Another hopeful sign

At the very end of Monday’s Council meeting, when the Council members were asked to propose agenda items for future meetings, Councilman Santiago Soto quietly but clearly placed “a review of the mechanisms used for enforcement of ordinances” on the Council’s upcoming agenda.

Eartheasy Newsletter

Forwarded by Antoinette…

Hello, and welcome to Eartheasy’s August 2007 newsletter.

Home front ecology – what our grandparents can teach us about saving the world. The World War II home front was the most important and broadly participatory green experiment in U.S. history. Is it a model we should use today? “By 1943, beans and carrots were growing on the former White House lawn. In Chicago, 400,000 schoolchildren enlisted in the “Clean Up for Victory” campaign, which salvaged scrap for industry and cleared lots for gardens…”

Family values and food sustainability Food is central to our lives. It would be wrong to turn it into nothing more than a fuel enabling us to move faster, hence accelerating the consumption of the earth and its resources.

Ignition – What you can do to fight global warming and spark a movement. This collection of essays from some of the brightest minds of the environmental movement serves as a guide to help shape our thinking for the century ahead. Read our review.

Natural wasp control. As the summer advances, wasps (yellowjackets) can become more aggressive. Before reaching for the pesticide, try these safer, natural methods to control wasps.

Compare the Brands: solar ovens The Tulsi-Hybrid solar oven won the editor’s pick award from Compare the Brands.com for best solar oven. (Eartheasy sells this oven for about $50 less than the average online vendor. For more information, visit: http://stats.chennells.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1186614424000&StID=4635&SID=0&EmID=2908615&Link=http://eartheasy.com/solar_oven.htm)

Natural cooling This summer has seen record heat waves across much of North America. Here are tips to help reduce the heat without using too much electricity. Most of these tips cost little or nothing to try.

Have we reached the energy tipping point? Analysis shows Americans prefer energy conservation over more production, and that a large majority also favors tightening emissions standards and developing alternative sources of energy.

Green dry-cleaning resource As an eco-alternative to perc solvents in dry cleaning, you might want to consider GreenEarth cleaning. This method uses a silicone solvent, essentially pure liquefied sand, and is very gentle on clothes. GreenEarth Cleaning has more than 600 affiliates in the U.S.

What to do with leftover paint? Store partially full cans upside down. Leftover paint can be saved for months if stored properly. Make sure the lids are well sealed, then store the cans upside down. This prevents air from getting inside the can and causing the paint to thicken and dry.

Recycling electronics The new iPhone has been quite a hit with consumers. In the first three days on the market, over 1/2 million units have been sold. Electronic goods, especially mobile phones, are being replaced before they are worn out as new, improved and lower priced models become available. Recycling older electronics becomes more important every year: by the end of July, global mobile phone use will for the first time pass the 3 billion mark–equivalent to half the world’s population–as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa.

Portable power from trash A company called AgriPower will begin production next year of a movable power generator fueled by a wide range of waste products, from walnut shells to discarded tires

Creative Turmoil

Fascinating developments at the Borough Council meeting tonight.

First off, THANK YOU to the dozens and dozens of residents who came out to the meeting and the dozens who spoke up urging the Council not to introduce the new Villa Maria ARC zoning ordinance.

The result was, coming off a tiring (at least) five years of work on the prior ordinance and the condo project approved by the Planning Board, combined with their recent court loss thanks to Bill Campbell’s lawsuit, and now confronted with an increasingly informed, engaged, organized and vocal community group, the Council decided to NOT introduce the new ARC ordinance, and instead, invited representative members of the NP Citizens for Community Rights group to meet with Borough Administrator David Hollod (and perhaps Council members too) to work toward a compromise strategy acceptable to a majority of the town’s residents.

So, second off, THANK YOU to the Borough Council.

This is a major achievement, especially for a citizens’ group that began in early June with about a dozen people battered by years of stonewalling from the Mayor and Council.

With a lot of hard work and courage, we’ve since grown to more than 50 people who have come out to each of two Town Meetings, blog hits up over 100 per day, almost 700 people who have signed a petition to introduce a self-governance ordinance via initiative, e-mail and phone networks, many new friendships growing amidst constructive one-to-one conversations about local issues, and upcoming, a community newspaper and recall petition.

Well done, all y’all!

That said, we are a young group, and this feels to me like a moment of hope and also a moment of vulnerability.

As we step up to participate in the real decisions about making our vision of our future as a community real, we need to be vigilant about staying true to our goals as “a nonpartisan group of North Plainfield residents intent on empowering free and equal citizens to solve local problems through open public discussion and use of our democratic right to self-governance.”

We need to continue making sure that public business is conducted in public, with meaningful input and oversight from everyone, not behind closed doors with self-interested deal-cutting among insiders.

The risk is there, because it’s a classic political maneuver to pick off the most vocal leaders of a movement by bringing them inside the power structure, leaving the majority of the movement outside yet again, and I really don’t want to see that happen here.

My goal, in contributing my particular skill-set (mainly research and writing) to the work of this group, is well-articulated by Paul Hawken, in his book Blessed Unrest, where he offers the metaphor that the networks of increasingly-linked social change groups all around the world are

“humanity’s immune response to political corruption, economic disease, and ecological degradation. The movement is not merely a network; it is a complex and self-organizing system.”

(Hawken has written an interesting response to a review of his book here, if you’re interested in an overview.)

Within that framework, there are no ideologies, only ideas, and there are no pre-ordained outcomes. As Hawken writes:

“We are vastly mis-educated as children into thinking that problems are linear and can be solved by linear thinking. If ecology teaches us anything, it is that we live within and are permeated by, right down to each cell, non-linear systems that cannot be predicted or ’strategically addressed.’ The awe I have about this movement is that it appears to me to be the first social movement that collectively expresses this non-linear understanding without ever stating it or necessarily realizing it.”

And the best quote, or at least the one most relevant to our current work here in North Plainfield, is:

“To say that the ideas that inform this movement are the same that gave birth to this country is a hopeful statement, but not borne out in fact. This country was founded by privilege and was dominated from the outset by the privileged. I believe we are moving from a world created by privilege to one created by community. This is a fundamental and global shift, one much resisted.”

Holding onto that vision, I will continue to push for community-created solutions to our local issues, and continue to encourage everyone to be as fully, deeply, thoughtfully, vocally, emotionally engaged as you can be.

We’re all full stakeholders, so we all need to be full decision-makers.

Political, Religious, Civic Signage

For years and years, I’ve seen the sandwich board sign pictured at the top, prominently displayed at the intersection of Grove and Mercer, in the public right-of-way portion of private property owned by Holy Cross Church.

It seems totally fine to me – doesn’t block anyone’s vision, and clearly notifies interested members of the motoring, bicycling and walking public about their freedom to worship with the congregation Iglesia Bautista that meets in Holy Cross at the times listed.

More recently, the banner in the lower photo popped up, announcing the 50th anniversary celebration for the Holy Cross Preschool – where Mayor Janice Allen works in her regular/paid job as the preschool director. It also seems like a fine sign to me – notifying and inviting the general public to a community celebration.

According to the ordinance under which DPW Director James Rodino ordered the removal of the allegedly illegal NP Citizens for Community Rights Town Meeting sandwich board from the public right-of-way section of a private Greenbrook Road residence, banners such as this one are also illegal.

Perhaps Iglesia Bautista has regularly sought and received 30-day permits to display their sign, and perhaps Mayor Allen also sought and received a permit to post the preschool banner.

In any case, I plan to postpone filing the First Amendment lawsuit, and begin with a certified letter to the Mayor and Council, seeking written confirmation that nothing in the sign ordinance – Chapter 22, Article 8, Section 119 – is to be construed by any Borough official or employee as permitting the removal of any safely-sized, safely-positioned political or religious signs, of any size and shape, on private property (with the consent of the owner) or on public property (owned by the general public), on the grounds that such removal would constitute a violation of the sign-posters’ Constitutional right to freedom of political speech and expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.

We’ll see how they respond and go from there.

Villa Maria – Tax Delinquency

This document, from the NJ State Business Gateway Service, shows that the last year the nuns of Villa Maria filed proper paperwork claiming to be a non-profit entity was 2002.

Villa Maria Tax Status

So, a case could be made for placing a lien on the property for five years of tax delinquency, estimated as follows (assuming that, like the rest of local properties, Villa Maria has not been reassessed in recent years and the land and improvements have been assessed at $6,119,500 for all five years):

2003 – Tax rate 3.920. Assessed property value: $6,119,500. Tax: $239,884.40

2004 – Tax rate 4.30. Assessed property value: $6,119,500. Tax: $263,138.50

2005 – Tax rate 4.820. Assessed property value: $6,119,500. Tax: $294,959.90

2006 – Tax rate 5.170. Assessed property value: $6,119,500. Tax: $316,378.15

2007 – Tax rate 5.520. Assessed property value: $6,119,500. Tax: $337,796.40

For a GRAND TOTAL of: $1,452,157.40

Update 1/30/08 – The Borough went after the nuns for about $330,000 – just the property taxes for 2007, and the nuns’ attorney appealed. See post from December 14, 2007.

Update

[Update e-mail sent to the NP CCR e-mail list...]

1) THANK YOU to everyone who attended last week’s NP Citizens for Community Rights Town Meeting. Next Town Meeting is October 29, 7 P.M., Vermeule Center.

2) IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE VILLA MARIA DEVELOPMENT ISSUE, the BOROUGH COUNCIL WILL BE RE-INTRODUCING THE AGE-RESTRICTED CONDOMINIUM ZONING ORDINANCE TOMORROW AT THEIR REGULAR MEETING, 7 PM AT THE VERMEULE CENTER. PLEASE ATTEND IF YOU CAN – MORE PEOPLE SAYING NO MAY HELP SLOW DOWN OR STOP THE READOPTION AND PRESSURE THE BOROUGH ADMINISTRATION TO COME UP WITH BETTER SOLUTIONS.

3) The Changemaker newspaper will be coming out shortly, this week at the earliest, more likely next week. I’m working on an Excel database of the 700-some people who have either attended a town meeting, signed the petition, or both. CONTRIBUTORS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to send in data-based information and/or opinion articles on property taxes, schools, land development, open space, shade trees, government accountability, etc., approximately 150-200 words each.

4) The database will also form the information for a phone tree, to allow rapid response to emerging municipal government activities (such as this ordinance introduction tomorrow). Each person on the phone tree will make three or four calls when called by the person in the branch above you on the phone tree.

5) THANK YOU to Mark Williams, who signed up to cover some School Board meetings (Next one is Oct. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at 33 Mountain Ave.), and Barbara Habeeb, Joyce Lembo and Diane Leary-Smagalla, who signed up to cover some Borough Council meetings (next one is Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. at Vermeule Center). The idea is to get a group of people to rotate meeting coverage for these two boards, plus the Planning and Zoning boards, and then disseminate the information gathered by meeting coverage to the rest of the group and other interested local residents, through e-mails, blog posts, and in The Changemaker paper newspaper. The more people who join this project, the less work for each person as the schedule rotates.

5) If you want to sign up for the Google group that sends out each agenda for the Borough Council meetings, click here and sign up by clicking the “JOIN” tab on the right side. Usually agendas come out the Friday before the Monday meetings.

6) I’ll probably start drafting a recall petition to recall Mayor Janice Allen late this week or next weekend. We’ll need about 2,000 signatures under the state law governing recalls of municipal officials – at least 25% of the registered voters, which is about 8,000 in N. Plainfield.

7) Please tell your friends about the work you are doing with NP Citizens for Community Rights, and encourage them to get involved. Anyone interested in joining this mailing list can send their e-mail address to me.

Municipal Audit

A blog reader recently e-mailed me about “the process for requesting a full financial/operational audit of NP by the State or even the GAO…” mentioning the high taxes, “unacceptable services” and the poor quality of the schools as possible signs that there’s some “fund misappropriation by the administration, and perhaps even criminal activity.”

I did some preliminary research and turned up this link to a Haddonfield audit. I also followed the Haddonfield info to the Division of Local Government Services website, which has an Ethics Complaint procedure and might have audit-type programs, but I didn’t have time to keep looking yesterday.

Anyway, a lot of people have told me they have a gut feeling that “something doesn’t smell right” about how public money is being handled, so this is an angle concerned residents might pursue to get to the bottom of the money situation.

School Administrator Salaries

At the Sept. 19 NP School Board meeting, the issue of Board approval for salary raises for District Superintendent Marilyn Birnbaum, Assistant Superintendent Robert Rich, and Business Administrator Donald Sternberg was again tabled due to insufficient Board members present and eligible to vote (three members of the 7-member board are related to current district staff, so only four members are able to vote on administrative salary issues, and, at least at the beginning of the meeting, only three were present).

The issue was on the agenda for a second time, because four votes were needed to pass the raises at the Sept. 5 meeting, and newly elected Board member Drew Smith made a motion to freeze the salaries, received no second, and then voted “No.” (Minutes of the September 5 meeting).

I wasn’t at that Sept. 5 meeting, and don’t know the details of Mr. Smith’s motion. It may be that the issue was voted again later in the Sept. 19 meeting, which I had to leave early.

One of the most important facts brought to light during the Sept. 19 meeting was that Dr. Birnbaum’s salary increases are part of a 5-year contract negotiated years ago, and so, apparently, not within the purview of the current board to change, without reopening contract negotiations. There are deadline issues involved, related to the public employees’ right to appeal adverse salary decisions, and other procedural things that will take time to fully research and understand.

However, I did locate a table comparing the salaries of all the District Superintendents in Somerset County. Interested readers can click here to see the Superintendent chart. Dr. Birnbaum is the third highest-paid superintendent in Somerset County, behind the superintendents of Franklin and Bridgewater-Raritan.

If I understood correctly from the meeting discussions, by contract, Dr. Birnbaum’s salary is slated to top $200,000 within the next year or so.

Assistant Superintendent Robert Rich is the fourth highest-paid Assistant Superintendent – in a list which only includes 9 Assistant Superintendents, since many districts don’t have them.

Here’s the list for Business Administrators - Sternberg’s salary ranks 7th out of 17.

I don’t happen to think that the standardized state tests are a great way to figure out if and what kids are learning, if kids are by and large curious and enjoying school, if teachers are satisfied and challenged by their work, or the other things I think are most essential to the quality of children’s education. But in the absence of a good way to gauge all those things – apart from anecdotal evidence – here are North Plainfield’s 2006 state test scores – below the state average for our town’s socioeconomic class (the “DFG” code) across the board.

Thoughts on the ARC’s Return

What we will hear, if anything, from the Borough Council, is that the ARC Ordinance must be passed, because if it isn’t, single-family homes will be built at Villa Maria, and children will move in, and they’ll go to school here, and our property taxes are already too high, and mostly go to school funding.

On a personal note, I find this anti-child attitude extremely short-sighted – the net effect, over time, can’t be anything other than to drive hordes of young families with children out of the state altogether.

But from another angle, I think ARC housing is a band-aid on a deep and festering wound, and one that won’t solve the problem. As Gov. Corzine puts it in this fascinating Bloomberg article: “The real problem is we have too much reliance on property taxes in how we finance public education.”

The article also mentioned that: “The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled last month [December 2006] that towns could condemn land for open space under eminent domain laws to stop development that might result in ‘overcrowded schools.’ That put schoolchildren on a par with pollution and traffic congestion as valid reasons for seizing property.”

Which means the Borough Council now has THREE valid reasons to pursue eminent domain, and figure out ways to finance it through Somerset County, state and federal open space funds, combined with private grants and a one-time tax levy or even a community-driven fundraiser for such a purchase.

The article goes on to point out that “Most seniors who move stay in the same towns, according to data from the AARP. They usually sell the homes in which they raised their families to homebuyers with children, negating any tax benefit.” Makes sense, especially since another of the local official’s arguments is that an undisclosed, undocumented number of local homeowning seniors have come crying into their offices, saying “Please, please, build me a nearby apartment complex to live out my retirement.”

Also, I was intrigued to learn from a resident at last night’s Town Meeting that, in addition to towns that grant variances to ARC developer to remove the age-restriction if the units don’t sell, towns also grant eligible aged homeowners (earning below a certain amount of income) the right to not pay significant portions of the school portion of their property taxes, since, obviously, they don’t have kids in the schools.

New York currently does this, New Jersey may or may not; I need to keep looking. On first glance, it looks as though all NJ seniors can deduct 100% of the amount they pay in local property taxes from their NJ Income Taxes, up to $10,000 per resident.

Could that partly explain why the state apparently doesn’t have the funds to support the schools so that local property taxes don’t have to bear so much of the education costs?

Is it a shell game?

More evidence-based holes in the Council argument that ARC units will provide tax revenue to support the schools without incurring additional service costs.

ARC Zoning Redux

Just in:

The Borough Council will be re-introducing the Age-Restricted Condominium Ordinance at next Monday’s Council meeting – 7 p.m. at the Vermeule Community Center.

From the Agenda:

“Mr. Singleterry: 09-24-07-03 ORDINANCE NO. 07-16, AN ORDINANCE TO ESTABLISH AN R-9 AGE RESTRICTED COMMUNITY (ARC) RESIDENCE ZONE, be read by its title by the Clerk.”