Restore Integrity of Mayor’s Office and Cut Waste:
We will save the taxpayers $300,000 on day one by not accepting any payment, alternate positions or Pensions if we are elected.
Mayor: $15,000
Mayor is currently also Police Commissioner: $15,000
Health Care Opt Out Check: $7,000
Stipend: $3000
Total savings over 4 years: $160,000
Council 2 Members: $6500 each
Health care opt out $7000
Stipends: $3000 each
Total Savings over 4 years: $132,000
Total: $292,000
Cut Political Patronage Jobs:
There are several political patronage jobs that were awarded to a former councilman, owners of the engineering firm and law firms. We will eliminate those positions day one. Those positions are nothing but rewards for political allegiance and do not serve the taxpayers.
Owner of Center State is also an employee. The Director of Center State is also a township employee. They charge us as a firm and also are employees that will receive pensions that taxpayers are footing the bill for.
Position elimination savings: $370,000
Eliminate Professional Services: The current law firm that represents the town has received millions of dollars from Monroe Taxpayers. They receive a very large retainers of tens of thousands of dollars per month and then charge us on top of that. We will hire a township attorney who will work for Monroe only. They will be an employee and they will only receive their salary. The incentive for lawsuits greatly diminishes when the financial incentive vanishes.
End Perks and Payouts for Mayor and Council: The Mayor and some Council members receive a hefty payment for not taking healthcare coverage from Monroe. Our current situation is that some of our elected officials also hold state jobs, also paid for by taxpayers. They get their health insurance through those jobs, and then opt out of health insurance in Monroe. They then receive approximately $7000 a year for not taking that insurance. That is $28,000 over four years for each elected official! This is just wrong! We will end this. That is your money, and we will give that back to the taxpayers.
Slow New Housing Developments: The Overall, which lists all of the new projected housing, has approximately 4000 units of new housing proposed for Monroe over the next few years. The condos alone will negatively impact an already overburdened school system and tax base. If the developments are not already fully approved we will assess and scrutinize each development. If the large tracts of housing coming can be stopped, we will stop them.
Community Building Initiative:
We are going to create a Community Commission. That commission will be in charge of having meetings with representatives of all communities to meet and discuss issues, create events and come up with solutions. The Mayor and a Councilperson will also be on that commission. They will report back to the Council.
That commission will also run our Volunteer Initiative. That initiative will have a page on the township page and a Facebook page. Community members will be able to sign up and volunteer to help others in the community. The Volunteer Initiative will allow volunteers to get a credit for their property taxes. The coordinator will manage the program and provide documentation when volunteer hours have been satisfied, based on a set of criteria, so that volunteers can receive credit. We do this now for Fire and EMS. They get $250 to $500 in property tax credit for the year when they volunteer.
How will we pay for it?:
The commission itself will be voluntary. The only costs will be for the Coordinator. We will transition some of the current political patronage jobs to the job of Volunteer Coordinator so that our residents and not the politically connected receive the benefits of those taxpayer dollar. We will also be bringing the professional services in-house. We did this on the Board of Ed when I was a Board of Ed Member. It has resulted in savings. We currently spend over a million dollars per year on the professional services of Township Attorney and Township Engineering firm. The Township Attorney has a retainer alone that is approximately $22,000 per month. He bills us on top of that retainer too. We can move those services in house and still realize a savings.
Work Closely With The Board of Ed: Approximately 60% of our property tax burden goes to school funding. The Mayor and Council point to the school taxes as the reason for high taxes and blame the Board of Ed for taxation. In reality, it is the development that has caused an influx of new students, which has increased taxes. The BoE costs are mostly fixed and the recent increases have been due to increased enrollment and the need for new schools.
What our elected officials don’t tell you is that they charged the Board of Ed (they charged you, the taxpayers) 2 million dollars to connect the new high school to sewer and water. They also charged the Board of Ed $500,000 to hook up Oak Tree School. We will look to eliminate those types of fees that are one reason for the increases in school taxes.
We are one town and we have one group of taxpayers. When one entity charges the other they are really just charging the taxpayers. We will end this practice and act as one town with one goal, and that goal is to maintain and create great services at the lowest cost to our taxpayers as possible.
We will work closely with the Board of Ed in order to assess the impact of development by giving them a seat on Planning and Zoning Boards, so that they can provide input and receive information. We will also have a Council Member who is a liaison to the Board of Education for two way reporting and communication.
The developers have a stranglehold on New Jersey and on our township and our elected officials have been complicit. We are not allowed to assess impact fees from developers, but we surely are allowed to asses impact and make decisions on proposed developments based upon the impact they may have on our community.
Chamber of Commerce: We will create an active Chamber of Commerce in Monroe along with a Shop Locally program like Marlboro and Manalapan have. The program will offer discounts to the residents of Monroe if they shop locally. We need to create a welcoming environment for our small local businesses. Many of our local businesses are run by Monroe Township Residents.
Maintain Services: We are looking to maintain our current services and improve upon them. There are opportunities and the fire and EMS services to make them better.
Culture and Character: We will work to build a better, more inclusive Monroe. We currently have a community divided between Active Adult Communities and single family housing. We have to forge one community through relationship building, dialogue and through events and committees that bring all the various parts of Monroe together to create one community that works together to make Monroe better, stronger and more affordable.
Open Space Acquisition and Preservation: Our open space program in Monroe needs a boost and needs to be reworked so that we acquire open space with no strings attached. Our current open space program has too many strings attached. For instance, the township creates a community garden for residents and touts it as preserving open space while offering a garden to the community. In reality, the garden is a carrot for Monroe residents to gobble up. If you want the carrot you also get the stick. The stick is that a major housing development, a Quick Check and a McDonald’s had to be approved in order for developer to give the land for the Community Garden. We need leaders who want open space for the sake of having open space and not attached to major developments.
Political Donations: We will pass a law in Monroe that will outlaw the acceptance of political contributions from developers, Engineers and law firms doing business in Monroe Township. We make a pledge to not accept donations from the same during this campaign and challenge our opponents to do the same. The taxpayers deserve it!
Term Limits: If term limit were good for George Washington then they are good for Chiarella, Bhagat and Edelman. We will institute term limits. Politicians lose their luster, and their effectiveness once they become entrenched. Turnover in politicians is a good thing. Money and party politics have created the career politicians that listen more to the monied interests than to the taxpayers. Change starts at the local level so let’s get change started.