Goin' Cali

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!

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

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...

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

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

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

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.