Village Visions

We Take Care of Our Own

2012-01-29T14:41:00.002-05:00

With 2012 well underway, there are quite a number of recent personnel changes in the Village that are worth sharing:

At the end of last year, Mario Luciani formally retired as the Director of Public Works after many years with the Village. We thank Mario for all his years of service and wish him the best as he begins the next chapter in his life. To fill the shoes left by Mario, we recently promoted Tommy Machetti as the new Director of Public Works. Tommy was previously the Assistant Director and is well versed in all aspects of the department. We know he will do an outstanding job and wish him lots of success in his new role.

Earlier in 2011, our previous IT Manager, Mauricio Garcia, left the Village to work for a private company. Our Media Technician, Stan Wilkinson, immediately stepped up to the challenge to take over Mauricio's responsibilities. He did such a great job, that recently, we formally promoted Mauricio to the title of IT Manager and we will now be looking for a part-time media technician to fulfill Stan's prior responsibilities. Likewise, we know Stan will do an outstanding job and wish him lots of success in his new role.

In mid-December 2011, Deputy Clerk, Sherri Golden went out on a temporary medical leave. Her husband, Derek, was to be receiving a kidney transplant and Sherri, in turn, graciously and unselfishly volunteered to become a kidney donor for another individual. I am happy to share that both surgeries and recoveries were successful and Sherri will be returning to the Village on January 30.

Lastly, as everyone already knows, Village Administrator John Gross resigned in August and Reagan Burkholder has been acting as Interim Administrator while a search was underway for a new Administrator. After a thorough search, including numerous interviews, the BOT appointed Barry Lewis as our new Village Administrator on January 23 and he will be officially starting work on January 30. Barry comes to us from Mountain Lakes, where he served as their Administrator, and Spring Lake and Mine Hill before that. Mr. Lewis has a BA in Political Science from the University of South Florida and a Law degree from Florida State. In Mountain Lakes he created a budget in 2010 which had a 2% increase (but would have been 0% without the loss of state aid) and in 2011 had a 0% increase. He also successfully obtained more than $20M in grants and funding partnerships and negotiated many interlocal agreements during his tenure in Mountain Lakes, Spring Lake and Mine Hill. I welcome Barry to South Orange and look forward to working with him!

I hope everyone will joining me in congratulating all of these employees on their recent achievements!

The Price You Pay

2011-11-01T22:05:00.003-04:00

On November 8, 2011, you will have the opportunity to vote on a referendum to determine if The South Orange Board of Trustees should begin to receive PAYMENT for serving the Village. I urge you to vote NO on this referendum for a variety of reasons:

Serving as a volunteer is a longstanding Village Tradition

Since the Village was settled, serving as a member of the Governing Body has been an honor and a privilege for those who want to serve the community. In all that time, this honor has been done by VOLUNTEERS who were not paid for their service. People served the community because they wanted to do the right thing for the Village, not because they were looking to supplement their income. This tradition is an important part of the culture and history of South Orange and should not be changed.

Providing compensation is not necessary

Serving the Village on the Board of Trustees is a part-time position. The Village already has a large payroll of full-time paid staff that handle the day-to-day operations of the Village. As a member of the Board of Trustees, I can say firsthand that serving on the Board of Trustees does not require a financial outlay for any mandatory expenses. In fact, the Board of Trustees already receives complimentary admission to many political fundraisers, a complimentary parking sticker to park in any permit space downtown and other perks. No compensation is required for the Board of Trustees to complete their duties.

Changing the Charter opens a Pandora’s Box

Altering the Village Charter to provide monetary compensation to the Board of Trustees will open a Pandora’s Box that can never be closed. What begins as a modest “stipend” today, will inevitably grow over time. Simply view the graph of Congressional salaries over time as an example of how, when given the opportunity, politicians love to pay themselves more and more money over time.

Our Taxes are already overly excessive

In this time of flat incomes, reduced services, reduced staff, and skyrocketing property taxes, we simply cannot afford a new expense added to the budget. The taxes in South Orange are outrageous and we need to find ways to REDUCE the budget, not INCREASE the budget by adding an additional expense to pay volunteers for serving their community. We simply cannot afford it.

VOTE NO ON MUNICIPAL QUESTION #3

Please share this with your friends and neighbors or go to http://nopayforpoliticians.wordpress.com/ for more information about the election.

Real World

2011-10-01T12:35:00.008-04:00

At what point will people say enough is enough with the offensive tax bill in South Orange, specifically and Essex County, in general? After all the recent debate and discussion about the Municipal Budget, the certified tax rate has been released showing an overall tax increase of 4% - increasing the average homeowner's tax bill by almost $600 this year to a total of $15,260.

The breakdown of your tax bill for 2011 is as follows:

The County portion went from .389 to .413 (a 6% increase)
The School portion went from 1.486 to 1.546 (a 4% increase)
The Municipal portion went from .729 to .749 (a 2.7% increase)

County Open Space remained at .015

Municipal Open Space remained at .01

Total rate = 2.733 per $100 of valuation

While most people are seeing their incomes remain relatively flat and we continue to see the challenges every day of the ongoing recession, the taxpayers of South Orange are being told to support a 4% increase to their already excessive tax bill. To make matters worse, there were very clear options this year for both the School tax and Municipal tax increases to be much lower: The School District recently received a $1M "rebate" from the state that could have been used for tax relief and the Municipality received a similar amount when the arbitrator's ruling for the Police union contract came in significantly less than was budgeted (and paid by taxpayers) over the past 3 years. That savings could have EASILY been used for tax relief, but wasn't. In addition, no structural changes were made to the budget at all this year - rather small discretionary spending items (like a business recruiter, holiday decorations and downtown concerts) were cut this year, and will simply return to the budget next year. As a result, I voted "no" for the Municipal Budget and likewise voted "no" on the School Budget.

When the average South Orange homeowner already has a tax bill over $15,000, it is completely unsustainable to raise it by over $600 each year - especially in light of the 2% CAP mandated by Governor Christie and the State of NJ. This budget crisis was further highlighted during the recent controversy over the retention of the CFO and Administrator. As I stated at the time, the financial terms that were proposed were not in the best interest of the taxpayers. Yet, no consideration on how the proposed deals would impact the budget was even discussed.

We all moved to South Orange for different reasons - including our housing stock, our proximity to NYC, our people and our sense of community. However, unless something is done to hold the line on taxes, our community will become far less desirable as a place for people to come to live or as a place people choose to stay. In the meantime, I will continue to scrutinize every expense we are asked to approve and will continue to vote "no" when I feel an expense is excessive or unnecessary. As always, I welcome your thoughts and input.

All or Nothin' At All

2011-07-29T21:29:00.004-04:00

Washington, D.C is not the only place with a budget stalemate. Here in South Orange, we are currently facing our own stalemate, with the Board of Trustees evenly split over the proposed tax increase for this year. Myself, Trustee Gould and Trustee Bauer are advocating for a 0% municipal increase. Trustees David Ford, Levison and Rosner are advocating for a 2% increase.

While I cannot speak for my colleagues, I can certainly share MY opinion.

While there is now a 2% "cap" in place for tax increases, I do not think that maximizing increases should be our goal. We have such an enormous tax burden to begin with, every increase on top of that is "real" money and we should do what we can to minimize the increases.
We can actually accomplish a 0% increase this year, without ANY additional cuts in services. The most significant source of the revenue is from our recent settlement with our Police and Fire Unions. Over the past 3 years, we have been budgeting "x" for Police/Fire increases. However, until the arbitrator provided their ruling this year, that money has been accruing. The arbitrator's ruling was quite a bit less than had been budgeted, so the "excess" taxes that had been collected over the past 3 years should rightfully be returned to the taxpayers. We can accomplish that and STILL have additional funds in "surplus" to deal with any unexpected events next year.
This year Maplewood passed a budget with a 0% increase and it is important that we stay in close parity to them since our towns are so comparable in many ways.
Lastly, although we are being told we need a higher increase this year so as to not face a steep increase NEXT year, let me share that we have heard that same argument for each of the past 3 years, as per the following table. Things always look bad for the subsequent year and somehow, we always manage to significantly reduce the looming increase:

Year	Initial Tax Increase Estimate	ACTUAL Tax Increase
2008	13%	6.5%
2009	27%	3.9%
2010	29%	1.94%

Taxes have been spiraling out control for way too long, in South Orange, and throughout New Jersey. The time is finally right to take a stand and hold the line for once.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)

2011-07-14T08:58:00.003-04:00

As many have heard, earlier this year, the Board of Trustees created a Special Improvement District Advisory Committee. This Committee was formed after several business and property owners came forward to express concerns about the state of the downtown. (I blogged about this last Summer http://trusteegoldberg.blogspot.com/2010/08/dirty-boulevard.html) They provided hundreds of photographs of litter, poor maintenance and unsightly conditions all around the downtown. After discussing a variety of options and realizing the limited financial and human resources available to the Village to address the problem, the idea of creating an Improvement District was raised and the BOT created a committee to study the feasability.

The Special Improvement District Advisory committee, consisting of representatives from Main Street, the Parking Authority, Board of Trustee liaisons and a majority of business/property owners, has been meeting every other week since April. Since that time, the committee has prioritized potential goals for the Improvement District, outlined a potential boundary for the District, created a potential budget and is now ready to share the findings with the business community at large and residents. While all meetings have been open to the public, the committee wanted to hold a special open forum where they could present what they have been discussing and solicit input from the wider community.

The public forum will be held on Wednesday, July 20 at 8pm in the SOPAC loft. All business and property owners are invited to attend. In addition, the committee would like residents to also attend since they also have a vested interest in the success of our downtown. Please mark your calendar and join us.

For further information, you can visit http://www.southorange.org/downtown/or send an email to downtown@southorange.org your comments or questions.

When the Lights Go Out

2011-06-10T10:11:00.002-04:00

Is a gas lamp near you malfunctioning? As I travel around town, I notice MANY gaslamps that do not have all 3 mantles glowing and it would be incredibly helpful if everyone pitched in to report them.

South Orange’s signature gas lamps offer less illumination than a normal street lamp, so it’s important from a public safety perspective that they always work at maximum capacity.

The Village is asking residents to take an active role by being aware of how to recognize a problem and report it to PSEG. If there is a gas lamp in front of your property, we would like you to adopt it. Keep an eye on it and report any malfunction. It takes only minutes to save $'s and gas.

Here are the basics to know:
• All gas lamps operate with a triple mantle burner.
• Each lamp should have three glowing mantles 24 hours a day. In addition, the globe should be clean and clear. Reporting a malfunction or dirty globe is easy. Simply go to the Village website, http://www.southorange.org/, and from the opening page, top left, under “Easy Access,” click on “Report Streetlight Outage. ”You’ll be connected to a PSE&G Customer Service form, where you can report your observations.
• Or call 1-800-436-PSEG (7734) to give the location of the gas lamp, and the nearest cross street.

Local Hero

2011-05-10T09:13:00.001-04:00

It is with great sadness and great pride that we complete our final Board of Trustees meeting tonight with Doug Newman as our Village President. Sadness, of course, because we are losing our leader and someone who has been a great inspiration to many. Of course, I often disagreed with Doug as he did with me. However, he always managed to keep his cool and work calmly to find a workable compromise to almost any issue.

As anyone who watched these meetings or got to know Doug quickly saw, he truly does know something about everything. (although he sometimes would like you to think he knew everything about everything) His grasp of facts, figures and infinite details for a wide variety of critical issues that were happening at any given time is incredible. Watching Doug navigate through the issues in excruciating detail, even into the wee hours of the morning, was exhausting, yet impressive. Yet, I would often awaken the next morning after a late Executive session to find numerous additional emails from Doug that were written even after the meeting or before I had awaken. Doug is never one to toot his own horn, but he literally did work for the Village 24 x 7 these past 4 years.

However, it is difficult for anyone to sustain that level of commitment for anything, so it wasn't a huge surprise when Doug announced he was not going to run again so he could regain his life and focus his energy elsewhere.

I have great pride for having served with him and the things that have been accomplished under his leadership these past 4 years. When I think back to the way things were just 4 years ago, it was a very different Village – just looking around the room here, we have a new Clerk, a new attorney and a new Director of Recreation. Meetings are more focused, agendas and ordinances are posted online in advance of the meetings and we always announce Executive Session agenda items publicly. We also rarely have long lines of residents standing at the podium to complain about issues - although that is partly because many of those complainers are now sitting up here on the dais. Looking around town, there are many things that have happened on Doug's watch - Eden Gourmet is open and thriving, the Firehouse renovation is complete, and the first phase of the River Greenway is completed. While Doug cannot take direct direct credit for these items, just 4 years ago, we thought these were all "Coming Soon" and they are now all realities.

There are so many memorable events and activities I shared with President Newman over the past 4 years, from literally measuring streets for commuter parking spaces with a tape measure, to attending ribbon cuttings for new businesses, to hosting Mock BOT Meetings with the Cub Scouts to probably one of Doug's most enjoyable tasks – establishing the Community Garden. Of course, we have also had our share of challenges – from potential layoffs of employees, to a very public issue over a private conversation between 2 Trustees, to "flash mobs", to continuously scrutinizing the budget to mitigate the insane tax burden we all bear. However, through it all , Doug has provided leadership and remained focused on doing everything he could, solely for the benefit of all residents.

As we end a Chapter in South Orange history, I may be biased, but I can honestly say that South Orange is a better place than it was 4 years ago. It truly does "take a village" to make things happen – from all the employees, to the residents, to all of us up here, to the business owners. We should all be proud of our town and be thankful for the endless time and energy that Doug Newman contributed over the past 4 years. It has been an honor to serve with him and I thank him for his service to our community.

Be True

2011-04-23T23:40:00.004-04:00

Right after the Board of Ed election this week, comes the latest Board of Trustees election on May 10. For those people who do not follow local politics, there are four seats up for election this year - 3 Trustee seats (currently held by Mark Rosner, Howard Levison and Deborah Davis Ford) and the Village President seat (currently held by Doug Newman).

Several weeks ago, we learned that at the filing deadline, the 3 Trustee seats will be uncontested by the 3 Trustees currently occupying them. Congratulations to my colleagues on being willing to serve another 4 years.

We also learned that Doug Newman decided not to run again and the Village President seat is being contested between current Trustee, Janine Bauer, and newcomer, Alex Torpey.

As most people know, I ran together with Janine Bauer two years ago (along with Nancy Gould) and I wholeheartedly endorse her taking the next step as our next Village President. As an attorney, Janine has an incredible depth of knowledge on many issues. I've worked closely with Janine over the past 2 years and have seen her logical and analytical approach to every issue. Having worked alongside President Newman these past 4 years, I have seen firsthand the incredibly complex and difficult issues that must be addressed by the Village President. From contract negotiations, to legal issues, to personnel issues, to financial issues, to public relations issues, and overall leadership - the job of Village President is incredibly demanding and requires tremendously broad experience. Janine Bauer in the only candidate that has the experience, maturity and demeanor to lead our Village for the next 4 years.

I actually know Alex reasonably well, think highly of him and commend him for stepping up to run for a difficult and often thankless position. However, having seen what the role of Village President really entails, I simply cannot discount the one quality that only comes with time - experience. Janine Bauer has the experience. I hope you will join me in supporting her for Village President on May 10.

The Rising

2011-04-16T22:41:00.004-04:00

In past years, I have resisted getting involved in Board of Education elections for a variety of reasons. However, this year, the stakes are simply too high and I could no longer sit on the sidelines without expressing my opinion. This year, I wholeheartedly am endorsing Marian Cutler and her running-mate, Jim LoStuto.

Not that many years ago, our school district was top-ranked in the state. However, most recently, NJ Monthly Magazine ranked our High School 75th out of 322. That is simply not good enough. (By comparison, our neighbor in Millburn was ranked 1 and Glen Ridge was ranked 4) We need members of the Board of Education that are focused on increasing rigor in our curriculum, so our District can re-capture the "prestige" it once had. There is simply nothing more important to our community and our property values than the quality of our school district. In addition, we need members of the Board of Education, who realize that a "one size fits all model" simply does not work. The School District needs to take into account differing abilities and objectively provide varied levels that work to the students' varied abilities.

As I said in my letter to the News Record,we need people on the Board who are willing to make tough decisions and fight to ensure that our kids receive the best possible education. In these challenging economic times, that requires creativity and a willingness to think outside the box and beyond the status quo. As a member of the South Orange Board of Trustees, I know firsthand how difficult it is to balance state mandated caps, the demands of Union contracts and the passionate needs and wants of our diverse community. The balance that the School Board must find is no different. However, with the School Budget consuming over 56% of every resident's incredibly high tax bill, it is critical to elect someone who is vividly aware of the tax burden but is willing and able to look at things differently to move our District forward, despite the challenges.

I have known Marian Cutler for several years and know that there is nobody more passionate and dedicated to our kids and our District. Marian Cutler is willing to devote the time and energy required to be an effective leader and an advocate for a strong rigorous education that fully prepares all of our kids for the intensely competitive world that we all live in. Her corporate expertise in Public Relations will bring increased transparency to the Board so we can all be further engaged in decisions that impact the education of our kids. Finally, as an outsider to the Board of Education she will bring a fresh perspective, innovation and creative thinking to education, yet ensuring our excessive tax burden is controlled. Together, her and Jim LoStuto bring a wealth of professionalism, passion and knowledge which will benefit all of our kids and the entire District.

I urge you to join me in supporting Marian Cutler and Jim LoStuto for Board of Education on April 27.

The Wish

2011-03-10T06:47:00.006-05:00

At our most recent Budget Workshop held on March 3, we reviewed a number of departments, including Recreation, Code Enforcement and Health, as well as funding for one of the nonprofit organizations - the Community Coalition on Race (CCR) which consumed the largest portion of time.

I have made no secret that I have issues with much of the "politics" of the CCR, including their lobbying of the School District for delevelling and their lobbying of Trenton on Affordable Housing legislation. However, politics aside, in reviewing their financials & financial model in comparison to other nonprofits, both supported and not supported by the Village, it became apparent that something is not right. First, unlike the other organizations supported by the Village, they pay rent plus a significant amount for telephone and internet connectivity. To rectify this, I proposed that we locate appropriate space within either Village Hall or The Baird and provide them space in lieu of a financial subsidy.

Secondly, reviewing a list of other nonprofits in our community, I identified numerous valuable organizations that receive ZERO Municipal dollars, utilizing other models to sustain themselves. Finally, many supporters of the CCR claimed that if we support integration we MUST provide them a subsidy. My response is that we (both as individuals and as a community) support the following organizations, yet we do not provide a taxpayer subsidy to prove it:

Achieve
Improves the academic skills of children in-need by matching them with trained volunteer tutors from the local communities. Every year, 150 ACHIEVE volunteers provide over 2,500 hours of free tutoring to 250 students in grades K-12, who are referred for extra help by their teachers and guidance counselors. ACHIEVE recruits volunteers - professionals, retirees, parents and high school and college students - from local groups and organizations and the community-at-large.

Adult School of South Orange/Maplewood
Offers a wide array of affordable, high-quality classes, lectures, and trips to more than 1,600 local residents each semester

First Night of Maplewood/South Orange
Provides an alcohol-free family-friendly way for the Community to celebrate New Years Eve

Jersey Animal Coalition
Provides homeless dogs and cats with medical attention, shelter, and boarding, and find them permanent loving homes. Based in South Orange, New Jersey, but place animals throughout the state and nearby states. Since its founding, rescued over 6,500 stray and abandoned pets. Without JAC's intervention, these animals would most likely have been euthanized in pounds or left to die on the streets.

JESPY House
An extraordinary program for adults with learning and developmental disabilities who demonstrate the ability to live independently and gain competitive employment.

Lions Club of South Orange
Lions are an international network of 1.3 million men and women in 202 countries and geographic areas who work together to answer the needs that challenge communities around the world. Known for working to end preventable blindness, Lions participate in a vast variety of projects important to their communities. These projects range from cleaning up local parks to providing supplies to victims of natural disasters.

Montrose Park Historic District Association
Promote, preserve and beautify the Montrose Park Historic District, maintain its integrity and enhance the quality of life for its residents. Promotes promote public awareness and sensitivity to the history and architectural significance of the Montrose Park Historic District through house tours, lectures, beautification programs and other projects.

Newcomers Club of South Orange/Maplewood
Extends a warm welcome to newcomers in both South Orange and Maplewood. Has about 100 member households and run 15 to 20 activities each month. Hosts a monthly General Meeting and offer a wide variety of activities, programs and services in an effort to acquaint new residents with the area and to promote camaraderie and lasting friendships.

South Mountain Peace Action
A community organization based in the towns of Maplewood and South Orange, New Jersey. Works for peaceful alternatives to war and for changing our national priorities to reduce excessive military spending and to increase resources for human needs and the environment. Holds an annual Be About Peace Day in March and many events and actions for peace during the year.

South Orange Historical & Preservation Society
The goal of the organization is to further the study of the history and architecture of the Village of South Orange, New Jersey.

South Orange Rescue Squad
The primary emergency medical service for South Orange Village. Provides basic Life Support ambulance service free of charge to residents and visitors and provide assistance to our neighboring communities. On duty every night from 6:00 PM until 6:00 AM and on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday around the clock. When not on duty, provides back up service to the paid agency that covers the town. Approximately fifty members are unpaid volunteers who received their initial medical training from the Rescue Squad

South Orange Rotary
Rotary club members are a diverse group working to address various community and international service needs. Through community service, Rotary club members help promote peace and understanding throughout the world.

South Orange / Maplewood Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Committee
Dedicated to preserving and honoring the memory of the six million Jews and 5 million other victims of the Nazi reign.

I certainly don't think anyone in good conscience could critique the value these organizations bring to the community, yet they do so without funding by the taxpayers. Other financial models do exist and the CCR must find which alternative model works for them in order to cease reliance on the taxpayers.

Darkness on the Edge of Town

2011-01-27T22:37:00.006-05:00

Last night was a meeting of the Board of School Estimate - a joint body of representatives from Maplewood, South Orange and the Board of Education - to vote upon the proposed capital budget for the current year. While the total amount being considered was $4,555,753 for a variety of projects, such as roof replacements, mechanical upgrades, sidewalks and parking lots, the one issue that garnered the most attention was the expenditure of $50,000 for lights at the Underhill Field sports complex.

This issue came before the Board of Education 1.5 years ago, when they were planning to spend $100,000 (of the $200,000 total project cost) from the operating budget. For a variety of reasons, the School Board voted against that, but the project never went away. Since that time, I have heard from many residents who live near the property and have concerns that lights on a turf field will negatively impact their quality of life. As we heard last night, the lights are proposed to be in use an average of 5 nights per week during the Fall and Spring.

Although I was inclined to not support the project, once I learned that no effort was made to notice homeowners that live near the property (not to mention the fact that the vote was held during a snowstorm), I felt strongly that the process was flawed and I could not vote for a project that we KNEW the public has concerns about, but were not informed about the meeting. In fact the vote was not even posted on the District website or covered by any of our local media, so unless someone reads the fine print in the legal notices of the newspaper, they would not even have known the vote was taking place.

When a someone buys a home, they have the right to expect a certain quality of life based on the location of the home. If you live next to a train track, you have to expect a certain level of noise. If you live next to a park, you have to expect a certain level of activity in the park. If you live near a football stadium, you have to expect some level of inconvenience due to noise or parking. However, in this case, the residents did NOT have the expectation of games and the associated noise (and light) running into the nighttime hours. A big reason that applications go before a Planning Board is so if dramatic changes are proposed to occur, public hearings are heard, restrictions are imposed and memorialized and everything is documented in an open, transparent and fair way. However, for some unknown reason, we are told that a Board of Education is exempt from this process. That just makes no sense to me.

In this day and age of belt-tightening and cutbacks, spending money on a luxury like field lighting seems inappropriate. To make things worse, to do it without the people most impacted invited to participate in the dialog seems just plain wrong. Unfortunately, my colleagues did not agree and the funding was approved. However, I am proud to have voted "no" on behalf of the residents who couldn't.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

2011-01-08T12:37:00.004-05:00

This week we continued our Budget Workshop series by reviewing the Capital Budget and identifying the priorities for the upcoming year. There were a total of $11.3M in projects that were suggested, with about half of that money coming from existing capital funds, and the balance coming from new capital, grants, open space fund and the operating budget. The biggest projects anticipated to be addressed in 2011 are:

Village Hall renovation
Resurfacing about 10 streets
Improvements to the Crest Drive Firehouse
Planning for the Baird renovations
Open Space Acquisitions
Next phase of the River Corridor project

Another topic discussed was the Holiday Schedule for Village employees in 2011. After doing a comparison of current holidays in the Village, it is apparent that the Village is quite out of line with other organizations. For example, most corporations provide 7 holidays to employees, typically:

New Year’s Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
Day After Thanksgiving
Christmas Day

The Federal Government adds the following for their employees:

Martin Luther King's Birthday
President's Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day

and eliminates the Day After Thanksgiving for a total of 10 holidays.

South Orange, further adds:

Lincoln's Birthday
Good Friday
Election Day
Christmas Eve
the Day After Thanksgiving

for a total of 15 holidays annually, in addition to 4-5 weeks of paid vacation! In this day and age of cost cutting, downsizing and increasing efficiency, it seems quite excessive to provide the equivalent of two full months of paid time off each year.

I'd love to hear how many holidays YOU get in YOUR job.

Pay Me My Money Down

2010-12-09T08:20:00.004-05:00

As we wind down the year, it's time again to ramp up the Budget discussions for 2011. This past week, we held the first Budget Workshop and focused on the subsidy for the four nonprofit organizations that receive money from the Village - Youthnet, Community Coalition on Race, SOPAC and Main Street.

We began with an overview of the outlook for 2011 and 2012, in general. The "good" news is that if we kept everything flat, we would "only" have a 3.5% increase in 2011 (if we find another $240k in revenue or cuts) and a 7.6% increase in 2012. (Once again, the biggest drivers being healthcare and pension increases). However, this does not account for having ANY capital expenditures (street paving, significant building improvements, Fire Equipment etc) which obviously is not realistic. So, as a result, we once again are faced with the big challenge of weighing our options and determining if there are additional "revenue enhancements" (ok...tax increases) or spending cuts that can be found.

With that framing the discussion, we reviewed the budgets of the 4 nonprofits in intimate detail and their respective financial requests:

Youthnet - requested $15k; accepted by the Board with the suggestion that Youthnet should work to increase its fundraising from the community
Community Coalition on Race - requested $22.5; after a lengthy discussion, concerns were raised about the expenses for the organization, such as payroll for 3 employees, rent expenses and $200/month in telecommunications expenses. In addition, as discussed previously, the CCRs involvement in divisive and political issues continues to be a concern of the BOT. No decision on funding was reached.
SOPAC - requested $337,000, an increase from the $229,500 that was provided in 2010. Extensive discussion was held and, in the end, the BOT agreed to maintain the same level of support as 2010 ($229,500) for now, with the option to revise it closer to SOPAC's requested amount once we had better clarity on the rest of the budget.
Main Street - requested $50k; accepted by the Board but it was noted that the additional $12k provided last year for Downtown After Sundown will be raised by the Citizens Public Safety Committee for 2011.

In addition, we agreed to ensure there were contractual agreements between the Village and each of these entities to ensure that they are performing to service levels specified and meeting goals specified by the Village.

We obviously still have a LONG way to go for the upcoming Budget with many more Workshops to come.

Light of Day

2010-10-21T23:17:00.003-04:00

This evening, I was invited to participate in a "Light Walk" with representatives from Seton Hall. This was organized by SGA president, Melissa Boege, to allow us to see the streets of South Orange at night through the eyes of students. Together with Police Chief Chelel, we walked from the Wilden Gate, along Eder Terr, College Place, Fairview Ave, Gardiner Ave, Riggs Place, Grove Road and Turrell Ave during the nighttime hours to observe the residential streets at night. Over the years, there have been a number of muggings outside the Seton Hall gates and we are always looking for ways to reduce crime.

The most glaring issue I noticed was the huge number of homes that did not bother to simply have a porch light turned on outside. In all neighborhoods, especially where the homes are relatively close to the street, the light provided by porch lights makes an enormous difference in the perceived (and real) safety of the area. We all love the gaslights in South Orange, but everyone knows that they provide limited light, resulting in dark sidewalks which is only further exasperated when homeowners do not keep their home lit up.

It is so simple these days to install a light sensor on your porch light which causes the light to automatically turn on at dusk and turn off at dawn. The incremental energy cost of leaving a light on all night is so minuscule that it is probably the simplest and easiest thing you can do to protect your home, as well as the pedestrians that walk along the sidewalks at night.

I encourage everyone to spread the word to your friends and neighbors - for the benefit of everyone, please turn on your porch light and keep it on all night!

Does this bus stop at 82nd St?

2010-09-17T11:31:00.005-04:00

At last night's Public Safety Committee Meeting we had a discussion about the school bus service that is provided to students in the West Montrose neighborhood who attend Marshall School. The origin of the conversation was from a discussion with the Board of Education last year when we were reviewing the budget and we were informed of the existence of this bus route because it was declared a "hazardous route". As a result of this designation, all 32 children in the neighborhood are provided bus service to school, which dictates the need for an added bus and bus driver, costing the school district between $25,000 and $50,000 each year.

Apparently, back in July 2001 the Board of Education was going to discontinue this bus route because the State determined that any bus routes for children who live less than 1.5 miles from school are considered "courtesy routes". To get around this, some residents at the time lobbied to have this route deemed a "hazardous route" instead, which would require the School District to provide a bus. That practice continues to this day.

The irony of the entire situation is that Marshall School services children in Kindergarten through 2nd grade (kids who are typically 5-7 years old) and are too young to walk to school by themselves. As a result, if a bus were not provided, the likely outcome is that they would be driven to school by their parent and the notion of the route being "hazardous" is a red herring.

As a parent of a 3rd grader at South Mountain School, I completely sympathize with the challenges parents have in getting their kids to school on time while also trying to get themselves to work on time. When my daughter was in Kindergarten & 1st grade, she went to school at South Mountain Annex, which is probably about a mile from my house. However, since the school is up an extremely steep hill without any sidewalks, we were forced to drive her to school and adjust our work schedules. In hindsight, should we have lobbied to have our route designated "hazardous", as well, so we could receive busing from the District? Likewise, I imagine there are MANY neighborhoods in town that take "hazardous" routes to school.

Should busing be provided to all students? Should all busing be eliminated?

I'd love to hear what you think.

Dirty Boulevard

2010-08-03T14:57:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago at a Public Works Committee meeting, we were joined by several property owners who were outraged over the current condition of our downtown. They noted problems such as gum on the sidewalks, litter, hanging baskets with no visible flowers, planting beds not mulched/filled with weeds, peeling paint on gas lamps/trash cans, awnings covered in bird excrement and crooked signs. They even went so far to bring pictures to show specific examples of these issues. While we have discussed most of these issues at one point or another, I can't say that I disagree with their concerns and share their frustration that these issues remain.

Clearly, beautification of the downtown is a complex problem - a combination of people who have no regard for the town and will freely litter, together with an aging infrastructure (the sidewalks and Gaslamps have been there for over 12 years), melded with SOME property/business owners who do not properly care for their property/sidewalks, combined with sporadic and inconsistent Code Enforcement, in conjunction with limited resources (people and money) for Public Works. The question then becomes how to solve the problem. Should all taxpayers pay for additional resources? Should the business/property owners bear the sole responsibility?

There have been at least three times over the past 10 years that the concept of a Special Improvement District (or Business Improvement District or Downtown Redevelopment Management Corporation) has been proposed to help fund dedicated resources for this constant maintenance that is needed to keep our town attractive and competitive. Each time the idea was killed off, largely by merchants who were opposed to this "tax" being imposed upon them by the Government.

Now, several property owners are suggesting that THEY take the lead to help create some structure for downtown cleanliness and beautification. Will this make a difference and gain consensus or are they simply revisiting the same idea that has been repeatedly rejected? I'm intrigued to learn more and am curious what you think.

W(Rec)k on the Highway

2010-06-15T10:37:00.003-04:00

Last night's BOT meeting was largely dominated by discussions centering around the Recreation Department. Specifically, how to better manage the basketball courts at the Baird and what to do about the upcoming vacancy in the position of Assistant Director of Cultural Affairs.

The basketball courts adjacent to the Baird Center have been the site of several recent controversies - most notably a "pistol whipping" on May 27, 2009 and most recently an enormous impromptu "tournament" on May 21, 2010 which attracted literally hundreds of kids from Newark and surrounding towns and which required a large police response to disperse. As a result, Trustee Gould, Chair of the Recreation Committee, has discussed among the committee the idea of constructing an attractive wrought iron fence around the courts to better control access to the facility. To me, this sounds like an optimal solution which would have a minimal cost impact and would ensure that the courts can be properly controlled when they are "open" and can also be closed when they are unsupervised at times when the Baird Center is closed. By enclosing the courts, players can be directed to enter through the Baird Center and could even be asked to sign-in. If too many people want to access the courts at once, access could be restricted to a safe number of participants. Apparently, this is exactly how the courts used to be operated several years ago before they were re-done and it seemed to work well. I think installing a fence now is an easy solution to prevent a recurrence of the serious problems that have occurred in the past.

The other issue raised and discussed was how to handle the resignation of the Assistant Director of Cultural Affairs. While the resignation of any staff member is always a loss, we also have to view this as an opportunity to better rationalize our staffing and spending on Cultural Affairs. We all agree that cultural affairs is an important part of our lives, however the Village currently spends an enormous amount of money on these activities through the Baird, SOPAC, the Library and the School District. There is now a great opportunity to better consolidate these services, particularly in light of the resignation of the Executive Director of SOPAC and ongoing discussions with Maplewood on "sharing services" with respect to Recreation. The tax burden in our community is still way too high and we have to capitalize on opportunities like this to do everything we can to maintain quality services so residents want to move and stay here, while also reducing that tax burden so residents can afford to stay here.

No Surrender

2010-05-23T13:48:00.009-04:00

Well, we busted out of class
Had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a 3-minute record, baby
Than we ever learned in school

As most people who know me (and as you can tell from the titles of my blog posts), I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. However, many people don't realize that part of the genesis of this is the fact that we both grew up in same town and graduated from the same High School (although a number of years apart). Having had a few common teachers in High School, the reputation Bruce Springsteen left behind in school as being a complete slacker and a disruptive force in the classroom is far cry from the man we all know today. On the other hand, I was a rather serious student in school and was glad to have been in all honors classes, finishing #11 in my graduating class of over 220 students. So, as much as I admire Bruce Springsteen today for his philanthropy, his inspirational writing, his values and all he has accomplished, I have to say I am glad we were not in the same classes.

The point is that different people have different needs in school. These differences require varying educational techniques to maximize their academic potential and to motivate students to learn. While Bruce Springsteen has gone on to unimaginable fame & success, he clearly would have struggled with advanced classes in school.

On the other hand, I recall a time when I was accidentally placed in a "College Prep" English class instead of "Honors" and was quickly bored, as well as distracted by the shorter attention spans of my classmates. I was looking for a challenge, yet my classmates needed more attention to get past elements that I found to be more rudimentary. My personal experience is a prime reason why levels in schools have been created and are important to be continued. This is further supported by a study entitled "Detracking America's Schools - Equity at Zero Cost? " (Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, v. 15, no. 4, Fall 1996, pp. 623-645 L. M. Argys, D. I. Rees, Dominic J. Brewer ). In this study, the main conclusion was "abolishing tracking in America's schools would have a large positive impact on achievement for students currently in the lower tracks, but that this increase in achievement would come at the expense of students in upper-track classes."

I have great respect for Superintendent Osborne and the members of the Board of Ed, for the time they devote to our community and for the intelligence and good intentions I know they bring to their roles. I fully realize their desire to provide excellence for all students. However, different students need differentiated instruction and trying to combine these students in a single classroom will inevitably result in the teacher teaching to the lowest common denominator, depriving the highest achieving students of being challenged to their full potential.

Let's address the elephant in the room - This is not and should not be about race. There are high achieving students of all races and everyone should be given an opportunity to reach their full potential. However, the changes being proposed in our school district would require significant investments in Professional Development and take a long time to properly implement. I am disappointed that this proposal surfaced this past week and is targeted to be implemented in the upcoming school year, yet during 4 months of budget discussions, increases in spending for Professional Development to address this gap were never mentioned.

I urge the Superintendent and Board of Education to re-evaluate and reject the proposal being discussed and engage the community in a dialog on how best to improve our school district. The current plan sounds like simply the surrender of our highest achieving students in an unproven experiment for which our community will be paying the price for years to come.

Long Walk Home

2010-03-31T22:41:00.005-04:00

Tonight was the annual Board of School Estimate vote on the school budget. For those who do not know, South Orange/Maplewood are quite unique by the nature of the joint school district and as a result the school budget is not voted on directly the the residents, but by a "Board of School Estimate", which consists of three elected officials from South Orange, three elected officials from Maplewood and two members of the Board of Education. This year the budget passed unanimously 8-0.

This was my 3rd budget and certainly the most difficult, largely the result of a MASSIVE cut to State Aid by Governor Christie. As a result of the cut, very difficult choices were made by the Administration and Board of Ed to propose a budget with a 3.23% increase in South Orange. Further compounding an increase beyond the original target and beyond the rate of inflation was the fact that this budget delayed the implementation of a technology lab in the Middle School and results in the outsourcing of paraprofessional staff. Certainly any budget that directly impacts people is painful and difficult for everyone involved and not something that anyone relishes. Having been the victim of the budget axe firsthand, I know exactly how it feels. I know it is a minor consolation, but the staff that are being outsourced will be offered a job with the outsourced agency (albeit without health care benefits) and will be reassigned to the District if they so choose.

This is an incredibly frustrating situation all around and the anger can and should be best directed at Trenton for putting the district in a no-win situation. The Superintendent and Board of Ed should be commended for doing the best they could with the limited resources they were provided by the Governor. All School Districts in NJ are dealing with this new harsh reality and in the end I think the decisions that were made were an attempt to minimize the impact on education for the majority of our students. I just now hope that the Teachers Union accepts the zero percent salary increase that was built into this budget, so further cuts are not needed.

Loose Change

2010-03-19T22:12:00.003-04:00

It's the peak of Budget season again and there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a tax increase that was once projected at around 29% has been whittled down to "only" 6.8% (so far) at our last Budget Workshop on March 15 without any major cuts. The reduction was mostly due to a recognition of surplus, projected revenue from the new Sterling Properties project and a better than expected tax collection rate.

The bad news is that we learned this week that the new Governor has radically cut State Aid to Municipalities, resulting in an additional cut over of over $400,000, which would theoretically bring the tax increase back up to almost 9%. (To add insult to injury, the Governor also cut state aid to the school district by over 80%, or $5.3M!)

Clearly a 9% Municipal increase is unacceptable under any circumstances (and even more so in this economy).

After a review of all departments, now we are starting to discuss opportunities to reduce costs or increase revenue. At the last Budget Meeting a number of increases to "user fees" were discussed and agreed to. Specifically:

Increase the cost of Use Permits to $50 (from $0)
Increase the cost of zoning approvals to $50 (from $0)
Increase the cost of street opening permits to $138 (from $100)
Increase the cost of a code reinspection to $50 (from $0)
Increase the cost of white metal pickup to $75 (from $0)
Increase the cost of toter delivery to $50 (from $0)
Increase the cost of mulch/woodchip delivery to $50 (from $0)
Increase the cost for household bulk pickup to $75 (from $0)

While nobody ever wants costs to rise, it seems only fair to raise the fee for services that are used by those individuals. In addition, many of these services would still likely cost the same (or even more) if contracted for privately.

In the end, these fees add up over the course of a year and should be borne by the people who use these services. We still have a ways to go to refine and reduce the budget further, but the process is underway and we are continuing to try to find creative solutions to our very difficult tax burden.

Let's Be Friends

2010-01-13T22:52:00.004-05:00

It's another new year, which brings a new budget cycle to work through. Already, there has been alot of talk about comments made by Township Committee Member Fred Profeta in Maplewood during their Budget Workshop this past weekend. I commend Mr. Profeta on his willingness to make bold proposals and try to "take on some sacred cows and not worry about the political consequences".

The part of his remarks that seems to have gotten the most attention is his suggestion for increased Shared Services with those of us in South Orange. Mr. Profeta is no stranger to promoting Shared Services as he was actively involved in the effort to pass a referendum in November 2006 to create a joint municipal consolidation study commission between South Orange and Maplewood. At that time, the referendum passed overwhelmingly in South Orange, but was defeated in Maplewood. There are many theories why the effort failed in Maplewood, but many have suggested it was largely due to a concerted campaign by some Maplewood residents promoting "Keep Maplewood Maplewood".

In any event, Mr. Profeta and (many, if not all of) his colleagues on the Township Committee new seem to be in agreement in principal with South Orange that Sharing Services between two relatively small municipalities is a good idea. While any sharing of services certainly has the potential to bring cost savings through headcount reduction, it is not always a guarantee and as such, proper analysis needs to occur. It's also important to realize that reductions (or even suggested reductions) in staff greatly impact the employees and their families. It's imperative that we are sensitive to how these ideas are reported to ensure that the process is fair and that we (and the media) are clear about where we are in the process, being careful to distinguish between "ideas" and "real negotiations".

I certainly don't fault Mr. Profeta at all, as I think he was very clear in saying "None of the details have been analyzed or worked out." I just wish the media and public had realized that and not been so quick to assume these ideas are all a "done deal".

Obviously, this is not to suggest that these ideas won't or shouldn't be explored in greater detail. With the insane tax burden we already carry, we have to continue to look at all options to increase efficiency. I'm just glad that we now have willing partners in Maplewood that are serious about working together with us.

Into the Fire

2009-11-24T21:19:00.003-05:00

At the BOT Meeting last night, we had a brief discussion about the SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Grant which provides temporary funding for paid firefighters as well as funding to recruit and retain Volunteer firefighters. With the enormous budget challenges we face, we are not in the position to discuss increases to paid staff, however it was an intriguing idea to utilize a grant to acquire Volunteer resources until we unfortunately discovered that this grant could only be utilized to recruit Volunteers if you have a currently existing Volunteer Fire Department (or Combination Fire Department, which consists of both paid and volunteer firefighters).

However, this prompted some research to see what other communities are doing and it was fascinating to learn that in the 22 Municipalities of Essex County, roughly half have ALL paid firefighters and roughly half have ALL Volunteer fire departments. There were also some municipalities, like Millburn and Bloomfield that have BOTH Volunteers and Paid Firefighters, which are commonly referred to as "Combination" Fire Departments.

Looking further at the entire State of NJ, it was shocking to see that fewer than only 50 municipalities (out of 566) have fully paid fire departments as of 2007! The common misconception is that Volunteer firefighters only exist in the smallest, most rural parts of the state. However, it was very interesting to to see that Volunteer or Combination Fire Departments, exist in all corners of the State, including the most densely populated such as Bergen, Essex, Union, Middlesex and even Hudson Counties.

Everyone acknowledges the tremendous work and bravery of our firemen and women and nobody is suggesting that we should eliminate them and replace them with volunteers. However, our firefighters frequently bring to our attention their requests for additional personnel and from what can be seen from other similar municipalities, a paid fire department supplemented with properly trained volunteers is a sustainable model to protect the community while keeping a control on out of control taxes.

Clearly, further discussions still need to be had to determine the official policy of the Board and there is still more analysis and research that is needed to fully develop a plan to implement this migration. However, the time has come to pursue this seriously for the benefit of the entire community - taxpayers and employees, alike.

As always, I welcome your thoughts. (and certainly would love to hear from anyone who is a current or former Firefighter, or anyone who has any interest in Volunteering to be a Firefighter)

My City of Ruins*

2009-09-22T22:40:00.005-04:00

With the 2009 Budget now behind us (resulting in a 3.9% municipal tax increase), we are now beginning conversations around the 2010 Capital Budget.

First on the Agenda - discussing whether to allocate funding for the rehabilitation of Village Hall. Anyone who has driven past the building is struck by its unique character and incredibly interesting architecture. However, anyone who has observed it up close has seen the rampant deterioration of the exterior and the years of neglected maintenance throughout the interior. The time is long overdue to do something.

Over the past year or so, HMR Architects have been working on a "Programmatic Analysis for the Interior Renovation and Rehabilitation" of Village Hall. According to a draft, "This report analyzes the feasibility of improved accommodation of specific user groups by quantifying their needs and developing realistic design schemes which could be accomplished through a substantial renovation of the existing building. This report also addresses the physical limitations of the existing envelope and structure."

Last night, during the Budget Workshop, they shared some initial assessments and estimates for the rehabilitation of the building, including an approximate cost of nearly $4M (although I can only imagine that with the unknowns involved until construction begins, the risk of significant cost overruns is huge). They also estimate that construction of a NEW building of a comparable size could cost anywhere from $3.6M-$7.2M.

While I am well aware that Village Hall has become one of many prominent symbols of South Orange, I can't help but wonder if it makes sense to rehabilitate an old building or whether it makes more sense to construct a new modern building on another site in town. Clearly, there are rational, as well as emotional arguments on both sides of the equation. Certainly, the long-overdue rehabilitation of the Firehouse, which took SEVEN years, looms large as a poster-child for everything that CAN go wrong with such a complicated project. There are also the logistics of temporarily relocating all Village Hall staff and services to some other location for up to two years if/when the building is rehabilitated. Of course, the other side of the story is about the history, charm and character of the building. However, the only option NOT available is to continue the current neglect and further deterioration of the building.

This is a very complex issue that will have a significant impact on the residents of the Village for several years, both financially, as well as logistically. Therefore, I really want to hear what YOU think. Post a comment to this blog, or send me an email to mgoldberg@southorange.org. I expect you will be hearing much more about this in the coming months.

* Blog title is based on a Bruce Springsteen song of the same name, which speaks of the "rising up" of Asbury Park. It is not intended to suggest anything negative about the Village.

Across the Border

2009-09-01T21:29:00.011-04:00

Just returned from our annual family Summer vacation- this year's destination was Montreal and Quebec City - and wanted to share some impressions.

We were scheduled to leave NJ on August 24, and the week before we were leaving, I discovered my wife's passport was expired! After calling the Passport office, I was told that I would have to make an appointment in NYC, but the next available appointment was August 28. Alternatively, I could go to the office in Norwalk, CT on August 25. I was preparing to delay our trip, when my wife called the Border & Customs office and learned that an expired passport is sufficient. I was a little skeptical, but decided to take the chance which turned out to be the right choice and we had no problems at the border in either direction.

Once we arrived in Montreal, we had a few items planned, but mostly we were just there to explore the city. The highlights of Montreal included: jet boating on the St. Lawrence River, a family bike ride along the Lachine Canal, visiting the Olympic Stadium/Biodome and hiking to the top of Mont Royal.

All in all, we enjoyed Montreal and were surprised what a large city it actually was. We did a ton of walking and even got to brush off my years of French to try to speak to the locals.

From there, we drove another 3 hours and arrived in Quebec City for a few days. We didn't have much planned other than wondering around the old city and fortunately the weather generally cooperated. One day, we decided to explore outside the city and drove up to Canyon St.Anne which is a huge waterfall with a terrifying pedestrian bridge across the gorge. From there, we drove around Ile D'Orleans which is a tranquil little island with quaint little towns and amazing natural scenery.

It was a nice trip with a mix of city, country, old, new, culture, adventure and relaxation which is always the right combination for a successful family vacation. Now it's time to start thinking about where to go NEXT year! :)

Summertime Blues

2009-08-17T23:46:00.003-04:00

Earlier this evening, we held what will likely be the final Budget Workshop for the 2009 Budget cycle. After many meetings over the past 9 months, and the news last week that we received $750,000 in Extraordinary Aid from the State, we are on the verge of finalizing the Municipal Budget which results in a Municipal Tax increase of just around 3.95%. I say "around", because there is still one item to be finalized - the subsidy to SOPAC. This year, SOPAC requested $265,000 from the Village, but this evening I proposed reducing it by another $20,000. Due to the incredible financial pressure that all residents are feeling in their own lives, SOPAC must also tighten their belts and like all of us, they must simply learn to live with less.

In other budget news, we also agreed to hire 3 new Police Officers to replace a number of the officers that are retiring this year. There is always a difficult balance between staffing needs and our crushing tax burden, however maintaining our tremendous Police Department must be our top priority and we agreed to send 3 new recruits to the Police Academy beginning in September.

The end of budget season is always bittersweet. Certainly, it is a relief to have gotten to the end of an incredibly difficult budget year. It is also incredibly gratifying that we managed to go from the threat of a 25% increase at the beginning of this year to something south of 3.95%. At the same time, it's incredibly frustrating that even after all the hard work, we still are forced to raise taxes at a rate that will cost the average homeowner approximately an additional $600 this year, when the County & School levy is also factored in. It is clearer than ever that the property tax system in NJ is a complete mess and needs radical reform at the State Level. It's disappointing that there is an election for Governor in November and none of the candidates are even seriously talking about doing anything. So, unfortunately, we can expect the status quo for the foreseeable future. Very sad, indeed.

Take 'Em as they Come

2009-07-28T23:43:00.002-04:00

This week we had the long awaited vote on Second Reading of the "Rental Registration" Ordinance, which would require landlords to register their properties, pay a fee, and be held accountable for the actions of their tenants. The genesis of this Ordinance was from all the complaints that have arisen over the years regarding quality of life infractions by some tenants - especially near Seton Hall. The initial draft of this Ordinance had a much higher fee structure and after receiving resident feedback, was ultimately stricken and revised.

Which brought us to last night and the Public Hearing on this revised Ordinance. Prior to the meeting, I had heard a smattering of opposition, but I was not sure how widespread those concerns were. I also knew that the INTENT of the Ordinance was good and it seemed to be a reasonable approach to a longstanding problem. However, since I had no vested interest either way, I went into the meeting with an open mind and was interested to hear what the public had to say. We initially heard from an attorney who, while raising some very interesting points, also went a bit far over the top in the drama department. Rightfully so, Trustee Bauer did call him on some of these allegations. However, the memo he provided us in writing seemed to provide some reasonable suggestions. The night continued with a multitude of landlords who were outraged by the details, or lack thereof, of this Ordinance for a variety of reasons.

When it came time to vote, my decisions came down to a few key points - a) With the number of people who turned out, there was not a single person who spoke in favor of the ordinance. b) The members of the public articulated their concerns well and raised valid objections which raised doubt in my mind that this Ordinance was ready for passage in its current form c) Ultimately, the whole point of a Public Hearing is to listen to the members of the public and take their feedback into account, when possible. A Public Hearing should not simply be a formality.

Ultimately, I think SOME FORM of an Ordinance is still a good idea, but after listening to all the feedback, I realized that we should try to incorporate them, not simply pass an ordinance because we don't want to "start all over again". No law is ever perfect, but I came to the realization that this one still needed some more work and voted "No". However, my colleagues didn't agree and the Rental Registration Ordinance passed by a vote of 4-1-1.

Long Time Coming

2009-07-17T19:30:00.004-04:00

It seems this latest blog entry has been a long time coming. There have been a few recent events I've been wanting to blog about, but didn't, so I think I'll combine them into a single entry:

1) My Beautiful Reward
Recently, I took my 7-year-old daughter bicycling in Hoboken & across the Hudson by ferry to NYC. As we were returning in Hoboken, we were stopped by a Hoboken Police Officer who proceeded to hand my daughter a "ticket". He then explained it was a "reward" for her wearing a helmet when bicycling and it contained a coupon for a free ice cream at Johnny Rocket's or a free ices at Rita's. After the surprise wore off, I realized what a clever idea this is to reward positive behavior and have brought it back to South Orange for discussion. The Police Chief is looking into it further and we will then discuss the idea with the full Board to see what everyone thinks.

2) Rollover Beethoven
At the BOT meeting last week, we were asked to formally approve the rollover of $4M in "loans" that had been given to SOPAC and which come due next week. SOPAC gave a presentation to us on June 22 explaining their revised business model and how they plan to achieve independence from the $300k annual subsidy from the Village. On the surface, it all sounded very positive, but upon further thought, it became apparent that there was no detail given on how these projections were made. So, I sent a letter in writing to SOPAC requesting further detail. Several days later, most of the information requested was hand delivered to me, which was appreciated. After reviewing the detail, I was pleased to see that there actually was analysis that had gone into creating the projections, although I am still extremely skeptical of the overly-optimistic projections. However, after confirming that this rollover would have no tax impact to the Village (since SOPAC would still be responsible for paying all interest and principal), I decided to support the 1 year rollover with an eye towards re-evaluating the situation in 1 year. In the meantime, I strongly urge SOPAC to tighten their belts to reduce spending, (just as every other Organization is being forced to do in this horrible economy) and start focusing on their primary purpose - booking performers that will attract people to our town and ensuring those performances sellout and are profitable.

3) Long Time Coming
As hard as it may be to believe, this past week, the Firehouse received a "temporary certificate of occupancy", which is the last major milestone needed for the firefighters to move back in to the Firehouse. After far too many years of delays, the long awaited completion of the Firehouse is upon us. There is now still some minor "touch up" work to do, but that will be done while the firefighters are living and working in the firehouse, once they move in this week. This will allow the Village to disconnect and return the temporary trailers that had been located adjacent to the site, and return that site to be used for parking. In the short term, the firefighter's will park their vehicles in that lot while the driveway around the firehouse is re-done. Once the driveway is completed, the firefighter's will park their vehicles there, and the lot will likely be designated as "premium" parking for resident commuters.

It is absolutely inexcusable for this project to have taken as long as it has and there is more than enough blame to go around. However, we can now be glad that this painful part of our Village's history is in the past and we can take comfort knowing that we have this project as an example of everything not to do if and when the Village decides to move ahead with renovating Village Hall.

Secret Garden

2009-06-15T10:17:00.004-04:00

We are about to undertake an exciting new project in South Orange, thanks to the creative suggestion of a resident. Back in April, I was contacted by a resident who lived in the Mews and he was looking for a place to create a community garden. He suggested the open space across the street from the Mews, between the river and Church Street.

It seemed like a great idea, so I scheduled some time to meet him, along with Village President Newman to walk the site and explore the options. While there are a few challenges (i.e. location of a water source, ability for people to park/drop-off materials nearby, wetness of the soil), it immediately struck us as a fantastic idea with huge potential. There are many residents living in apartments or townhouses, without access to a yard. There are also many residents living in homes with shady yards or too many animals to sustain a garden. As a result, a Community Garden has the potential to attract residents from all over town and give them access to gardening, while fostering a true community spirit.

Unfortunately, the initial resident ultimately decided he had too many other commitments to devote the appropriate amount of time to spearhead this effort. However, we have decided to try to move the idea ahead and have scheduled an initial Public Meeting on Wednesday June 24 at 7:30pm in the Baird Center to gauge public interest, since obviously this garden will only succeed if residents determine it is something they would like. I urge you to come out, offer to get involved and help bring this idea to reality!

Chaaaaarge it!

2009-05-29T12:31:00.006-04:00

At our first BOT Meeting as a new Board this past Wednesday, it was a true pleasure to not have the unnecessary drama and petty political agendas that have permeated far too many meetings in the past. However, as I said the night of the election, this does not mean we will all agree and our first order of business proved just that.

On the agenda was the passage of our Capital Budget for 2009. Included in that $2.6 million ordinance was money for projects such as the Public Works garage, Crest Drive Firehouse, Athletic Field improvements, Parking Lot improvements, IT projects, Roadway improvements and Public Works trucks - all valid and necessary expenditures in order to maintain our Village's infrastructure and all costly projects that make sense to pay for over the many years of the useful life of these projects.

However, one element of this Capital Budget I disagree with (again) is to include $60,000 of the $265,000 SOPAC subsidy for Operating Expenses. Two years ago, during a challenging budget cycle, my colleagues agreed to allocate the entire $300k of operating expenses for SOPAC on the Capital Budget and I voted against it. Last year, in order to bring the Municipal increase to a "round number", a small portion of the SOPAC subsidy was put on the Capital Budget and I reluctantly agreed - thinking it was a one time situation. However, this year, that amount was carried forward to the Capital Budget again and I strongly disagree.

The subsidy for SOPAC Operating Expenses is to pay for salaries and other operational expenses that will be incurred THIS YEAR. To defer payment of those funds and spread them over 20 years simply does not make any sense to me. In my opinion, this is no different than buying a big house with a big mortgage and then realizing you cannot afford a fully loaded cable TV package, so you simply put your cable bill on your mortgage. If we cannot afford the SOPAC subsidy, we should address that simple fact. I would like to see where the final Municipal Budget winds up once we learn if we will be receiving any extraordinary aid from the State. At that point, if the Municipal increase is still to large, we should cut additional expenditures, including the SOPAC subsidy...not simply defer the expenditure to the future by "putting it on the credit card". I don't do that with my home finances and don't agree we should do it with YOUR tax dollars either.

The Capital Budget will be voted on a Second Reading on June 22. Let me know what you think.

For You

2009-05-13T12:10:00.004-04:00

It is the day after the 2009 Municipal Election and I am honored and humbled by the results. Pure Progress, consisting of myself, Janine Bauer and Nancy Gould were elected by comfortable margins to 4-year terms to the South Orange Board of Trustees. It has been an exhausting couple of weeks and I am glad that the campaign is finally over.

First, I'd like to thank our opponents for a spirited competition that did not revert to the terribly nasty level that had transpired in past elections.

Most notably, I'd like to take a moment to thank the absolutely incredible team of people that donated their time, money and effort to make this successful election happen:

We had so many people that brought their expertise to make us successful - from web design, to photography, to graphic design, to marketing - you all know who you are and I am incredibly grateful.

To volunteers who stood on street corners holding signs, to volunteers who went knocking on doors, to volunteers who made phone calls, to volunteers who stuffed envelopes, to volunteers who wrote thank you notes, to volunteers who delivered lawn signs, to volunteers who hosted lawn signs, to volunteers who made goodie bags, to volunteers who reported election results, to volunteers who sent email blasts to their friends, to volunteers who hosted coffees, to people who attended coffees, to people who wrote letters to the Newspaper, to people who generously contributed money - every one one of you made a difference.

To my Pure Progress runningmates from 2007 - Thank you for all your support and endorsements this year. I look forward to continuing working with all of you.

To the core campaign team - treasurer, events coordinator, volunteer coordinator, media coordinator, you guys are amazing! The energy, effort and enthusiasm you brought was unparalleled and we clearly would not have been successful without you. I can't even begin to list all of the things you accomplished over the past 6 weeks at all hours of the day and night.

Of course, there must be a special shout out for our Campaign Manager, who orchestrated every moving part and kept us all focused 24/7...since those were the hours she was working for us!

To my wife & daughter - Thank you so much for the love, support and patience putting up with my long hours & time away from home.

To my runningmates - You are two of the of the most passionate and intelligent people I know. I have been so proud to campaign side-by-side with you these past few weeks and I am really looking forward to serving with you.

Finally, I would like to thank the residents of South Orange for their support and their confidence in us to allow us the opportunity to continue serving the community. We look forward to moving forward and will do all we can to make you proud! Thank you!!

Crazy days

2009-04-28T14:27:00.003-04:00

Hard to believe it has been over a month since my last blog post. However, it has been quite a busy month between my active Trustee duties, campaign events, personal commitments and family obligations. The good news is that it all has been positive, but it simply hasn't given me the time to blog as frequently as I would have liked.

With respect to Trustee duties, we have begun the process to officially avert the layoffs of 14 employees. Although unofficially the layoffs were averted last week when the Union members voted to accept the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement negotiated between the Village and Union Management, last night, we passed an Ordinance on first reading which formalizes this. This ordinance will be read on second reading on May 11 and will "officially" bring closure to this very difficult chapter. I commend the Village President for his negotiating skills and I thank the Union members for coming to the table and agreeing to the significant concessions that were proposed.

Over the past few weeks, there have also been numerous events to attend, such as the annual Holocaust Remembrance Service, the annual Baseball parade, the annual South Mountain PTA fundraiser and a recent tour of the Firehouse - which is now scheduled for completion in May. There have also been many campaign related events, such as "coffees", media interviews, door-to-door canvassing and an upcoming debate.

Two weeks from today, the Municipal Election will be held in South Orange. I urge you to vote for myself and my Pure Progress runningmates, Janine Bauer and Nancy Gould on Row "B". For more information , be sure to visit our detailed website at www.pureprogress.org.

Don't Look Back

2009-03-24T19:24:00.003-04:00

Well, for those who have not heard, yet, I finally formally decided to run for re-election as Village Trustee in the May 12 election (and filed appropriate papers on March 18). Many people certainly have asked "why" when it can be such a Thankless job. I definitely gave it alot of thought over the past few months and went back and forth on the decision a few times. While there are far too many people that get into local politics for their own personal agenda or some higher political ambition, I am glad to say that my motives are far more simplistic - I simply enjoy serving the community and wanted to do what I can to make it a better place.
I am actually quite proud of the many accomplishments over the past 2 years and am glad we have been able to start to unwind some of the terrible decisions and attitudes of the past.

After a lengthy search process for the best possible runningmates, I am very proud and excited about the final result - I will be running together with Janine Bauer and Nancy Gould.

The notion of running together with Janine Bauer may come as a surprise to many people. As many of you know, Janine ran for Trustee on the opposing ticket 2 years ago. However, Janine and I have spoken quite a number of times over the past two years and she has actually been quite supportive of what we have been doing. We ultimately agreed it was time to look ahead and move beyond the politics of the past. In addition, Janine has stayed very active in the community - continuing to serve both on the Environmental Commission and on the River Greenway Committee. She also previously served on the Planning Board, where she helped advocate to preserve as much of the quarry as possible (a cause I was very passionate about, as well.) She is a practicing attorney, as a partner in a law firm specializing in land use, environmental, transportation, contracts and business litigation. She lives in West Montrose with her husband and 2 children. I urge you to get to know her and see that she will be a huge asset to the entire town.

Nancy Gould is currently a Real Estate Agent and formerly a Partner in a large Architectural/Engineering firm in New York, where she managed multi-million dollar large-scale development projects and was in charge of the Planning and Urban design departments for the firm. She also currently sits on the South Orange Planning Board. She lives in Montrose with her Husband and 16 year old son. Nancy is a fantastic person and will also be a huge asset to the entire town.

We also decided that we will be running under the name "Pure Progress" (www.pureprogress.org) to continue the vision and platform we laid out and began implementing two years ago. Obviously, Janine and Nancy will each bring their fresh perspectives, but the core of our values remains the same.

I look forward to the campaign over the next 7 weeks and hope you get a chance to talk with Janine, Nancy or myself to learn about our ideas and values. It's time to spring forward and not fall back.

Sad Eyes

2009-02-25T19:53:00.002-05:00

On February 17, the BOT held the most recent Budget Workshop. This time, we focused on reaching a conclusion on Recreation Fees, reviewing the budget of the Police Department and reviewing the budget for the Department of Public Works.

With respect to Recreation, it was agreed to do the following:

increase the fees for Summer Camp to $700/child, with a $100 discount for each additional child per family (beyond one)
increase the fees for Recreation Badges to $30/person, with a maximum of $120/family
increase the fees for programs at the Baird by $10
implement a $10 discount for residents that sign up for Baird programs and have a Recreation Badge

With respect to the Police Department, no formal decisions were reached, however it was recommended that the vacant positions that currently exist in the Department not be filled at this time. However to help meet the Policing needs of the community, it was strongly suggested that the Police Officer currently assigned to Information Management be utilized as a Police Officer and the position of Information Management be filled by a Civilian. In addition, it was strongly suggested that additional per diem dispatchers and Crossing Guards be identified, so Police Officers are not utilized to fill-in for those jobs, causing costly overtime expenses to occur.

With respect to Public Works, the joint bid with Maplewood for large turf mowing was discussed and identified as an area to save around $180,000/year.

However, even with all of these changes, an enormous budget gap still remains. As a result, this past Monday night, the BOT voted to submit a layoff plan to the State of NJ which proposes the elimination of the following positions:

Public Works – 5 positions
Recreation and Cultural Affairs – 2 positions
Code Enforcement & Inspections – 4 positions
Municipal Court – 1 position

The Board of Trustees also is recommending to the Board of the South Orange Library that it eliminate two positions, in addition to not filling one open position. (The BOT simply controls the amount of money provided to the Library, but the Library Board actually determines how that money is spent)

Clearly, this process has been the most difficult thing we have been faced with and none of these decisions were reached easily or with any pleasure. However, the Village taxpayers spend over $22M for personnel (including salary, benefits and taxes) in a budget of almost $34.5M for 176.5 full time employees across all departments. In addition, over 62% of personnel costs are just for Public Safety (Police and Fire) alone.

As I have said on this blog and publicly numerous times, this financial situation is simply unsustainable. South Orange is one of the most "tax-stressed" communities in the State and something must be done to help the residents. I urge the Unions that represent the majority of the Village employees to work diligently to put an end to the spiraling costs of salaries, health care and benefits for the sake of all residents and employees.

The Big Muddy

2009-02-11T15:07:00.003-05:00

Once again, it is Budget season and the Board of Trustees has begun holding frequent Budget Workshops to analyze the budget and determine what should be included this year and what won't. As expected, just like EVERY organization, times are very difficult this year with the unprecedented economic climate we face. However, far worse than expected is that we are looking down the barrel of a $5 MILLION budget gap, which would translate to a 27% Municipal Tax increase if nothing were done!

Clearly, a 27% increase is completely unacceptable. However, we are now faced with the difficult task of determining what elements of the budget should be trimmed to reduce the gap.

At this point, the largest drivers of the increase are: Reduced Surplus (about $1.8M), Personnel Costs, Fixed Costs, Reduced State Aid, (last year we received $600k in extraordinary aid that we cannot count on again), Debt Service and Capital Improvements. With respect to Capital Improvements, we have identified approximately $11M of projects that are LONG overdue, such as replacement of vehicles, building maintenance and roadway improvements for which money has never been set aside. To undertake these projects, requires a 5% "down payment", which equates to almost $550k. It might be easy to suggest deferring these improvements, but the problem is that has been the "answer" for many many years and at some point the work must be done or we will face the situation of the Old Stone House with many more assets of the town.

So, to deal with these challenges, we asked all Village Departments to propose how they can cut a percentage of their current budgets by reducing services/staff costs and/or what revenue could be increased. Monday night, we met with the first two departments - Library and Recreation to hear their proposals.

From Library, the proposals came to a net change of 0%...which unfortunately does not help the situation.

From Recreation, some proposals were presented as follows:

Increase the cost of Recreation Badges/Guest Passes/Babysitter Passes
Increase the cost of Summer Day Camp
Increase the cost of program fees
Eliminate the fireworks from Village Aglow
Reduce some costs for Holiday Lighting

At this point, no final decisions have been made. Depending on the severity of these increases, this COULD generate an additional $200k or so, but that is still a long long way away from $5M!

The next Budget Workshop is February 17 at 7:30pm in Village Hall

Just around the corner to the Light of Day

2009-01-31T15:38:00.011-05:00

One of the biggest frustrations we have faced on the Board has been the glacial pace of progress for the renovation of the Firehouse. (Although, I am certain our frustration doesn't even remotely approach the level of frustration felt by our Fire Department who have had to endure difficult conditions in temporary trailers for far too long.)

As Chair of the Public Safety Committee, I have met with the Fire Chief periodically to tour the Firehouse in order to see the progress (or lack thereof) firsthand. Earlier today, I had my most recent visit and the good news is that significant progress has been made since I first toured the building in 2007 - when studs were exposed and the building was essentially a gutted shell. On subsequent visits in 2008, the rough/finish electrical was completed, sheetrock was installed and finished and plumbing fixtures were installed etc.

This morning, I noticed much more "finish" work that had been completed since my last visit - such as the front extension doors were removed, carpet and molding has been installed, lockers were installed in the dormitory and appliances were installed in the kitchen.

The good news is that we are very close to having the construction completed. The bad news is that the remaining "punch list" items are lengthy and are still realistically a couple months away from completion, in my personal opinion. Once the punch list is completed, there is still the procurement and installation of furniture, bedding, communications equipment etc which will likely take another month or two.

I wish I had thought to take pictures of the project on previous visits so people could appreciate the progress that HAS been made. However, I did take some pictures this morning, so people can see the progress that still remains.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaMWjdm5as2T3&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar

There is a light at the end of the tunnel... but the tunnel is still not as short as we would like it to be.

Enough is Enough

2009-01-16T21:26:00.003-05:00

Anyone who has read previous entries of this blog knows of the financial challenges we constantly face in the Village and my frustration with those challenges. This frustration was brought to a new level Wednesday night when the BOT was asked to pass an Ordinance to bond an additional $275,000 for SOPAC.

This request was raised in Closed Session a few months ago and I was shocked when I first heard they wanted MORE money. For anyone who doesn't know the background, when the project was first conceived in the late 1990s, construction bids were rejected when the low bid came in at $12.7 million--$3.4 million over the original budget. The lowest bidder, Arnell Construction, was asked to "value engineer" the building to reduce costs, and submitted a design-build proposal of $10.5 million. Ironically, several years later, Change Orders for almost an additional $4 million were approved. Around the time the facility was completed, it was determined that there was an acoustical defect which prevented the main performance stage from being used at the same time as the Loft space above, due to the transference of sound between the floors.

The contractor made claims against SOPAC for change orders, increased construction costs, and late payment/interest penalties. SOPAC made a claim to remedy the acoustical defect and to oppose increased construction costs.

However, instead of fighting the issue, a "settlement" was reached for SOPAC to pay the contractor WITHOUT having the flaw repaired. Since SOPAC is largely funded by the Village (to the tune of $300,000/year for Operating Expenses), they returned to the Village for and additional $275,000 for this "Settlement".

Village President Newman suggested we meet with members of the SOPAC Board to better understand their predicament. On November 21, 2008 (nearly 2 months ago!) Trustee Levison and I met with Mr. Leitner, Mr Wolf and Ms. Stoller. While the conversation was pleasant and cordial, Trustee Levison & I each had several very specific action items that were agreed to coming out of the meeting. For me, it was simple:
1) Provide full details around the current finances of SOPAC, including salaries of all employees, benefits, raises etc. We need to ensure that current expended funds are being spent wisely before even considering more.
2) Review and Provide recommendations for improving the programming to have wider appeal to increase the likelihood of all shows selling-out, so the facility can start to wean itself off its dependence on the taxpayers.

In the TWO MONTHS that have elapsed since we met, no further information was provided.

When asked to vote on the funding, it was actually easy based on a complete lack of Responsibility:
a. Nobody has taken the Responsibility to be accountable for the significant flaw to the building
b. Nobody has taken Responsibility for proving they are spending taxpayer money wisely before asking for more
c. Nobody has taken Responsibility to follow-up on their commitment made 2 months ago. To add insult to injury, after the vote, Mr. Leitner had the nerve to blame the holidays for the delay. I can't speak for anyone else, but if I was looking for someone to give me $275,000, I would be certain to follow-up and provide any and all information that was requested....especially if I had 2 months to do so.

As with the situation/controversy around Tau, this has absolutely nothing to do with "Art", and everything to do with Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency. Enough is Enough.

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year

2008-12-27T23:22:00.009-05:00

Hard to believe another year is coming to an end. It is amazing how the years seem to go by faster each year. I think 2008 will be remembered as an interesting year for both South Orange and the Country.

Across the Country, 2008 will be remembered most as the year people celebrated the historic election of Barack Obama and the sense of hope an optimism he brings. At the same time, 2008 will also be remembered for the meltdown of the economy and the painful aftermath after so many years of greed and excess.

In South Orange, we celebrated the long awaited opening of Eden Gourmet (plus Kitchen a la Mode, Robyn Ross, Sparkhouse Kids, Rita's, Village Trattoria and a number of others). The Village saw its first new Village Attorney, as well as its first new (Acting) Village Clerk in many many years. The Village also began to plant the seeds for our future over the next 10-20 years with the start of a series of comprehensive Village Planning "Conversations" with the community to help chart a course for where we want to go.

In 2009, we can look forward to having this process finish up, HOPEFULLY along with the the long overdue (understatement of the year) construction of our historic firehouse.

I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday and all the best for a very Happy New Year!

Democracy in Action

2008-12-16T18:26:00.006-05:00

For anyone who has read my previous blog posts on the "Parking Woes", we had a very interesting BOT meeting last night where the proposed Ordinances finally came to a head, a public hearing was held and a decision was reached.

For the first Ordinance, it was proposed to limit parking to 2 hours from 8am-noon on streets within a 3/8 mile radius of the train station. At the meeting last night, over 20 residents stood up to speak their mind and share their opinion on the Ordinance. While the majority of residents favored the Ordinance, there were some who felt their street should be excluded from the restrictions and there were some who felt the Ordinance didn't go far enough. In the end, the Ordinance passed by a vote of 4-2. The new restrictions will now go into effect in January.

For the other big Ordinance of the night, it was proposed to create residential permit parking on a number of streets that did not immediately abut homes or businesses. This time over 20 residents stood up to unanimously oppose this plan - mostly on the grounds they did not want the parking in their residential neighborhoods, but also on the fear of safety issues and the fact that there does not seem to be a crushing demand for parking at Mountain Station. In the end, there was no motion to move this Ordinance forward and it died.

I completely understand and respect the concerns of all the residents who came forward to speak on both of these Ordinances. I also certainly appreciated the time everyone took to sit through a very long meeting in order to be heard. I certainly learned alot by listening to what everyone said. I was particularly impressed at how professional and respectful everyone (both on the Board and at the podium) was towards each other. It just proves that people can disagree but do so in an adult manner.

I still feel that we desperately need additional commuter parking, however, I now feel we should focus that effort for South Orange station only and in areas which will have much less impact on the neighborhood, such as N. Ridgewood Rd (which already has bumper to bumper FREE daily parking) and Meadowbrook Lane (which has plenty of capacity - especially in the Winter).

I want to thank everyone who came out to the meeting to share their opinions and to participate in the process. While I'm sure not everyone walked away happy with the results, I am certain that everyone would have rather spent their evening elsewhere and I do think the process was fair. However, clearly we learned alot about how we can improve for next time.

Parking Woes - Part 3

2008-11-24T15:24:00.007-05:00

As I posted previously, the Village is looking to try to alleviate the crushing demand for commuter parking for residents, while also trying to balance the concerns of residents who live in close proximity to the train station and where commuters are currently parking all day in front of their homes.

Several weeks ago, the first part of the equation was addressed with the passage of an ordinance on first reading to limit parking to 2 hours between 8am and noon on specific streets. Tonight, we are expected to address the second part of the equation with an ordinance on first reading to limit the following areas/streets to resident commuter parking only between 6am and 11am:

Vose Avenue - East side, beginning at a point 190 feet South of the prolongation of the southerly curb line of Montrose Avenue and extending 128 feet South therefrom.
Meeker Street - West side, beginning at a point 115 feet South of the prolongation of the southerly curb line of Mountain House Road and extending 348 feet South therefrom.
Clark Street - West side, beginning at a point 64 feet North of the prolongation of the northerly curb line of Meadowbrook Place and extending 656 feet North therefrom.
North Ridgewood Road - East side, beginning at a point 800 feet North of the prolongation of the northerly curb line of West South Orange Avenue and extending 128 feet North therefrom.
North Ridgewood Road - East side, beginning at a point 52 feet South of the prolongation of the southerly curb line of Mead Street and extending 260 feet South therefrom.
Ralston Avenue - South side, beginning at a point 30 feet East of the prolongation of the easterly curb line of Vose Avenue and extending 84 feet East therefrom.
Third Street - North side, beginning at a point 38 feet East of the prolongation of the easterly curb line of Church Street and extending 150 feet East therefrom.
Third Street - North side, beginning at a point 255 feet East of the prolongation of the easterly curb line of Church Street and extending 106 feet East therefrom.
Third Street - North side, beginning at a point 397 feet East of the prolongation of the easterly curb line of Church Street and extending 20 feet East therefrom.
Church Street - East side, beginning at a point 200 feet South of the prolongation of the southerly curb line of West South Orange Avenue and extending 106 feet South therefrom.
Prospect Street - West side, beginning at a point 32 feet South of the prolongation of the southerly curb line of Milligan Place and extending 184 feet South therefrom.
Prospect Street - West side, beginning at a point 32 feet South of the prolongation of the southerly curb line of Second Street and extending 20 feet South therefrom.
Academy Street - West side, beginning at a point 35 feet North of the prolongation of the northerly curb line of Second Street and extending 84 feet North therefrom.
Academy Street - West side, beginning at a point 62 feet North of the prolongation of the northerly curb line of Third Street and extending 172 feet North therefrom.

In addition, the East side of Meadowbrook Lane will also be restricted to resident commuter parking from November 15 through March 15.

This results in a net gain of:
66 resident commuter parking spaces for South Orange Station
52 resident commuter parking spaces for Mountain Station
45 "seasonal" resident commuter parking spaces along Meadowbrook Lane which is virtually equidistant to either station.

A visual representation of this is as follows (where red represents new 2 hour parking and green represents new commuter parking):

View Larger Map

Clearly, no solution is ever perfect, but this is a great start to putting a dent in the excessive waiting list that currently exists for commuter parking, while also addressing the quality of life concerns of homeowners.

It is expected that both ordinances will be heard together on second reading on Dec 15th, where a Public Hearing will be held. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your feedback.

Glory Days

2008-11-05T23:40:00.005-05:00

It's a little more than 24 hours since Barack Obama was named as "President-Elect" and the significance and magnitude of this election still has not fully sunk in. While all the polls heading in to the election looked favorable, there is always uncertainty. However, watching the thousands of people gathered in Chicago last night, as well as the scene repeated across the world from Times Square to Asia was truly remarkable and historic. For the first time since the immediate aftermath of 9/11, it appeared as there was hope once again for the world to come together again. Even John McCain offered a well delivered and gracious speech in an inspiring tone that was absent from the campaign trail, but ironically reminiscent of the John McCain that most people initially learned to like & respect many years ago.

While the honeymoon will quickly fade, I have great hope that we are on the cusp of an amazing new chapter of American pride, prosperity and global respect. Let's all join together to support President Obama. Even in tough times, let us all remember the amazing feeling of hope and optimism we experienced together on November 4, 2008. If we don't squander this goodwill, this really can be the beginning of Glory Days.

Man at the Top

2008-11-02T22:56:00.003-05:00

Man at the top says it's lonely up there
If it is man, I don't care
From the big white house to the parking lot
Everybody wants to be the man at the top

After 8 long years of the Bush Administration, in less than 48 hours we will hopefully have the final official news of our new President. I always find Presidential elections fascinating and far more exciting, interesting, not to mention MEANINGFUL than any Super Bowl, World Series or Stanley Cup. For weeks, I have been diligently following the polls at www.electoral-vote.com, the analysis at www.politico.com, the sensationalism at www.huffingtonpost.com as well as watching the pundits on MSNBC and CNN, and of course the satire on The Daily Show and SNL. It still baffles me when people say they aren't interested or are "undecided"...especially this year, when the difference could not be more stark on virtually all policies of substance and the stakes couldn't be greater - From the Environment to the Economy to the Supreme Court to America's standing in the World.

While certainly all the polls seem to be leaning towards Barack Obama, I hope people are not complacent and that they actually get out there and vote.

I certainly do not want to jinx things, especially after the fiascoes of 2000 and 2004, but I am cautiously optimistic that Barack Obama will win by a rather substantial margin. Based on the polls I have seen, I think it is fair to predict that Obama will get at least 348 Electoral votes and could get as many as 369, by winning North Dakota, Montana and pulling out a surprise in Georgia. In addition, I think Obama will get all the current "swing states" (Ohio, Indiana, Nevada, Colorado and Missouri) with the possible exception of Florida. If that happens, it'll be the largest electoral victory since Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole in 1996.

Now - make sure you get out there and VOTE on Tuesday, so we can hopefully welcome President-Elect Obama on Wednesday!

Land of Hope and Dreams

2008-11-02T19:09:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday night, the Village held the first "Community Conversation" around the future vision for our town. We had a decent turnout of over 100 people who initially met in the Little Theater of South Orange Middle School for an overview of the process from the Cecil Group - the Boston-based planning and design firm hired to facilitate and design the vision. After describing the overall process, everyone assembled broke off into 6 smaller groups in separate classrooms, each with a facilitator. In the room I was in, we went around the room introduced ourselves and stated our "vision" for the town, which was recorded on flip-charts by the facilitator. After everyone was done, each person was given 4 colored stickers and told to place the stickers on the flipcharts next to the idea(s) they liked the best. Finally, the votes were tallied and the 4 or 5 highest vote getters were named the winners. All groups then reconvened in the Theater where the "winning" ideas in each group were revealed to everyone.

Mark your calendars now for the next session on December 2, 2008 at 7:30pm in the SOPAC loft.

The objective of the next session will be to "Review the alternatives raised and discuss the different concepts and the opportunities and challenges they pose."

As new information is collected, it will be posted on the Village website at www.southorange.org/vision.

If you want to be added to the email list for notification of upcoming meetings, send an email to vision@southorange.org

Parking Woes - Part 2

2008-10-28T09:30:00.008-04:00

At the Board of Trustees Meeting last night, the attempt to tackle parking issues continued. However, once again, I think that the cart is being put before the horse by trying to ban parking BEFORE additional parking for resident commuters is created. An ordinance was brought on First Reading (and passed by a vote of 4-2) which will limit parking to 2 hours between 8am and noon on both sides of the following streets:

Beech Spring Road From the intersection of North Ridgewood Road to a point 1100 feet west of the intersection.
Conway Court Entire Length
Edgewood Terrace Entire Length
Highland Road From the intersection of North Ridgewood Road to a point 785 feet west of the intersection.
Kingsland Court Entire Length
Kingsland Terrace Entire Length
Montague Place From Prospect Street to Tichenor Avenue
Raymond Avenue From Vose Avenue to Raymond Court
Redmond Road From the intersection of North Ridgewood Road to a point 475 feet west of the intersection.
Stewart Place From Vose Ave to train tracks
Tillou Road (North side) From a point 458 feet west of the intersection of North Ridgewood Road to a point 715 feet west there from.
Tillou Road (South side) From a point 485 feet west of the intersection of North Ridgewood Road to a point 715 feet west there from.
Village Road From Prospect Street to Tichenor Avenue
Walton Avenue From Edgewood Terrace to Ridgewood Road South

In effect, this ordinance will prohibit commuter parking on all residential streets within 3/8 mile of the South Orange Train Station.

I totally understand the desire of residents living on these streets who do not want commuters parked in front of their home all day. On the other hand, there are an enormous number of residents who NEED to get to work via the train and who do not live in walking distance of the station and for whom the jitney schedule is not practical.

As we saw when commuter parking was prohibited on Meadowbrook Lane, this type of broad prohibition simply pushes cars elsewhere to other streets, simply shifting the problem rather than solving it. I think a more comprehensive solution is needed BEFORE we prohibit parking. As Village President Newman discussed last night, there are numerous approaches underway:

1) Identify all streets within walking distance of the train station and allow resident street permit parking where there are no homes. Several months ago, Village President Newman, Trustee Rosner and I made such a walk and identified close to 200 parking spaces that could be made available immediately. We are now awaiting the Village Engineer's review of these streets. Once that occurs, and relevant ordinance are passed, resident commuter parking permits can be sold for these spaces.

2) Review the jitney schedule & route to see if more commuters can be accommodated. The jitney is a great resource. However for people who go into work very early or come home very late, the jitney is often not practical. We need to make sure the jitney is reliable and convenient for it to be more successful.

3) Continue to reach out to private entities to see if additional resident commuter parking can be identified. The Parking Authority has recently secured 25 spaces in the Our Lady of Sorrows parking lot (which is within walking distance of S.O Train Station) and 25 spaces in Temple Sharey Tefilo Israel parking lot (which is within walking distance of Mountain Station)

4) Review the Commuter Parking waiting list. Currently, there are approximately 700 people on the waiting list for South Orange commuter parking permits parking. However, when letters were recently sent to the oldest names on the list offering them permits, only approximately 1/3 responded positively, suggesting that a significant portion of the list is out of date with people who have moved away or no longer desire parking permits.

Finally, as I have stated in an earlier blog, the Parking Authority should review the current rates for commuter parking and consider raising the rates to help fund the jitney and to further reduce demand and the size of the waiting list.

I think if all of these solutions are pursued, we can make a real dent in the size of the commuter parking waiting list. Once we have made a real concerted effort to accomplish the above, then would it first be appropriate to proceed with the prohibition on parking now on the table. Since the steps above will take some time, we should suspend the prohibition on parking on Meadowbrook Lane for the Winter Months when there is limited recreational activity so we can do this right.

In the meantime, if you commute to New York via the train and require parking, if you do not already have a permit, be sure you are on the waiting list for a parking permit! If not, call the Parking Authority at 973-378-7715 x2037.

In the meantime, there will be a Public Hearing on Nov 24 on the proposed ordinance to ban commuter parking on the streets above. Come to Village Hall and let us know YOUR thoughts.

Living in the Future

2008-10-16T22:05:00.003-04:00

In August, we awarded a contract to the Cecil Group of Boston to create a Downtown Visioning Plan to determine how our three business districts (South Orange Ave, Valley St, Irvington Ave) should evolve over the next 20 years. The selection process to choose the firm was undertaken by the Development Committee earlier this year and was quite extensive.

I know people have some fundamental questions:

1. How much will this cost?

The contract awarded is not to exceed $225,000

2. What is a Vision Plan?

This plan will focus on

• Land Use and Zoning Guidelines - zoning for specific future uses will be developed based on existing land uses.Key sites and alternative land uses will be identified.
• Design Vision – improvements will be identified for road access and parking,streetscape,and key public spaces such as parks and major buildings.
• Market Study – planners will assess demographics in South Orange and surrounding areas,historic and economic trends,as well as the existing and potential retail market.
• Traffic and Parking Study - current use and conditions will be compared with demand.

3. Didn't we just do a Vision Plan?

The last Vision Plan was done by the Atlantic Group back in 1994, prior to the arrival of Midtown Direct, which dramtically changed many facets of our town.

4. How do I provide input to the plan?

There will be 4 public meetings and workshops to provide residents, business and property owners, and other stakeholders a unique opportunity to get involved in planning from the ground up. The schedule so far is as follows:

Thursday, October 30th, 7:30 – 9:00 pm in the South Orange Middle School
Tuesday, December 2nd, 7:30 – 9:00 pm in the SOPAC Loft

For this process to be most successful, it is imperative that you come out to share your ideas and provide your input. Remember: IT TAKES OUR VILLAGE: Creating a community vision for South Orange

Cycling Stephanie!

2008-10-05T22:43:00.005-04:00

There are certain memorable milestones as a parent that put you in such awe of your child as they develop. Today was one of those days as my 6 year old daughter, Stephanie, finally learned to ride a 2-wheeler on her own today. We had taken the training wheels off earlier this year and have been trying for a while to get her to learn to ride on her own, without much luck. Today, we went down to the new River Bikeway in South Orange and something finally clicked and she "got it"! By the end, she even managed to ride back and forth the length of the walkway without stopping or falling. I almost get the sense that I was more excited about this milestone than she was, but I am just so proud of her and so looking forward to being able to take family bike rides together. Now, hopefully the weather will stay nice for a while longer, before Winter sets in!

Slaughterhouse Why

2008-09-23T22:48:00.005-04:00

At the Sept 22 BOT Meeting, County Executive DiVincenzo presented his plan to continue killing deer in South Mountain Reservation this Winter. Last year 213 deer were killed at taxpayer expense in the Reservation. In addition, the County admitted an additional 5 deer were shot and "not recovered", but left to suffer.

I have heard from at least one resident who witnessed the horror of a deer so badly wounded that one of his limbs was dangling from his body and it was bleeding profusely. At the meeting on Monday, I urged Mr. DiVincenzo to stop this senseless suffering and explore non-lethal means of controlling the deer population. Doing some very quick research online, I learned of some very successful programs for immunocontraception to control deer fertility that have been proven effective.

Immunocontraception is a very effective and inexpensive form of contraception that is delivered remotely by dart, which prevents fertilization. One of the most successful methods I found is a vaccine called PZP which has been used successfully in Connecticut, Maryland, NJ, NY, Ohio , VA and Washington. Two of the largest studies were performed on Fire Island, NY in conjunction with the Humane Society and National Park Service, as well as a study in Gaithersburg, MD where the birth rate for deer was cut by 72 percent with PZP.

In addition to the moral injustice of killing the deer, there is the financial objection that, according to the Star Ledger, the deer slaughter last year cost the taxpayers $60,000 for the killing of 213 deer. That works out to a cost of almost $300/deer. The implementation of an immunocontraception program is estimated to cost only around $60/deer according to some studies. Also, if done properly, an immunocontraception does not need to be done indefinitely each year, as with a hunt. Some studies have shown immunocontraception vaccines to still be effective as much as 5 years after injection.

Finally, if moral or financial reasons aren’t enough, there is the fact that hunting simply does not work as a sustainable solution to reduce or even control the deer population due to the principal of reproductive rebound. According to many documented studies, deer conceive multiple embryos, but the number of fawns born is directly related to nutrition and herd density. When herd density is temporarily reduced through hunting, there is reduced competition for food and the number of twins and triplets born actually increases. One study even showed that after a hunt, surviving females produced enough offspring to not only replace those killed, but enough to actually INCREASE the size of the herd. This is reproductive rebound.

So, for moral reasons, financial reasons and the practical reason that hunting is an archaic, barbaric and ineffective method, I urge the County to explore immunocontraception and other non-lethal means of controlling the deer population. Together, we have the opportunity to show leadership to our community with a forward thinking and progressive model which we can be proud of and which teaches our children that killing is not the answer. For the sake of the taxpayers and the deer, I hope real leadership can finally be shown.

STOP in the name of...

2008-09-12T16:30:00.011-04:00

Public Safety! Lately, there has been some commentary about the new Stop Sign erecetd at the intersection of Redmond Rd and Harding Drive. I thought it would be worthwhile to share some background on process that was followed to install this stop sign and the justification for this sign.

Earlier this year, a couple residents who live at the intersection approached me (as the chair of the Public Safety Committee) about their concerns about this dangerous intersection which was completely uncontrolled. I took a look firsthand and agreed to place the item on the agenda for discussion at the next regular Public Safety Committee. The residents attended the meeting and explained their concerns. The Police Chief validated there had been 3 accidents at the intersection and the Committee unanimously agreed to recommend the Stop Sign to the full Board of Trustees. The Stop Sign was discussed at our next Conference Agenda meeting and the recommendation was made to create an Ordinance establishing a Stop Sign at the intersection. At two subsequent meetings, the BOT voted to approve the Stop Sign and no residents came to the meetings to speak against (or for) the sign. (However, residents in the homes surrounding the intersection were informed of the Public Hearing and the proposed Stop Sign by leaflets delivered to their homes).

Since the Stop sign has been installed, some people have actually complained about it. However, I find this quite surprising for a number of reasons:

If you travel West (up the hill) on Redmond Rd and want to make a left turn onto Harding Drive, you logically MUST stop in order to confirm there is no cross traffic on Redmond Rd. However, someone traveling through that intersection who is not familiar with the area might not realize that and could easily blow through the uncontrolled intersection. Installing a Stop sign there is logical and simply communicates to people that the North-South cross traffic has the right of way. (which is consistent with the rest of Harding Dr, as well as Mayhew Drive which runs parallel)
Placing a Stop sign at the westbound intersection with Harding Dr, is simply consistent with all other streets that intersect with it (Tillou, Twin Oak and Overhill).
Some people have actually complained that stopping "uphill" in dangerous, however, nobody has ever expressed that concern about all the numerous other "uphill" stop signs which already exist throughout the neighborhood. In addition, certainly, anyone who has ever been to a place like San Francisco is quite aware of significantly steeper streets with Stop signs (or traffic lights) on "hills".

As with ANY issue, there are always multiple viewpoints and perspectives. However, with this specific issue, I think that adding control to a blind uncontrolled intersection is a small price to pay and the right thing to do to prevent a potential collision and for the sake of Public Safety. I certainly welcome suggestions on other uncontrolled intersections in the Village that should be looked at similarly.

Goin' Cali

2008-09-08T13:57:00.015-04:00

My wife, daughter & I recently returned from a very nice Summer vacation to Southern California. We flew into Orange County and stayed at the beautiful Hyatt Huntington Beach. The hotel is located right across the street from the beach and we even had a great oceanview from our room.

We spent our first day just relaxing by the pool and walking long the beach and into the town of Huntington Beach to watch the surfers. For our next day, we were up early (our bodies still on East Coast time) and got to Disneyland before it even opened. When the park finally did open, they corral everyone on Main Street until the "official" opening time and from there it's literally a sprint to the first ride to take advantage of the short lines. We had a great time & managed to cover the entire park in a day (thanks to Fastpass!). We had been to DisneyWorld many times and found Disneyland to be quite comparable with a few minor differences (Disneyland has the Matterhorn Bobsleds and Indiana Jones ride, plus Cinderella castle is MUCH smaller). Otherwise it is classic Disney, including the expensive food, screaming babies and complete exhaustion you feel at the end of the day!

Our next day, we travelled up to Los Angeles and explored around Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the infamous Rodeo Drive. We ended the day out in Santa Monica to explore the infamous pier and Third St Promenade.

The next day, we travelled down to Carlsbad, CA to enjoy Legoland. I wasn't sure what to expect with this part as I had read mixed reviews, but it turned out to be alot of fun a great place for my six-year old daughter where she even got to go on a roller coaster for the very first time - and loved it!

The following day was back to "Disney" by starting the day at California Adventure, a Disney park which is directly across the plaza from Disneyland. We had also heard mixed reviews of the park, but all in all we enjoyed it. It seems to be a slight hybrid of Epcot & Disney/MGM in Florida, with rides like Soarin' and Tower of Terror, in addition to some other more standard amusement park rides. However, the highlight of the park was "Toy Story Mania", which just opened this year in both CA & FL. It's very similar concept to the "Buzz Lightyear" ride at Disney, but here you play numerous virtual arcade games as you go through the ride wearing 3-D glasses. The technology & effects were very cool!

Our last day was spent back at the hotel, relaxing by the pool and enjoying the California sun before flying back to NJ and getting back to reality of work and school. Now, the job begins of identifying and planning for our next Summer destination!

Go Joe Go!

2008-08-23T10:06:00.004-04:00

We woke up this morning to confirmation that Barack Obama has chosen Joe Biden as his runningmate. This is a GREAT choice! It had been rumored for a few days that this was coming and I am very excited to see it become a reality. I have always thought that Joe Biden was a very intelligent and thoughtful person who has alot of interesting ideas. I've always been surprised that his previous Presidential campaigns went no where, so I am glad that he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. Great choice!

Public Information and Transparency

2008-08-13T20:00:00.002-04:00

In the July 31 News-Record there was an Editorial entitled “Knowledge is Safety”. In that Editorial it stated:

“The village would be well served if prepared information on serious crimes was posted on their official Web site or communicated through an official spokesperson, as the public has as much right to know about developing stories as local media outlets which receive detailed press releases within a matter of hours following reported crimes.”

As the Chair of the South Orange Public Safety Committee as well as one of the liaisons to the Public Information and Marketing Committee, I cannot agree more - Public Safety goes hand in hand with Public Information. In fact, the Public Safety Committee has already been discussing this exact topic over the past several meetings. As a result, the South Orange Police Chief is now working with the IT Manager to develop a process to be able to rapidly document and disseminate information about serious crimes via the Village website. This process should be live within the next few weeks.

In the past, reports of criminal incidents were often posted by people on Maplewood Online but often times some or all of the facts were misstated. Having an official place for the Village to share the facts about serious crimes is an important step in making residents aware of situations that impact them while also helping to control the rumor mill and ensure the FACTS are made available to the Public.

When I ran for office, one of the main issues I discussed was transparency in government and sharing of public information, which I felt was not readily apparent with the prior administration. This is one of the big reasons I devote much time to sharing my opinions here on this blog, responding to inquiries on Maplewood Online as well as responding to the many emails, phone calls or instant messages I receive from residents. Not everyone has the time to watch our meetings or come to our workshops and we have limited outlets that report real news in town. I serve as a Trustee FOR the residents of this town with no personal agenda other than to do what I think is in the best interests of the residents. I learned early on that you cannot ever make everyone happy. However, recently a resident shared the following with me, which I found to be incredibly inspiring and humbling:

A true politician is Someone who sees beyond the obvious. Someone who looks for ways not just to benefit one segment of his constituents, but tries to benefit all constituents. Someone who looks at an issue with a vision of what it means not just today but in the future. Someone who sees that compromise is not a weakness but a skill. Someone who actually understands all the facts of a problem. Someone that actually cares about the outcome of their decisions.

While certainly nobody is perfect and everybody brings their own perspective to every issue, as long as people are having a professional, respectful, open and transparent dialog about issues it can only help us build a stronger community. To that end, I think it is imperative that we continue to innovate in the ways that the Village communicates to the residents to ensure that residents are given the information to be properly informed. At the new Public Information and Marketing Committee, we are starting to discuss what has worked well and what needs to be improved and I am confident that we are going to continue to raise the bar on government transparency and public information for the betterment of South Orange. As always, I welcome your suggestions.

The highway's jammed with Broken Heroes...

2008-08-01T10:05:00.006-04:00

After a MASSIVE traffic jam caused by an overturned tanker truck, we finally made it to the Meadowlands last night for the Bruce Springsteen concert after more than 2 hours. I was afraid we would miss the opening of the show (which normally starts around 8:30pm), but with so many people impacted, the start of the show was delayed until 9:30pm and we made it to our seats with time to spare. Concerts in the stadium are usually horrible because you spend the evening watching video screens. Fortunately, we had great seats on the floor in the 2nd row directly behind the "pit" (General Admission pen right in front of the stage). Ironically, we wound up sitting right next to a guy who claimed he was the boyfriend of Bruce's daughter Jessica, which made for some interesting conversation.

By my count, last night was now the 53rd Springsteen show I have seen over the past 24 years (first show was August 12, 1984 in the Meadowlands arena). It's amazing to think that over this time, I have seen shows in eight states (NJ, NY, CT, PA, GA, NC, FL, CA) and in places as small as the Stone Pony and as large as Giants Stadium. Some people have actually asked if I ever get tired of it and I guess it is just one of those things that if you have to ask, you either have never experienced it, or it just can't be explained to you.

As always, it was an awesome night and we had a lot of fun, especially with such highlights as Pretty Flamingo, Incident on 57th St, Jungleland, Jersey Girl and Rosalita!

Unfortunately, getting out of the Meadowlands was another nightmare. Having arrived late, we had parked on the very top level of the new parking deck by the arena. Once we got into our car, we literally could not move an inch for about 45 minutes. Finally, traffic started to flow and we made it home by 2:30am. With all the on-going construction for Xanadu and the new Giants stadium I have a feeling there will be a lot more traffic nightmares to come.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

2008-07-31T09:03:00.006-04:00

re·spect /rɪˈspɛkt/
–verb
1. to show regard or consideration for.

For anyone who has watched some of the recent Board of Trustees Meeting, and particularly the meeting on July 28, there seems to be one member of the Board that needs to learn the meaning of respect. This individual shows no regard or consideration for their fellow members by often coming late to meetings and leaving early (and sometimes not showing up at all). This individual shows no regard or consideration for the public by passing notes and whispering side comments during the meetings. This individual shows no regard or consideration for their position by undermining negotiations for the sake of political pandering and finally this individual shows no regard or consideration for individuals who come to the meetings to be heard by often yelling at them and speaking to them in an arrogant, condescending and hostile tone.

I find this behavior abhorrent and completely unacceptable. Some people think they are entitled to respect by their position. However, some people need to learn they need to EARN respect by first having the decency to show respect to others around them.

Across the Board

2008-07-26T23:08:00.004-04:00

In previous blog posts, I have made numerous comments about the challenges we have been facing with the budget this year. After many Budget Workshops and much debate, the process is about at an end and we are about to vote to approve the actual budget for the year. It now appears that a budget with a potential tax increase of 13%+ has been cut down to a Municipal Tax increase of around 6.5% or so. There were many factors that led to this outcome, including a combination of reduced services, reduced subsidies to organizations, increased revenue from other sources, skyrocketing energy costs and reductions in perks. Some of the most notable examples were:

- Elimination of 4th of July fireworks (reduced services)

- 10% decrease in funding to Main Street, CCR, CRC and Youthnet (reduced subsidies to organizations)

- Funding of Village Planting Initiative Baskets & Summer Concerts by Eden Gourmet; Extraordinary Aid from the State (increased revenue from other sources)

- Elimination of $12,000 in Stipends to the OEM Deputies, Mandated Health Insurance Premium Contributions by Management personnel (reductions in perks - to be voted on July 28)

- All the while these cuts were being discussed, we faced a $150,000 increase in anticipated energy costs for the remainder of the year.

It was an uphill climb, but I think we did a fair job of scrutinizing the budget in painful detail and making cuts across the board in every department. There were cuts to Police (Crossing Guard outsourcing and/or contract renegotiation), Fire (Executive Officer position), Recreation (Fireworks, delayed pool opening), Public Works (closing recycling center 3 extra days per week)and Administration (OEM Stipends & Health care premium contributions).

Thank you to all the residents and employees that came out to present their opinions.
None of the decisions made were taken lightly and none of the decisions were easy as every single decision has an impact on the residents or employees of the Village. However, in the end, I think the process was fair, transparent and in the best interest of the taxpayers.

Hard to believe it is almost August and in a just a few more months we will have to start the process all over again for 2009!

South Orange Aid

2008-07-11T14:47:00.002-04:00

With all the "bad news" surrounding tough financial times, spiraling costs of energy and necessary cutbacks in services, it is nice to finally report some good news - It was just announced that South Orange is the recipient of $600,000 in Extraordinary Aid from the State of NJ for 2008:

http://www.state.nj.us/dca/lgs/muniaid/08_aid/cy08_extraordinary-aid.shtml

This year, it appears we received the largest amount of aid in Essex County and one of the largest amounts in the state.

This aid couldn't have come at a better time, when we were facing around an 8% Municipal increase (actually more when you factor in the planned shift of SOPAC operating expenses to the Capital Budget) even after many significant custs to the budget. Of course, we need to send a big thank you to State Senator Codey and Assemblyman McKeon/Assemblywoman Jasey for fighting for us in Trenton.

We still have a long way to go to manage the large tax burden we all face in South Orange, Essex County and the entire State of NJ...but this is most welcome and appreciated assistance.

Political Aspirations?

2008-07-03T23:00:00.005-04:00

Well, I was hoping to delay an announcement of my political plans for quite a while, but unfortunately the secret has just been leaked out by the local media. However, I am shocked and flattered by the groundswell of support that has already arisen.

Happy 4th of July everyone! :)

The Road Ahead

2008-06-27T20:57:00.005-04:00

As many of you may know, I started a job with Microsoft this past April. Today, was the last official day of work at Microsoft for our most famous employee - Bill Gates. It really is amazing to think about all the accomplishments of Bill Gates and Microsoft since it was founded in 1975.

I first was introduced to PCs in High School with our Apple II+ computers in the computer lab. However, I quickly was introduced to the initial IBM PC and spent my Summers and evenings after school working at a ComputerLand store teaching DOS to grade school kids. It was this experience that led me to choose to go to college for Computer Science at Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech, I obtained an incredible education (though sadly most of it is completely worthless in my career today - PASCAL, Assembler, Lisp, APL etc not to mention Calculus, Chemistry and Physics) and a great fondness for technology. As I ventured into the working world, I built my career around software and Microsoft was always at the center of it - from DOS to Windows to Office to Outlook to Internet Explorer.

I always admired Bill Gates and am inspired by what he has accomplished and how he now plans to devote his life to philanthropy and giving back to society about 99% of what he has gained over the past 33 years. I'm still thrilled to be a part of Microsoft, but am saddened by the "loss" of someone who has done such amazing things. I suppose the bright side is that the potential now exists for him to make an even more incredible impact of the world and the road ahead looks bright indeed. Good luck, Bill!

Just the FACTS Ma'am

2008-06-23T11:59:00.002-04:00

It's been brought to my attention that (at least) one person has expressed "concern" about the information being posted in this blog. The language and accusations used in that "concern" are so off-base they really do not warrant a response. However, in case there is anyone else that questions the intent of this blog, let me try to be clear:

This is 2008! The Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and I feel this is a great forum to share my opinions relating to various issues around town. This blog is not sanctioned by the Township of South Orange Village. Any posts in this blog are mine and mine alone (with the exception of "comments" which are added by anyone else who reads this blog). However, any of the opinions I post are based on facts that are PUBLIC INFORMATION. For example, posts regarding items discussed in budget workshop contain the same information that is readily available to any member of the public attending the budget workshop discussion. However, in this blog I have the opportunity to elaborate further on my opinion. I have always welcomed people to post comments on this blog or to send email feedback directly to me.

Trustee Mark Rosner had a similar blog several years ago that I found to be a refreshing take on various issues around town and I have tried to model this blog on the path that he blazed. I think everyone can agree how lucky we all are to have Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment. I find it frightening to find there are people who find issue with this freedom simply because they themselves can't understand exploring it with new technology.

Crossing the Chasm

2008-06-18T01:46:00.004-04:00

Lately there has been a lot of talk, political pandering and misinformation about the recent proposal to Outsource the Crossing Guards in South Orange. It is clear this is a very sensitive and complex issue with a lot of emotion involved. In light of ongoing negotiations, it is important to limit some commentary. However, it is also important to ensure that FACTS are being discussed. Many of the following points were made by Village President Newman at Monday's Board of Trustees Meeting and are worth noting:

1. No final decision has yet been reached by the Board of Trustees on how to proceed on this issue

2. IF Outsourcing were to proceed, the same 22 Crossing Guard posts that exist today would continue to exist

3. IF Outsourcing were to proceed, the current Crossing Guards would absolutely have the ability to apply for the jobs, and the Outsourcer would be required to give them consideration.

4. IF Outsourcing were to proceed, it would be with the terms outlined in the RFP issued earlier this year, which includes provisions for background checks, testing the physical ability of the crossing guards (which does NOT happen today) and having Police Officers provide backup (which IS done today) when a Crossing Guard is absent.

5. Currently, the Crossing Guards are part-time employees, working an average of 3.7 hours per day for 180 days per year. These PART-TIME positions are paid a generous hourly wage PLUS fully-paid Healthcare, fully-paid Pensions, paid Vacation days, paid Holidays and paid Sick days. This compensation is simply unsustainable

6. The safety of our residents and our children is of utmost importance to the Board of Trustees

At Monday's Board of Trustees Meeting, some opponents of Outsourcing tried to use fear as an argument against this proposal. Everyone is sensitive to the fact that we are talking about people's jobs. However, using fear is just wrong. This is an issue that can and should be thoroughly debated by a discussion of facts. Spreading misinformation on one side or grandstanding for political gain on the other side simply divides a community instead of trying to productively work together towards a fair solution.

The budget process has been long and painful, but unfortunately a thorough examination of every budget line item was long overdue and we are having to make difficult decisions across many departments, even though it would simply be so much easier to maintain the status quo. However, that was not what we were elected to do. We were elected to do things differently and look at things from a different perspective. I am convinced that if the Crossing Guards are as passionate about their jobs and our children as they emphatically stated Monday night that an equitable solution can be found. I am cautiously optimistic that the ongoing negotiations can be productive. As we were told Monday night by a representative for the Crossing Guards "it's not about the money, they care about the kids". I hope that actions follow those words.

Barak's in the House

2008-06-11T21:47:00.003-04:00

After a long and exhausting journey, Barak arrived at our house this morning and will be staying with us for a chunk of the Summer. No...not THAT Barack. Welcome Barak Lilian, a counselor at Stephanie's Summer camp who is here from Israel as part of the "shlichim" program. He will be a counselor for the Ropes course at Gesher Summer Program in Livingston and staying with us until the end of July. This is his first time in the United States and he is very excited to be here. He got a brief tour around South Orange today, including the obligatory trip to Eden Gourmet with Amy. We are happy to be hosting him and hope that everyone who gets a chance to meet him over the coming weeks will give him a warm welcome to South Orange and the USA!

We're all connected

2008-06-06T19:59:00.002-04:00

Lately, I've become more and more intrigued by the various Social Networking sites. I've been a user of LinkedIn.com for a very long time, but it seems to have finally gotten quite mainstream over the past few months. When you search for people you know, it's remarkable how many people you recognize from your personal or professional life. I find it to be a great tool to keep up with what people are doing with themselves and their careers. When I was interviewing for a job, I also found it very helpful as a tool to get some insight into the background of the person who would be doing the interviewing. It's always helpful to know your audience!

Most recently, I have finally succumbed to the lure of Facebook. I had previously resisted getting involved because I assumed facebook was more geared towards college-aged students and younger. I was really shocked to learn how many "older" folks like us are out there with Facebook profiles. So, I created a profile, added a few applications and have been enjoying keeping up with friends in a much more informal & casual version of LinkedIn.

I still think each site has it's strengths and can see them co-existing for quite a while. It's clear that marketing has been revolutionized by Social Networking as people are far quicker to trust the recommendation of a friend than by some anonymous commercial they watch on Television. I think we are just seeing the infancy of this phenomenon and it's exciting to see where we are heading. It's amazing to see all the various relationships and connections between people you didn't think had a connection. Eventually, I can see how we will all be connected in some way which has endless possibilities. If nothing else, it'll just be easier to play "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon!"

President Obama!

2008-06-05T19:56:00.005-04:00

Wow...after a long hard battle, the Democratic primary season has come to a close and Barack Obama has finally clinched the nomination and is now on his way to become the next President of the United States!

I must say it was one of the most exciting and interesting primary seasons that I ever experienced, but I am glad to see Senator Obama come out ahead. As I said back in February, both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama were well qualified, but I think that a) Senator Obama is the voice of change that we so desperately need right now and b) he simply ran a better campaign.

Now, we move on to the General election campaign against Senator McCain. Personally, I thought Senator McCain portrayed himself well as a moderate back in 2000, but since then he has pandered way too far to the right and the more I learn about him, the less impressed I am. In my mind, he is simply the next in a long line of candidates who felt "their time had come" (like Bob Dole & Walter Mondale) while in reality their best days were already behind them.

The General election should come down to such crystal clear contrasts of age vs. youth, experience vs. change, pro-Iraq war vs. anti-Iraq war, pro-choice vs. anti-choice, that I will find it hard for someone to claim to be "undecided".

Let's hope that Senator Obama makes the right VP choice later this summer to ensure a victory a November. Although many people have suggested Hillary Clinton, I do think that she (and Bill) bring too much baggage to the table that Senator Obama may be much better served with someone with the foreign policy experience, without the baggage. Ironically, 2 outstanding choices - Joe Biden and Wesley Clark don't help with the Electoral College battle, but would be well suited for the job. However, the same was said about Dick Cheney and (unfortunately) we know how that turned out.

In any event, we only have:

left until we can all (hopefully) welcome President Obama!

Midterm Year-in-Review

2008-05-18T20:35:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that this Wednesday, May 21, 2008 marks the 1 year anniversary since being sworn in as a Trustee in South Orange. It's even harder to believe that my term is now half over. There are many times it feels like nothing has been accomplished other than countless hours of meetings and literally thousands of emails. However, in preparation for the Village President's State of the Village report which is "coming soon", I started to itemize things I have personally been involved in or accomplished and it has been reassuring to realize how much has actually been done:

Held numerous neighborhood meetings with residents around Grove Park & Fairview Ave area to address their concerns
Implemented prohibition against parking from Sunset to Sunrise on Park Place
Explored possibility of automated traffic light cameras at the Public Safety Committee
Had the Police implement enhanced enforcement of traffic violations in Sloan Street area
Had the Police shift the hours of SOPAC security detail to later in the evening to better coincide with SOPAC/Clearview hours
Worked on the Old Stone House Task Force which created a recommendation report focusing on 3 options: Adaptive Reuse for Commercial use, Conveyance and Demolition
Implemented Project Status report which is posted to the Village website after each Conference Agenda Meeting to better inform the public about ongoing projects in town: http://southorange.org/StatusReport/VillageStatusReport.pdf
Held first Allcomers/Newcomers Day to encourage Volunteerism in town
Performed a review of all Village Committees and eliminated over a dozen inactive committees
Finalizing Village-wide Volunteer Directory which identifies all Village and private volunteer opportunities in town
Assisted in the formation of the Village Planting Initiative to help beautify the downtown area.

In addition, we have also seen great new businesses like Eden Gourmet, Bonte and Robyn Ross open their doors and many new business poised to open in the next couple months. We have seen the completion of the new employee parking lot at 3rd/Valley, the long-awaited demolition of the adjacent MAP building, the reconstruction of the Sloan Street Parking Lot, completion of the initial phase of the River Corridor project and initiation of an RFP to begin a full Visioning Process for the downtown later this year.

I've also had the honor to attend Celebrate South Orange, Village Halloween Parade, President's Harvest Ball, Governor Corzine Town Hall Meeting, Be About Peace Forum: Can Liberals & Conservatives Find Common Ground on Iraq, South Mountain students assembly on anti-idling, Baseball Parade, Holocaust Remembrance Service, Annual Rahway River Cleanup, Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting, Main Street Annual Meeting and Montrose in May

Despite some other "distractions" and the frustration of the continued failure of the Beifus site, I am proud that we have managed to move forward and have actually made real progress towards alot of the issues we outlined in our platform last year:(http://www.pureprogress.org/platform.php)

So, now that I have reached my "midterm", I frequently am asked if I will be running again next year. The answer simply is that "I really don't know". Certainly, alot depends on my obligations with my "real job" and my family. I also don't want to commit either way at this point so my day-to-day decisions are not tainted by politics. I really do try to give serious consideration to every single vote and don't want to consider whether or not something is "politically correct", but rather whether or not something is "right" and in the best interest of the Village and the taxpayers of the Village. That was my mindset one year ago and I am proud to say that I feel just as strongly about that today.

Coming Soon...Really!

2008-05-13T23:12:00.003-04:00

For many years, "Coming Soon" was the motto of South Orange. I am so pleased to see that after so many years, the opening of Eden Gourmet has become a reality and with it, a tremendous sense of pride has been brought to South Orange. It's hard to explain all the excitement over a "market" to people who don't live here, but the eyesore of the former Shop Rite, coupled with the endless delays and simply the lack of good grocery options has been a sore subject for all Villagers for a long time. It is so refreshing to visit this gourmet market for a truly special and pleasant shopping experience. The owners have thought of virtually everything to please customers and if there is anything that they overlooked, they are more than willing to listen to customers to try to accommodate their needs.

The other amazing facet of this store is what a sense of community it has fostered. It is virtually impossible to visit the store and not run into someone that you know. In addition, it has attracted countless people from surrounding towns and other local merchants have commented on the increased pedestrian traffic this has brought to their businesses.

Also, recently in the old "Gio Tech" space, Robyn Fields and her husband Ross have opened Robyn Ross, an upscale women's clothing and fine jewelry store. The couple, Glen Ridge residents, came to South Orange for dinner one night and decided to locate their business here because of the transformation they saw happening in South Orange.

They are not the only ones, because soon there will be even more additional businesses to visit, as well. Coming in June (hopefully), Kitchen ala Mode will be opening in the old "Yeva Hair Salon" space. This store, owned by resident Ben Salmon, will carry unique merchandise for the kitchen and is a perfect compliment for Eden Gourmet.

Coming in July (hopefully), Sparkhouse: Creative Kid’s Stuff will be opening in the old "We've Got Movies" space. The store also owned by a Village resident will carry a variety of merchandise for kids to help them explore their creativity. This store certainly will be a welcome relief for those always scrambling for a last minute birthday present.

Also coming in June or July (hopefully), Village Trattoria of South Orange will be opening in the old "Dancing Goat" space. The restaurant is the latest expansion from the owners of the Village Trattoria that already exists in Maplewood and is well known for their fantastic Italian food at reasonable prices for the whole family.

I wish all of these merchants tremendous success and am very excited that they are all "Coming Soon" (really!)

Never Again!

2008-05-02T11:31:00.003-04:00

Last night, I was honored to join other elected officials from South Orange/Maplewood, Senators Menendez and Lautenberg, local Clergy and several hundred residents in the 31st Annual Interfaith Holocaust Remembrance Service. We began with a small gathering in Grove Park and the crowd steadily grew as we marched toward Congregation Oheb Shalom, which hosted the service this year.

The service was a very moving tribute to the memories of the 11 million people (6 million of them Jews) who were systematically slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II. There were numerous Guest speakers from various representatives of the State of NJ, including both of our United States Senators. One of the most moving portions of the evening was during the candlighting that was done by numerous survivors who endured unspeakable atrocities and righteous gentiles who risked their lives to help others.

For me, the evening was personal, as well. My Grandparents were fortunate to come to this country in 1937 from Poland to escape the rising anti-semitism. For a while after they arrived, they corresponded via letters with their siblings and other relatives back in Europe, but after a period of time, the communication ceased. To this day, we have never been able to locate them and can only assume they were victims themselves of the vicious Nazi monsters.

I was very impressed with the enormous turnout that the Remembrance Services received last night. I would certainly like to thank all the members of the Committe that planned and coordinated such a moving tribute. As many people have said, each year we lose more and more survivors and remembering the atrocities becomes even more important for all of us to ensure that NEVER AGAIN shall the world see such hatred and destruction.

A Better South Orange

2008-04-27T11:45:00.010-04:00

Yesterday, brought a better South Orange in 2 big ways:

First in the morning, was the annual Rahway River clean-up, sponsored by Main Street & the Lion's Club. There was a great turnout, particularly by Seton Hall students. Even Village President Newman was in the river pulling out trash. My daughter, in particular, had a great time being able to walk in the river. After doing it last year, she had been anxiously anticipating having the opportunity again this year. It was a fun event and a big Thank You to everyone for organizing and participating in the event.

Later that evening, was a party to celebrate the imminent opening of Eden Gourmet in South Orange. After years of "Coming Soon", the market is finally scheduled for a "soft opening" on Wednesday (April 30) and a Grand Opening on May 9. The owners of the market held a fantastic party for their friends, family, local merchants and town officials to showcase the amazing space. On the ground floor is a spectacular market with amazing variety of fine foods (as well as essentials such as milk, butter, eggs, paper towels, toilet paper, cereal etc). In addition, there is a smoothie bar, fresh bakery, produce, meat, fish, salad bar and much more.

On the second floor, is a pizza oven along with prepared foods and tables for eating. There are also 2 huge patios (one adjacent to the train tracks and one behind the building. There are also plans coming before the Planning Board to approve a full sit-down restaurant with table service.

On the third floor is a huge space that will be used for events, parties etc. It is clear the owners spared no expense and tried to think of everything to accommodate all tastes. They are also incredibly committed to the community and have been incredibly generous already.

As someone commented to me, the opening of this market will be a huge positive change for South Orange and will only lead to better things. After seeing the amazing transformation from a run-down old Shop Rite to the new Eden Gourmet, I have to agree and hope this is the beginning of many more great things to come. I wish the proprietors of Eden Gourmet much success!

Parking Woes

2008-04-25T08:57:00.003-04:00

At the last Board of Trustees Meeting on April 14, an ordinance was passed to limit parking on Meadowbrook Lane to 4-hour parking - effectively banning commuter parking from that location. The origin of this was at the request of some people who felt that commuters who were parking there infringed on the ability of people to park there to use the park.

I voted against this ordinance and feel strongly that this is not the right solution.

At a minimum, the park is virtually unused from November-April - meaning for almost 6 months out of the year, we have prime parking available within walking distance to the train which does not negatively impact anybody. Clearly things get more complicated from April-November, but in reality, even during the warmer months the park (or certainly the parking) is virtually unused until around 4pm when baseball, soccer etc begins. That leaves a very small window (roughly from 4pm-6:30pm, when commuters arrive home) when there are competing interests for the space. (Plus, we can exclude Friday evening when no games are scheduled).

Banning all commuter parking (by imposing a 4 hour limit) year-round for a problem that has a limited window of time, is the wrong solution in my opinion.

Along with other reasons, people move to this community for our proximity to NYC and ease of commute by train. The waiting list for commuter permit parking is up around 700 people currently. Alternative parking sites are being explored to expand the inventory of parking, but that won't happen overnight. In an earlier blog entry I shared my support for higher parking permit fees to encourage people to use the jitney, as well as reducing hoarding of permits and also encouraging people in close proximity to the train to try walking or biking. Again, that won't happen overnight. So, in the meantime, to totally eliminate available parking for 100 cars (currently used by about 65 cars each day) now seems premature until a comprehensive solution is identified. The only result this ordinance will have is to push cars to surrounding residential streets, aggravating those homeowners who will now have cars in front of their home all day.

I've already been contacted by many angry residents (and non-residents) who are negatively impacted by this and I expect we have not heard the last word, yet.

Play Ball!

2008-04-12T15:01:00.006-04:00

Another sure sign of Spring is the annual South Orange/Maplewood Baseball Parade. This year, I was honored to join the local elected officials in leading the parade from Columbia High School, down Valley Street and ending at the baseball diamond in Memorial Park. I was so impressed with the amazing turnout and seeing how many of our kids participate in the Baseball program. Hats off to everyone who coordinated the event, as well as to everyone who participated. This is a great example of how our two communities can join together to share a community service, right down to the throwing of the first pitch by both Mayor Pettis and Village President Newman. Let's hope this is the start of much more cooperation and sharing of services to come!

Spring has Sprung

2008-04-10T19:48:00.009-04:00

It's a great sign of Spring when we can finally head out after dinner for a bike ride. Even though we had a pretty mild Winter, it still seemed long and there is nothing like the first 70+ degree day! Even better is finishing off that bike ride with some well deserved ice cream.

It's only a matter of time before we all start complaining about the heat and humidity, so let's savor days like this as they seem to be so rare.

Happy Spring!

The axe-man cometh

2008-04-03T20:28:00.009-04:00

We are once again in the midst of budget season and after numerous Budget Workshops, we were finally presented with some tangible options for trimming the budget. Initially, we faced a 13% municipal tax increase for the "introduced budget", but the Board agreed to try to attain "only" a 5% increase. To close that gap requires almost $1.5 million in additional revenue and/or cuts.

At the Budget Meeting on March 25, the Board of Trustees agreed to the following: (amount in parentheses is the cost savings/additional revenue in 2008)

Additional Revenue:
- Increase parking ticket fines by $10 (~$109k)

Service/Funding Reductions:
- Cut funding for Main Street, CCR, CRC, Youthnet & SOMACOM by 10% (~$12k)
- Reduce publication of the Gaslight to 6x/year (from 10x/year) (~15k)
- Elimination of July 4th fireworks/evening activities (this had long been discussed over the past several years anyway due to Public Safety concerns) (~$30k)
- Reduce Summer concert budget by $2k
- Reduce holiday decoration budget by $2k
- Reduce lodging costs for League of Municipalities Conference by $2k
- Eliminate Grant Writing Consultant (~$20k)
- Have website articles written in-house (~$12.6k)
- Open pool one week later in June (~$7k)
- Move all Village Hall clerical staff to same floor to improve efficiency (~$46k)
- Encourage health benefits opt out for covered familiy members (~$33k)
- Close Recycling Center on M/W/F
- Privatize Crossing Guards (~$39k)
(Note: This was a preliminary amount which has since been determined to be inaccurate. As of June 16, 2008, NO DECISION has been reached yet on this item)
- Reduce Code Enforcement (~$16k)
- Purchase 3 Police cars (instead of 4) (~$34.5k)

It was also agreed to Capitalize certain engineering expenses, public work expenses and IT expenses, along with the $300,000 SOPAC operating expenses (~$583k). This is an area that I strongly disagree with and feel that it is simply creative accounting which shifts operating expenses to our already excessive debt service that will be paid for over the next 30 years without fixing our tax problem (and in fact, making it worse).

There were also some other suggested reductions that were rejected for now:
- Elimination of leaf pickup (~$91.4k)
- Elimination of Village Aglow (~$4k)
- Elimination of Police detail at SOPAC (~$29k)
- Close the Baird on Sunday and one evening (~$16k)
- Discontinue the Gallery (~$100k)

It is obvious that there will be somebody who will stand up to defend each of the reductions agreed to above. Everyone has there own particular "pet" service that they feel is sacred and cannot be touched. However, we must look at everything and try to make cost-benefit decisions that will impact the least number of residents and bring the greatest savings.
Ironically, after all of the above, it only reduced the budget by $975k, still leaving us with an 8.1% municipal tax increase. So, before everyone starts trying to defend their favorite municipal service above, we STILL need to identify ANOTHER $514k in cuts to bring us in line with a 5% increase.

In my opinion, we MUST start with requiring mandatory healthcare contributions for all staff. A 20% contribution towards their healthcare by ALL staff, would save the Village over $415,000 anually alone. Unfortunately, nothing is easy in Municipal government and a majority of positions are governed by Union contracts which are currently under negotiation and subject to binding arbitration. However, this is an area that MUST be addressed, as fully paid healthcare is nothing more than a relic from an era that no longer exists in the real world. It is time that government joins the real world.

American Idling

2008-03-15T19:36:00.003-04:00

This week I had the honor of being invited to an assembly at South Mountain School where the subject was car engine idling.

Girl Scout Troop 250 and the 3rd Grade of South Mountain Elementary School combined their valuable lessons learned this year and put them to good use spearheading an awareness campaign regarding the problem with unnecessary idling. The New Jersey Environmental Federation also worked collaboratively with this program.

The Girl Scouts presented a short skit about the dangers of Global Warming and engine idling to all classes from K-5 and then a number of 3rd grade students read letters out loud to the Governing Bodies of South Orange and Maplewood, as well as the Police Chiefs of both towns. Also at the assembly were Village President Newman, Police Chief Chelel, Township Committeewoman Leventhal and Police Chief Cimino who also spoke to the students to acknowledge our own concerns for the environment and to personally thank the students for their efforts.

I was so incredibly impressed by the awareness these students had of such serious issues that we all face. I congratulate Renee Leviton for pulling this together, as well as the teachers, staff and administration of the school for including such important values in our curriculum.

It amazes me how these students not only knew about the issue at hand, but also had a general understanding of the role that local government can play. I hope these kids continue to stay involved to improve our community as they get older...and maybe some of them will even inspire their parents to get more involved now!

Open All Night

2008-02-28T09:25:00.004-05:00

As published in today's News Record and yesterday's Star Ledger, NJ Transit has backed down from their proposed plan to close South Orange Train Station earlier in the day. Initially, the proposal was to close the station at 1PM. That was later renegotiated to close the station at 9:45pm - a position still unacceptable. Closing the station so early would force people taking the train home late from NYC to the stairwells at South Orange Avenue or 2nd Street - both of which are too far from the NJ Transit Lot and SOPAC.

Huge Thank Yous are owed to Village President Newman who immediately took up this issue working directly with NJ Transit to strongly express the Village's concern. The cause was then also taken up by Assemblywoman Jasey and Assembly McKeon who also expressed their concerns to NJ Transit. Finally, Governor Codey got involved and wrote a strongly worded letter to NJ Transit which seemed to have sealed the deal to have the station remain open. Thank you to all for stepping up for South Orange and Thank you to NJ Transit for listening to and agreeing to our appeals.

Red Light, Green Light, 1-2-3

2008-02-22T16:33:00.004-05:00

Last night at the Public Safety Meeting, we heard a presentation from a company called Redflex. The company is a provider of automated photo enforcement systems for Traffic Lights. When someone runs a red light that is monitored, photographs and video are captured and sent electronically to the Police for review. Once an officer reviews the violation, a citation can be issued to the owner of the car. (However, the driver is not identified and charged, therefore it is not treated as a moving violation for insurance purposes).

I was initially skeptical mainly over concerns of cost. However, we learned that the systems are installed and maintained at absolutely zero cost to the Village. The program is completely funded by a portion of the violation fines. The system is also not allowed to be used for anything other than the actual red light violation. (Currently, NJ state law prohibits use of these devices for other infractions such as speeding - although that has been changed in other states and may ultimately change in NJ).

Certainly, there are still many questions to still be addressed and no decision or recommendation is imminent, but the concept is an interesting one and one that seems to have gained momentum in other parts of the country.

I'd be interested to hear what you think.....

Obama for President

2008-02-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

It's so interesting that for the first time that I can remember, New Jersey actually has a say in the determination of who gets the Party nomination for President. On Tuesday February 5, we have a very tough choice between Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama. I find them both to be incredibly smart and thoughtful - a far cry from our current President - and ultimately I will be happy with either as our next President.

I have long been a big fan of Bill Clinton and the prospect of having Bill Clinton back in the White House is appealing. The problem is that Bill Clinton is not running, Hillary Clinton is - despite how it sometimes appears. In fact, in recent weeks, we have not seen the charismatic Bill Clinton we all remember and instead we have seen a much more divisive side, which is disturbing.

After all the partisanship and divisiveness of the past 7 years, I think it is now time for a new generation of leadership and someone who will try things differently and can try to start to bring this country back together within itself and with other countries. I think the person who can best accomplish that is Barack Obama. I hope you will join me in giving him your support on Tuesday.

Money Pit - Part 2

2008-01-23T18:46:00.000-05:00

We are now in the midst of budget reviews and clearly this is the time to scrutinize our expenses to see how we can spend tax dollars more efficiently.

First, I would like to commend Village President Newman for his repeated insistence that the Village look at things differently to ensure we explore opportunities for Sharing Services, Outsourcing and maximizing economies of scale by looking at our purchasing holistically throughout the entire Village. These are all fundamental concepts that have been adopted in the Corporate world and are long overdue in Municipal Government.

There are two other areas that have recently arisen that should also be explored - expanded Volunteerism and potential consolidations.

1) Expanded Volunteerism - at the recent Budget Workshop, the Fire Chief presented his proposal to increase the fire staff from 8 firefighters per shift to 10 firefighters per shift. His main argument is that the 8 person shift puts us at greater risk. While I greatly respect the Fire Chief and all our firefighters for all they do to risk their lives for our community, we simply cannot afford this increase in headcount and associated expense - particularly with regard to healthcare and pensions.

However, I have suggested to the Chief that he explore supplementing his force with Volunteer Firefighters. There are still numerous towns throughout New Jersey that have entirely Volunteer Fire Departments. While the age of our housing stock, our population density and our high cost of living may not allow an entire Volunteer Department, I would be willing to bet there are numerous people who would be more than willing to Volunteer in order to supplement our current force. Increasing the department through Volunteers would reduce the "risk" the Chief is concerned about, while controlling the costs to the taxpayers which would be a win-win scenario. I will continue to urge the Chief to pursue this.

2) Potential consolidations - clearly, we need to look at the budget creatively to see where we can potentially consolidate redundant activites. Recently, the Parking Authority announced their plan to raise parking meter rates, along with parking permit rates. I support the increase in commuter parking permit rates for the following reasons;
- grant funding for the jitney will expire this year and permit rates will help fund the continuation of jitney service. The jitney is a logical solution to our limited parking, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
- higher commuter rates should encourage higher utilization of the jitney, further helping fund the continuation of jitney service
- higher commuter parking rates will reduce the number of people who are hoarding permits and thereby help move the waiting list
- higher commuter rates are still a fraction of the rates charged by NJ Transit for a permit in the "SOPAC lot"

Clearly, we need to have parking permits to pay for the maintenance of our parking lots, as well as a way of controlling supply and demand.. However, the need for Parking meters and even a Parking Authority is less clear. The question then becomes "who will enforce parking rules without a Parking Authority?". Many people point to Maplewood as a perfect example of how we could survive without meters or an Authority. Although, some skeptics claim it is harder to park in Maplewood than South Orange..

Naturally, someone still needs to enforce Parking regulations and that COULD naturally revert back to the jurisdiction of the Police Department. The critical question is then whether or not doing that work with the required additional people under the Police Department will cost more or less than it does today under a Parking Authority. The time has come for a thorough cost-benefit analysis to examine this very question. We need to ensure we don't sacrifice parking enforcement or general Police protection and at the same time we don't want to simply exchange salaries and benefits in one department for salaries and benefits in another department if there is no saviings. We all may have our gut instincts, but like any business decision, it is important that appropriate analysis is done first. I will be urging the Finance Committee or CBAC to take on this challenge to determine if we can find some real savings. There are bound to be other examples of potential savings that can be found and I welcome your suggestions to help us crawl out of this very deep money pit we find ourselves in.

Feel free to share your thoughts with me at mgoldberg@southorange.org
________________________________________________________________________

Un-Belize-able!

2008-01-19T23:20:00.000-05:00

Just back from the most incredible vacation to Belize, Central America - where we learned the expression "Unbelizeable" is quite appropriate for our experience.

Day 1: We started our trip by landing in Belize City and immediately taking a 12 passenger plane for a 15 minute flight to Ambergris Caye and took a cab from the "airstrip" to our Hotel - Xanadu Resort, which is about 1 mile south of the town of San Pedro. After checking into our suite, we grabbed some lunch, settled in and eventually got dinner at a local Tapas Restaurant, Casa Picasso (which had a very cool atmosphere, but unfortunately, the food fell short)

Day 2: We spent the morning basking in the sun by the pool and then by the beach before heading into San Pedro to walk around. It was quite an interesting little town, with a collection of small wooden buildings with hotels, shops and restaurants built very close to the beach. It certainly was not the wide pristine beaches of places like Aruba, but it had a very unique feel with a mix of luxury in some places, and pretty grungy in others.

Day 3: After sitting out a rainstorm in the AM, we headed out to Hol Chan along the Barrier Reef for Scuba (Michael) and Snorkel (Amy). The water was incredibly clear and warm and the marine life was amazing. We swam with tons of fish, sea turtles, nurse sharks, stingrays, lobster and eel.

After a great afternoon at sea, we enjoyed a great Dinner in town at Mangos.

Day 4: Another day of lounging by the beach combined with bicycling into town and exploring further before finishing off the evening with a sunset dinner at Sunset Grill.

Day 5: It was time to pack up and move back to the mainland. This time we took an 8-passenger plane back to Belize City where we rented a car for the drive to the Cayo. Before going to our hotel, we stopped at a resort called Jaguar Paw for lunch. After lunch, we convinced ourselves to try ziplining and had the time of our lives. We were both scared, but after watching so many episodes of the Amazing Race, it seems like something too cool to pass up. We swung between 8 different platforms in the jungle as high as 80 feet in the air!

After the zipline, we continued the adventure with the exploration of "Crystal Cave", which comprised of a hike through the jungle and into a massive cave, where we rode an inner tube into the pitch darkness of the cave with only headlamps (and our guide) to guide the way. Inside the cave we saw stalagmites, stalagtites and lots of ancient Mayan pottery scraps. We paddled our tubes out of the cave and continued our journey to our next stop - Chaa Creek. As we arrived, it was just getting dark, we we could tell it would be worth the 2 hour drive, including a several-mile dirt road to arrive.

Day 6: We were awoken at sunrise by the enormous sounds of multiple species of birds in the trees and we looked outside, it appeared as if we were in paradise- with immaculately kept grounds surrounding the handful of "cottages" scattered around. After the previous days adventures, we decided to explore the grounds and relax in our hammocks before venturing up to the spa in the afternoon. Yes - after convincing Amy to join me on a zipline, she made me a deal that I had to join her at the spa, so I grudgingly agreed and had a pedicure. I must admit it felt like going to the dentist with all the prodding and poking that was going on, but the end result looked good. :)

We ended the day with a sunset canoe trip on the Macal River where we saw numerous iguanas and birds in the trees.

Day 7: We woke early to join a group of 8 other people on a guided trip to visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatamala. The trip itself involved a 2.5 hour van ride (about 30 minutes on a paved road in Belize and the 2 hours over a virtually unpaved road into Guatamala). While we initially thought Belize was a poor country, compared to the U.S., once we crossed into Guatamala, Belize looked like Beverly Hills. It was incredibly sad to see so many "shacks" alongside the road with wild pigs, chickens and dogs running all along the road. We finally made it to Tikal, where we hiked a 5 mile perimeter of the main Mayan site and learned about the history of the area and got to climb upon the ruins, while also seeing monkeys swinging from the trees above. After a long day, we headed back for the long drive back to Belize. (stopping to see a Tarantula in the road)

Day 8: After packing up, it was time to depart and drive back to the airport and back to civilization. Overall it was one of the most amazing vacations I have ever taken, had an incredible time and highly recommend it.

If anyone wants to see additional pictures of the adventure, you can do so at: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaMWjdm5as2TE

The Money Pit

2008-01-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

This past week were two back to back meetings which are ironically linked very closely - Budget Workshop and the Old Stone House Task Force Workshop.

This was our 2nd budget workshop of the year, so far, and already the situation is looking bleak. We have been given budget projections showing a massive deficit in revenue, mainly tied to pension and healthcare cost increases for employees, along with our massive debt service incurred over the past decade. However, we are determined to scrutinize the budget rigorously to explore creative ways of delivering services for reduced costs. For way too long, the Board has been reluctant to look at things differently and it is clear that we have no choice or face a massive tax increase. We are still very early in the process, but I am confident that significant savings can still be found.

The next night, the Board of Trustees met to review the report of the Old Stone House Task Force, which I participated in along with Stacey Jennings, John Purkert, Gail Kent, Allison Brown, Maria Morrison-Henningburg, Janine Bauer, Jim Ankner and Suzanne L'Hernault. The Task Force worked hard over 4 months in late 2007 and although it was often contentious, it was quite a learning experience. I came into the process thinking there was no hope for the Old Stone House and that demolition was the only option because the town cannot (and should not) afford to spend significant dollars on this project when our taxes are already out of control. However, I did come to gain an appreciation for the history of the house and the passion of its proponents.

I still do not think the Village can afford to spend any money on this project, but I think a viable alternative to demolition has been identified - conveyance. By getting the Old Stone House out of the hands of the Village, it opens up a world of possibility for private or public enterprises that have the means to invest money into the house. (The Village has also proven itself incapable of managing historic preservation as evidenced by the 6-year+ saga of the firehouse)

The Task Force report did identify other options, but I think that conveyance holds the most promise for saving the house (or some portion of it), while relieving the taxpaying citizens of this town the burden of paying for it.

We need to establish priorities for our limited tax dollars to ensure we remain as a place people want to live and to ensure we stop driving people out of town who cannot afford to pay our high taxes. We must stop the endless money pit.

Welcome Bonte!

2007-12-23T23:57:00.001-05:00

This weekend, we had the pleasure of trying the latest restaurant to open in town - Bonte Wafflerie and Cafe. It's located on South Orange Avenue, where Ambiance Jewelers used to be.

They've completed renovated the space and it's bright, airy and filled with the smell of waffles when you walk in the door. However, they don't just have waffles and also have a fairly extensive sandwich, panini and salad menu. The sandwich I got was very tasty and the waffle I shared with my daughter was great and a far cry from an Eggo waffle. They are still working out the kinks in the service, but everyone was extremely helpful and trying their best to accomodate people.

I wish them lots of success here in town.

While I haven't posted in this blog nearly as much as I would like recently, I also wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday!

I hope to post more frequently in the new year and I certainly welcome your suggestions on topics for discussion.

Luckiest Guy in the World

2007-12-01T16:43:00.000-05:00

Last night I was made to feel like the absolutely luckiest guy in the world. My incredible wife, Amy, had been plotting for over 2 months to hold a Surprise 40th Birthday Party for me and last night was the grand event. I had absolutely NO idea this was in the works and I am still in shock.

We had been planning for a pretty low-key birthday celebration with my immediately family for next week, so I wasn't expecting anything when Sheena Collum suggested I meet her and some others at Bunny's after work on Friday. At 7pm, we all met, grabbed a booth in the back and hung out. Shortly afterwards, Sheena tells everyone that "Leslie has a band playing next door in the Bistro and she wants us to check it out". I tell everyone to go ahead, I would wait at the table and to call me if it was any good. They continue to insist that I come check it out and I finally relent. On the way over, I noticed a large number of familiar faces in Bunny's, but that's not terribly unusual on any given night.

I walk into the Bistro, see people standing around listening to a guy on an acoustic guitar and until I saw my daughter Stephanie running towards me (with Amy behind her) did it actually register that something was going on. As I looked around the room, I saw the most amazing group of people that I have had the privilege to call "friend" over the past years. It really was the most incredible feeling. I am so flattered that all these people came out for me and I had the best time spending the evening with them. THANK YOU!

Of course, I cannot mention the evening without gloating over the most incredible wife in the entire world - Amy. She told me later that she had been secretly planning this for over 2 months and she didn't miss a single detail - from the perfect location, to the perfect guest list to the perfect entertainment, it was a great night.

After all the "issues" of the past few weeks, it was so nice to spend a fun casual evening with the greatest bunch of people. I really am the luckiest guy in the world!

(For additional pictures: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaMWjdm5as2Sz)

We had a Ball

2007-11-17T20:30:00.001-05:00

Last night was the first ever South Orange President's Harvest Ball to benefit the new South Orange Middle School After-School Enrichment Program. The event was held at SOPAC and was sold out with over 200 people in attendance. Most people were decked out very nicely in "festive attire" and everyone seemed to have a nice time for a great cause.

The evening began with a jazz band band, followed by remarks by the Event Chair, Karen Hartshorn Hilton, School Superintendent Brian Osborne and Village President Douglas Newman. We were then treated to two performances by the Middle School Choir and then "Walk the Dog" rocked the house for the rest of the evening.

It was great to see so many familiar faces, as well as many new ones come out celebrate South Orange and raise money for a good cause. We even had representation from Maplewood, with Mayor Profeta showing us his moves on the dance floor.

A big THANK YOU to the Event Committee, sponsors, donors and everyone who helped make this event happen. Let's hope this becomes an annual event.

Meet me tonight in Atlantic City

2007-11-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

The past 3 days were spent down in Atlantic City participating in the NJ League of Municipalities Conference - an annual gathering of all of the governing bodies and Municipal Employees throughout New Jersey.

While I am sure many of the veterans of the conference use this as an excuse to party in Atlantic City, I did my best to attend as many sessions as possible to actually learn (go figure!). I attended sessions on:

Politics Unusual – The Dollars and Sense of Humor in Government
Downtown Revitalization in Tight Economic Times
Avoiding A Collision at the Intersection of Records Management and Technology
From Maintaining Decorum to Video Taping – Current Issues Affecting Municipal Meetings
Newly Elected Mayors and Council Members Clinic on Ethics, Open Public Meetings, Open Public Records and Civility in Public Discourse
Conflict Resolution for Municipal Officials – Managing Conflict Through Negotiations and Collaboration

I actually found the sessions to be rather informative and interesting, particularly to hear about the common issues that many other municipalities share. It was a worthwhile experience and I hope my colleagues on the Board and in Village Hall got as much out of it as I did.

New Jersey's Rock

2007-11-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

We went to Night 8 of the ten-night stand of Bon Jovi at the new Prudential Center in Newark this week. I'm not an enormous Bon Jovi fan, but it seemed like a very Jersey thing to do and I wanted to see the new arena for myself.

I was very impressed with the Prudential Center - it feels so open and comfortable. I was a bit concerned about the parking & traffic based on all the hype I had read, but it turned out to be a total non-issue. We easily found parking on the street a couple blocks from the arena and from the time the band walked off the stage until we walked into our house it was a total of 25 minutes, including walking to the car.

It's a shame the area around the arena isn't terribly attractive right now, but I can see enormous potential for restaurants, bars etc for some gutsy investors who are willing to make the first move. I really hope the arena is successful and helps provide some long overdue rejuvenation to Newark. The potential (and convenience) of the area is huge for those of us in South Orange.

Here's hoping that Springsteen chooses the "Rock" when he returns to our area this Spring and shatters Bon Jovi's record 10-night stand.....unless of course he wants to make my life even more convenient and play at SOPAC!

New Kids on the Block

2007-11-06T21:58:00.000-05:00

Some people anxiously await the Super Bowl...but I've always found Election Day to be far more exciting (although I will concede the commercials aren't as good). As always, it brings changes and this year, we have a new Assemblyperson with the election of South Orange's own Mila Jasey. In neighboring Maplewood, there is a new member of the Township Committee, Lester Lewis-Powder. And Monday night at the Board of Education, they appointed Sandra Karriem to fill a vacancy.

I have met each of these people briefly and think they will all bring great things to their respective positions. I urge them all to always remember who they are and to bask in the glory of victory now...because the political honeymoon will inevitably be as short lived as the promises people make to not drink as much at the next Super Bowl!

Congratulations to Mila, Lester and Sandra!

The tax man cometh

2007-11-03T15:03:00.000-04:00

After 16 years since the last townwide revaluation, the Village is finally in the last stages of implementing new property tax assessments. This week, approximately 1/3 of the town received letters informing them of their new property values. The remaining letters will be sent out over the next week. As letters are mailed, the information is also being posted on the website of the 3rd party company that performed the assessments at: http://www.asinj.com/revaluation/current-revaluations/south-orange.htm

Anyone who has questions about the results can contact Appraisal Systems at 201-493-8530 Monday thru Friday from 9:30am-4:00pm to arrange a meeting. Meetings will be scheduled for mornings, afternoons, eveings and Saturdays from Nov 6th-Dec 20th.

Halloween in the Village

2007-11-03T14:37:00.000-04:00

For the first time ever, I was able to enjoy the Village Halloween Festival and Parade this year with my 5-year old daughter. Everyone met in Spiotta Park for some games & entertainment and then the parade went down South Orange Avenue to Sloan Street where all the merchants provided candy for the kids.

It was a nice afternoon for everyone. The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves ...

and even some of the Adults got into the action.

Thank you to Main Street South Orange and the Chamber of Commerce for organizing this annual tradition!

Big Loss for the Village

2007-10-30T20:52:00.000-04:00

We were recently informed of the retirement from the Village of one the hardest working people I have ever met. It is with great sadness that I want to share that Village Clerk Marj Smith will be retiring at the end of this year.

I have known Marj peripherally over the years through various dealings with the Village and always found her to be extremely reliable and professional to residents. However, once I became a Trustee, I really began to see the incredible work ethic, helpfulness and knowledge that Marj possesses about the Village. Marj was extraordinarily helpful to me (and my colleagues) as we got up to speed during out first weeks and months on the Board. Her extreme patience for all of us was truly impressive and greatly appreciated!

I have learned to count on Marj for her institutional knowledge and her amazing organizational skill to ensure that things get done properly. Marj is at the center of the sheer volume of hardcopy and electronic mail we each receive every week . Most people do not realize that Marj is also an Attorney and is generally responsible for drafting resolutions and proclamations, as well as manually transcribing the tapes of (extremely LONG!) BOT Meetings to produce accurate & timely meeting minutes.

If all that wasn't enough, Marj has been a devoted volunteer to the South Orange Resuce Squad, volunteering countless hours of her "spare" time to further help the community.

I am sure I have left off many other of Marj's accomplishments and talents, but I just wanted to wish Marj & her husband well in their new life. She should just know that things in South Orange will never be quite the same again.

Cities by the Bay

2007-10-29T17:25:00.001-04:00

Cities by the Bay

I've had several meetings in the Bay Area for my "other" job over the past few days which resulted in staying over the weekend and having the opportunity to do some exploring.

I've been to San Francisco several times before, but it's always fun to wonder around and explore further. Over the past few days, I spent some time in North Beach and Cow Hollow in the city itself. I also took a day trip down the Coast to Monterey, Carmel-by-the-sea and Santa Cruz. It's interesting how totally different these towns are.

Monterey has a pretty touristy waterfront (Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row) plus a quaint historic town.

Carmel is clearly a hangout for the Rich and Famous. I passed by one house for sale that was $5.25 million, but other than it's location close to the beach didn't seem that impressive from the outside. Another neighboring house was listed for $2.4 million for 1400 square feet. The town itself was filled with shops like Coach, Tiffany etc.

Santa Cruz was the polar opposite with it's pretty sleazy "boardwalk" area that reminded me quite a bit of Seaside Heights.

I also drove through the beautiful Stanford campus and the equally impressive Palo Alto downtown, which seems to really get it right with an upscale mix of stores and restaurants, but also more moderate hangouts and services for the students.

It was a fun trip enjoying the scenery and amazing weather (I am glad I missed all the rain in NJ), but now it's time to come back home and return to "reality".

California Dreamin'

2007-10-28T00:17:00.000-04:00

Modern technology....picture above was taken from my cell phone camera & automatically posted to this blog remotely. Can't do that with an MOL blog. :)

Where it all began

2007-10-27T12:22:00.000-04:00

I thought it would be interesting to have a place to comment on life in general and life as a South Orange Trustee, in particular. I hope to use this blog to share my thoughts and I welcome and encourage you to use this forum to share your thoughts and feedback with me, as well.

Probably the most frequently asked question I get (other than "What's going on with Beifus?") is "How time consuming is it to be a Trustee?". The answer: "Very!" However, so far, it has been one of the most incredible learning experiences of my life...learning so much about municipal government (how it works...and doesn't!), learning about people and learning about myself.

Although the job comes with no pay and plenty of frustrations, it's still an amazing adventure and a tremendous honor.

I thought it would be best to remember how it all began and hope that I (and my colleagues) can look back on the following video anytime things get contentious and remind ourselves how we all started (thanks to SOBETS for saving this clip for posterity):

Come join me on this ride...