Township's finances and come back to the full Committee with specific recommendations before we started spending the money we are trying to save.
Since this type of proactive, planned approach to budget cuts has been voted down by everyone but Mr. Short, I see no other option but to either freeze spending at last year's levels (with the exception of agreed upon employee contracts) or even cut our spending to 5% to 10% below last year's levels. While I would prefer to impose cuts by focusing on our business and the services we deliver and studying what needs to be done and how services could be delivered more efficiently, it is too late to take this approach. By imposing an across the board spending freeze or cut, the onus for choosing how to reduce spending would be placed on the department heads, who are the people with the best understanding of what can be cut and what cannot. Yes, this might mean the loss of some programs. There might be fewer concerts in the park in the summer. It might take a little longer to get information from one of the Township's Departments. We might skip Middletown Day for a year. We might even have to organize some of our recreational supporters and participants to help with the maintenance of some of our fields (but my guess is that these folks are willing to help to cut costs). But these are extraordinary times requiring severe measures. We must provide safety and emergency response, followed by sound roads and public works. Much of what remains is discretionary and should be prioritized. As for union contracts that come due this year, given the state of the economy, we need a freeze on wages. Anything else would ignore the economic reality facing us. There is money to be saved, but it won't happen magically. Since we have already started spending 2009 budget dollars, we must move swiftly to implement the spending limitations discussed above.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Reorganization in Middletown a Bonanza for Lawyers
Sunday was Reorg Day in Middletown and many political luminaries past and present were in attendance -- all of them Republicans. I met Chris Christie, who swore in Tony Fiore to the Committee. By a 3-2 vote along party lines we named a new Township Attorney, Mr. Brian Nelson. Mr. Nelson graduated law school in 2002, which means he probably passed the bar in December 2002. As best I can tell his background involves lobbying and providing advice on affordable housing and other municipal issues. I don't know Mr. Nelson, and I can't fault him for seeking the best position he can get, but it is clear to me that his appointment was political. He worked at the same firm with Peter Carton, who heads the Republican party in Middletown, and Mr. Nelson also served as the Director of the State Republican Committee. Clearly, the Middletown Republicans were looking past Mr. Nelson's lack of experience to award him a position with significant financial benefits. In so doing, they moved the far more experienced Bernie Reilly aside, but kept him on the payroll to backup Mr. Nelson. The resolutions appointing Mr. Nelson and Mr. Reilly allowed for $310,000 for each of them or a whopping total of $620,000. The total cost in 2008 for Mr. Reilly was $315,000, but Mr. Reilly performed all of the legal work now encompassed by these two appointments. Although Mayor Brightbill assured me at the meeting that she shared my cost concerns, my motion to limit spending for these two lawyers to fixed monthly retainers was voted down by the Republicans. More than anything else we did yesterday, this willingness to use taxpayers dollars to reward party loyalists upsets me. As it is, party affiliation significantly impacts how the Township is governed. Most of the Boards and Committees in Town are overwhelmingly populated with Republican Party supporters. Many of them do good work for the Township, but more balance would benefit everyone. When one party controls all aspects of local government, it breeds arrogance among the party leadership. Yesterday's appointment of an inexperienced lawyer to handle the work of one of the largest municipalities in the County is a perfect example. In the current economic climate, we cannot afford to pay two lawyers when one worked just fine.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Welcome
I have contemplated for some time starting my own blog. I have many interests, and it was not easy identifying the subject matter. However, given my status as one of five elected officials in a Township with over 65,000 residents, I felt obliged to launch a blog that focused on the issues confronting Middletown and, beyond that, our State and our Country. I believe we stand at an important moment in the history of our nation, and we cannot afford to make poor decisions. We face a financial disaster the consequences of which have still not been fully appreciated. Internationally, failing foreign economies will increase the likelihood of regional conflicts as resources become scarcer. Our national security may be threatened as our enemies view our weakened economic situation as presenting an opportunity to maximize the impact and costs to us of a terrorist action or a move to control valuable natural resources such as oil or gas. We must all accept some blame for our circumstances. Instead of using the relatively peaceful decades of the 1980s and 1990s to decrease our dependency on foreign oil and reinvest in our infrastructure, we became voracious consumers, who believed that somehow our real estate holdings and other assets would appreciate at phenomenal growth rates. As values soared, so did our spending. Wall Street profited from the steady asset growth creating imaginative investments that, in one way or another, piggybacked on the growth in asset value. The events of the last few months should have dashed such optimism.
The events of 2008 offer several lessons for us to heed. First, nothing comes from nothing. Most of us have taken basic Economics courses. Somewhere amidst the charts and demand curves was the idea that assets or products or services became more valuable when they were produced better or cheaper or faster. From 2000 to 2008, the value of my house more than doubled. Like many others, I tapped into that equity to buy other assets or improve my house. But somewhere about two years ago, I started asking myself why a piece of real estate would double in value in 8 years. It seemed too good to be true. And it was. Assets become more valuable when the demand outstrips the supply or when the asset improves and then delivers more value to the end user. The increase in asset values over the last two decades cannot be explained by supply and demand or by a dramatic jump in productivity or efficiency. Perhaps we had moved far enough away from the Great Depression to believe that the mistakes of the past could not be repeated in a world where the science of economics had evolved and technology allowed us to measure more closely the crucial bellwethers of economic stability. Regardless of how such a monumental lapse unfolded, we must now return to a simpler calculus. Hard work, creativity and a strategic vision for the future must be the guiding principles of our economy moving forward. There are no free lunches. There will be no quick economic rebound that returns us to where we were when 2008 opened for business. By the end of 2009 our Government will likely have spent between $1.5 and $2.0 trillion to stave off a complete financial collapse. Let's not use the lenses worn over the last decade to analyze the ramifications of this unprecedented spending. This expense will cost us . . . for a long time. We need to start planning for the impact of this spending. Let's make sure we spend it on projects that have a multiplying effect. Let's invest in the technologies and industries that will allow us to grow new segments of our economy and revitalize those that are moribund.
The second lesson relates to the first and involves pain. It involves sacrifice. If we are to avoid being overrun by the economies of China and India and break the grip of foreign oil we must tighten our belts. No more McMansions; we need smaller cars, fewer gadgets and gameboys and old fashioned hard work. We need less about "me" and more about "us". Our financial resources must be reserved for investing in ourselves and not just consuming. As an example, our mass transit system, as a whole, needs an overhaul. The benefits of investing in these transportation systems are myriad. Less spending on fuel, less work time lost sitting in traffic, less pollution, etc. Public employees cannot realistically expect 3 to 4% raises in an environment where inflation is non-existent. Lifetime health benefits with no contribution cannot be sustained if we are to recover from the financial body blow received in the second half of 2008. Wall Street executives who oversaw and profited from the asset bubbles that have now burst should expect paychecks that more closely resemble the rest of society. Someone managing assets at a desk in downtown NYC should not make ten times what the owner of local business employing 10 employees makes. We let the investment banks and financial houses operate in an unregulated environment that allowed for enormous profits to reward activities that added little value to a business or industry. They must now also feel pain.
The third lesson is one of responsibility. We are all partners in a larger enterprise. I am responsible for my family, my neighbors, my countrymen and my world. If I am to honor their right to live freely, and to have reasonable access to the world's resources, then I must be reasonable in my use of the resources available to me. I think in recent years we have had a hard time understanding that we can't always get what we want. The commercial media tells us and our children that it is acceptable to focus on you and "just do it". Life's greatest rewards occur when we extend ourselves for others. I think at home, in our community and especially abroad, we need to offer ourselves to those who need us. I am not interested in bashing this country and its policies, but we must speak truthfully about our place in the world. We have for too long consumed more than our fair share of the world's resources. This has had devastating consequences. Our conduct has stoked a resentment whose fervor has accelerated during this past decade. Our consumption has made us dependent on the resources of others. It has also diminished our stature thus making it more difficult to influence world opinion on the issues that matter most to us.
Lastly, the internet and advances in communication technology offer profound opportunities for citizens to inform themselves on the issues facing us and get involved. My taxes will be $1,000 per month in Middletown next year. Many households will hand over a significant portion of their hard-earned money to their local Government. You should ensure that it is spent well. You should insist that your local Government is organized well, responsive and spending your money wisely. You should ensure that your locally elected officials provide transparent access to the activities of local government, especially spending. There is no excuse for having unanswered questions about how your tax dollars are spent. There is a wealth of local talent in the community. Offer your services to local government and local non-profit organizations. In Middletown, we have numerous Boards and Committees focused on improving the lives of our citizens. Ambitious, energetic citizens can take a leadership role and organize these committees around specific issues. Typically, the issues confronting your elected officials can be extremely time-consuming, and the ability to lean on our fellow citizens to provide input and recommendations on specific issues is crucial to addressing our weaknesses and improving the way we do business.
Similarly, our State Government must be repaired. Make your voice heard through your locally elected representative. Find out what legislation he or she is working on. If you have a specific issue that concerns you, check out the websites for the State and for your elected representative. I believe there is a general feeling among citizens that the problems facing the State are too big and too remote for one person to make a difference. Not true. There are already groups and non-profits organized around specific issues. Find them. Join them. Make your voice heard. I do not make these suggestions glibly or rhetorically. The current circumstances are dire. If we continue down the current path, we will be leaving our children and grandchildren a society in decline.
But the news is not all bad. Our form of Government, our belief in capitalism, and our commitment to individual freedom remain a unique and proven foundation for success. The American people are industrious and productive. We love a challenge; we like to compete. We now face enormous challenges, and we will need to bring to bear all of our fortitude to meet them. We must consult history and understand that if we continue the slide that I believe has now begun, we will find ourselves embroiled in skirmishes and conflicts as new powers in the World seek to possess a greater share of the world's resources. I hope that Barack Obama asks us to sacrifice. I wish John Corzine had asked us to sacrifice and to join him in a massive re-organization of State Government involving across the board consolidation of local government services and education administration and re-negotiation of compensation and benefits for public employees. If Barack Obama's solution involves nothing more than large-scale spending to jump start this economy, then I believe that we will have missed an opportunity to re-orient society and will simply be accelerating a decline from greatness.
The events of 2008 offer several lessons for us to heed. First, nothing comes from nothing. Most of us have taken basic Economics courses. Somewhere amidst the charts and demand curves was the idea that assets or products or services became more valuable when they were produced better or cheaper or faster. From 2000 to 2008, the value of my house more than doubled. Like many others, I tapped into that equity to buy other assets or improve my house. But somewhere about two years ago, I started asking myself why a piece of real estate would double in value in 8 years. It seemed too good to be true. And it was. Assets become more valuable when the demand outstrips the supply or when the asset improves and then delivers more value to the end user. The increase in asset values over the last two decades cannot be explained by supply and demand or by a dramatic jump in productivity or efficiency. Perhaps we had moved far enough away from the Great Depression to believe that the mistakes of the past could not be repeated in a world where the science of economics had evolved and technology allowed us to measure more closely the crucial bellwethers of economic stability. Regardless of how such a monumental lapse unfolded, we must now return to a simpler calculus. Hard work, creativity and a strategic vision for the future must be the guiding principles of our economy moving forward. There are no free lunches. There will be no quick economic rebound that returns us to where we were when 2008 opened for business. By the end of 2009 our Government will likely have spent between $1.5 and $2.0 trillion to stave off a complete financial collapse. Let's not use the lenses worn over the last decade to analyze the ramifications of this unprecedented spending. This expense will cost us . . . for a long time. We need to start planning for the impact of this spending. Let's make sure we spend it on projects that have a multiplying effect. Let's invest in the technologies and industries that will allow us to grow new segments of our economy and revitalize those that are moribund.
The second lesson relates to the first and involves pain. It involves sacrifice. If we are to avoid being overrun by the economies of China and India and break the grip of foreign oil we must tighten our belts. No more McMansions; we need smaller cars, fewer gadgets and gameboys and old fashioned hard work. We need less about "me" and more about "us". Our financial resources must be reserved for investing in ourselves and not just consuming. As an example, our mass transit system, as a whole, needs an overhaul. The benefits of investing in these transportation systems are myriad. Less spending on fuel, less work time lost sitting in traffic, less pollution, etc. Public employees cannot realistically expect 3 to 4% raises in an environment where inflation is non-existent. Lifetime health benefits with no contribution cannot be sustained if we are to recover from the financial body blow received in the second half of 2008. Wall Street executives who oversaw and profited from the asset bubbles that have now burst should expect paychecks that more closely resemble the rest of society. Someone managing assets at a desk in downtown NYC should not make ten times what the owner of local business employing 10 employees makes. We let the investment banks and financial houses operate in an unregulated environment that allowed for enormous profits to reward activities that added little value to a business or industry. They must now also feel pain.
The third lesson is one of responsibility. We are all partners in a larger enterprise. I am responsible for my family, my neighbors, my countrymen and my world. If I am to honor their right to live freely, and to have reasonable access to the world's resources, then I must be reasonable in my use of the resources available to me. I think in recent years we have had a hard time understanding that we can't always get what we want. The commercial media tells us and our children that it is acceptable to focus on you and "just do it". Life's greatest rewards occur when we extend ourselves for others. I think at home, in our community and especially abroad, we need to offer ourselves to those who need us. I am not interested in bashing this country and its policies, but we must speak truthfully about our place in the world. We have for too long consumed more than our fair share of the world's resources. This has had devastating consequences. Our conduct has stoked a resentment whose fervor has accelerated during this past decade. Our consumption has made us dependent on the resources of others. It has also diminished our stature thus making it more difficult to influence world opinion on the issues that matter most to us.
Lastly, the internet and advances in communication technology offer profound opportunities for citizens to inform themselves on the issues facing us and get involved. My taxes will be $1,000 per month in Middletown next year. Many households will hand over a significant portion of their hard-earned money to their local Government. You should ensure that it is spent well. You should insist that your local Government is organized well, responsive and spending your money wisely. You should ensure that your locally elected officials provide transparent access to the activities of local government, especially spending. There is no excuse for having unanswered questions about how your tax dollars are spent. There is a wealth of local talent in the community. Offer your services to local government and local non-profit organizations. In Middletown, we have numerous Boards and Committees focused on improving the lives of our citizens. Ambitious, energetic citizens can take a leadership role and organize these committees around specific issues. Typically, the issues confronting your elected officials can be extremely time-consuming, and the ability to lean on our fellow citizens to provide input and recommendations on specific issues is crucial to addressing our weaknesses and improving the way we do business.
Similarly, our State Government must be repaired. Make your voice heard through your locally elected representative. Find out what legislation he or she is working on. If you have a specific issue that concerns you, check out the websites for the State and for your elected representative. I believe there is a general feeling among citizens that the problems facing the State are too big and too remote for one person to make a difference. Not true. There are already groups and non-profits organized around specific issues. Find them. Join them. Make your voice heard. I do not make these suggestions glibly or rhetorically. The current circumstances are dire. If we continue down the current path, we will be leaving our children and grandchildren a society in decline.
But the news is not all bad. Our form of Government, our belief in capitalism, and our commitment to individual freedom remain a unique and proven foundation for success. The American people are industrious and productive. We love a challenge; we like to compete. We now face enormous challenges, and we will need to bring to bear all of our fortitude to meet them. We must consult history and understand that if we continue the slide that I believe has now begun, we will find ourselves embroiled in skirmishes and conflicts as new powers in the World seek to possess a greater share of the world's resources. I hope that Barack Obama asks us to sacrifice. I wish John Corzine had asked us to sacrifice and to join him in a massive re-organization of State Government involving across the board consolidation of local government services and education administration and re-negotiation of compensation and benefits for public employees. If Barack Obama's solution involves nothing more than large-scale spending to jump start this economy, then I believe that we will have missed an opportunity to re-orient society and will simply be accelerating a decline from greatness.
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