Post #20 A TREE wishlist for the new boro council 12/2010

ongoing draft...(rev 12/31/10) In the beginning of January this will be cleaned up and sent as a letter to the mayor and council for their consideration.

Submitted for your musings:

We are putting this draft in writing and will formalize it by year end, but it's here to peruse as an ongoing list of suggestions for this month. These suggestions are just that and don't necessarily reflect this TREE blogger's opinions. Enjoy the read. If you would like to add any items, please contact me and tell me if you want the item attributable to you or anonymous.

1) When the BOE budget is defeated (seems to be pretty often these days), a committee is formed of the BOE finance committee and the municipal finance committee, along with the boro admin as recording secretary, to review the defeated school budget and make possible cost cut suggestions to appease the voters wishes. This joint committee normally has 7 members and yet the public is told that it is not open for them to attend. When 7 boro officials meet it sure sounds like it should be under the OPMA rules or at least should be addressed as such. We would like the governing body to allow the public to attend and overhear the discussions; and maybe even comment.

2) A committee comprised of residents and boro officials should convene to study just what Garwood receives in direct and indirect services from Union County govt. Rough numbers we have extrapolated is that county budget monies attributable to GW is $4.5 million while we receive only a paltry $200-250,000 back in direct services. The balance of over $4 mill would be for the county's indirect costs such as operation of the prosecutors office, mainteneance of county roads and parks, juvy and correctional facilities along with runnels. Sounds like a lot of money Garwood "donates" and we are one of the smaller towns.

3) We would like to see a proactive approach toward the county govt from item #2 resulting in either lower taxes or more services. In initial quotes of one of the new council members, it appears this may just happen. We have always said that our governing body should be an advocate for the residents to the upper levels. Possibly get the county league of municipalities involved as a concerted effort.

3A) (rev 12/21/10) speaking of Union County-Garwood and the other towns should have councilpeople liaisons down there to each freeholder meeting and report back as either a standing committee or an oral report as to the latest county govt "chicanery" being foisted on the taxpayers. Example who knows that the county is building a huge 40,000 SF 3 story clubhouse and banquet facility at Galloping hill. And ask yourself who pushed for it-noone? Or they now have a Union County Navy duplicating the services of the PANYNJ harbor patrol, the coast guard and the NY harbor patrol?

4) Lower taxes....hey, one could wish.

5) The expungement of a firefighter's record from 2009 now that new grievance procedures are being put in place. The policy is a driect result of what happened to this volunteer firefighter and so he should be exonerated of the punitative actions since its a "brave new world".

6) Return of the boro calendar to the official boro website listing scheduled municipal meetings and boro sponsored events.

7) List the schedule of standing committee meetings whether the public can attend or not. (on boro calendar?) When Boro officials meet to decide directions of issues should at least be made known to the public.

8) Install air conditioning in the boro vehicles for the DPW personnel. They work hard in the summer and it can get hot. A brief respite in the cool cab would revitalize them and prohibit possible heat stroke.

9) Review of all boro personnel contracts, union or collective bargain. One item that may need addressing is certain covenants of the police contract. Example: If an officer retires on February 1st he is entitled to a "bonus" of all sick, personal and vacation days being due him in the upcoming year. And he doesnt have to work through that year, just one month into the year. This basically costs the taxpayers at least $20,000+ everytime an officer retires. If you notice, thats why every officer's retirement date is February 1st. Unheard of in the private sector. Prorate it if anything.

10) Courtesy ordinance to prohibit texting on a cellphone/blackberry during council meetings. While we are at it: have the governing body speak into the microphones.

11) BBB: Bring back bulk or come up with a more friendlier system, although a user fee system would be the most appropriate. (rev 12/31/10) One suggestion: instead of getting a permit, make them aware that they can put out bulk at the curb, but the house that does, will be billed for it. Tracking system may have to be put in place, though.

12) Address overtime costs. One item is regarding the DPW: When a holiday falls on a thursday such as thanksgiving, they get thursday and friday off, then work on saturday at time-and-a-half. Why?

13) Invite the ex-mayor as an appointee on a boro committee. After all he has 20 years of direct boro experience. Plus have the composition of high profile committee appointments be of both political parties and independants. Until recently the system in place left out 2/3's of the boro residents since it was only being done politically during the old one-party rule.


14) RVSA (Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority): Somehow straighten that abusive quagmire out. The $150 mill construction program had overhead professional costs at 50% of hard construction costs, IE $75 mill more. This is unheard of in construction circles. RVSA yearly legal costs are running $500,000 per year to a senator's law firm who personally says he is the political boss of the area. This is all criminal IMHO. But we have only one boro appointee out of 11 members. Impossible but it should be on this list. We are paying for this RVSA fiasco as our sewerage rates went up by 250%! (PS: and don't even think about separating our sewerage costs from our property tax bills.)

14a) (rev 12/23/10) And speaking of the RVSA, whatever happened to our quarterly reports from the Garwood liaison? That ended at least 1 year ago, and the authroity is still embroiled with issues that we need to know of.

15) Hold persons accountable for their actions if it results in financial liabilities to the taxpayers. We just experienced a cost impact to the taxpayers from the "police officer cover-up" of $55,000. This payout resulted from sheer mismanagement in not wanting embarassing actions exposed to the sunlight of public knowledge. $55,000 just because certain someone(s) didnt want a red face?

16) A volunteer parade, just like the old days. The volunteers should be honored by our town. Institute a "volunteer of the year" award.

17) Put the American flags up around boro hall on July 4th, the birth of our nation. Missed 2 years in a row?...sheesh...

18) Finish the gosh darn recreation complex, in whatever evolving form it ends up in. Make it at "no cost" to the taxpayer as per Mayor Crincoli's wishes over 10 years ago.

19) NJ Transit: More stops and better train station. Continue the progress that ex-councilpersons Sytko and Villagio started. One way to get another stop is to canabalize either cranford and westfield's many "every 10 minute" stops for a stop
at Garwood intead.


20) Stay on top of the myriad zoning violations around town. If anything it would give Ann L. a good nights rest.

21) (rev 12/18/10) Transparancy: No more cover-ups just because it might be embarassing to the administration. The public has the right to know since the people are the priority above politics. Reach out to the people. The previous mayor did have a Saturday Mayor's day once a month, but this did not elicit a lot of residents to attend. Was it too far to travel to the center of town? Maybe have a "traveling" mayors saturday set in each voting district held at the house of each voting districts political committee person or just a good neighbor. Even spice up the boro's bi-yearly proprietary Just the Facts newsletter with additional depts on honoring volunteers, neighbor's acheivements or spotlighting boro workers, news from the legislature or even "where our county moneys go". People said they loved the hard copy TREE but the JTF was too dry since it was "just facts". Another transparant move should be: once the road projects are determined which is at least a year ahead of the project, tell the residents as far upstream as possible. That way if they were thinking of doing their sidewalks, they can wait the year and have it done by the paving people for half the price.

22) (rev 12/23/10) Bury the telephone lines underground. It makes for a much cleaner looking environment. Cranford downtown just did that a few years ago. It's probably very expensive but the results are great. Would make the entrance into Gawood more beautiful if you do it all the way out North and South avenues.

23) (rev 12/27/10) Alhough we know its not the true purview of the governing body, bring back the luminaries, the street fair and car show, the June Parents draw the line drug day.
With more and more community related events disappearing in the last 5 years, our community neighborhoods just may disappear also. The governing body needs to re-establish the boro as family oriented.

24) (rev 12/27/10) For the future of commerce and merchants in Garwood, maybe figure out a "underlying theme" to "anchor" all the stores together. Rahway has arts and culture. Westfiled has the outdoor retail mall. Chester has antiques and collectables. Maybe our theme is that we may be the "breadbasket of the county. Maybe have of theme of "Medical" or "Legal". You can't go wrong with doctors and lawyers setting up business in our boro.

25) (rev 12/27/10) Set up a commision to study just what should be considered heritage or historical in Garwood and head in the direction of preserving it. Aoelian? Alcan? The syrup sign on the side of Mr B's? The gazebo, GFAS bldg, baseball field house, North avenue Bus stop, the happy smiley face on center street? Is the first original house built in Garwood still standing?

26) (rev 12/28/10) Create a commission to study reassessment of the boro properties. Considered a third rail issue, reassessment hasnt been done in about 25 years. Possible items to uncover are multi-family dwellings not listed in tax records as such, upgrades done off the books. Although this raises the hackles of property owners, it is all done for fairness so only those who may be gaiming the system may not like it. The study may uncover families that might not be able to afford the higher taxes. That bridge may have to be crossed at that time.

27) (rev 1/4/11) Promote the development of the Casale Property and the Millen property, possibly in conjuction with NJ Transit and the transit village designation.

27) (rev 1/5/11) Start an investigatory committee to study merging of towns or major sharing of services. One suggestion is to possibly share the daylight shift of the police force with Cranford. Another may be to not replace Chief Legg when he retires in 2012, just use the Cranford or Westfield Chief's services.

etc).............to be continued.....(maybe we should have one for the BOE too?)

Postscript: There are those that are marking in the "reaction box" called "can't agree". Unsure which recommendation the poster may be referring to. If you would like to elaborate, you can also send a comment and we will post it under this entry post.