Permit Extension Act

By KW

It may seem odd that Villa Maria owner McNerney is applying for Borough blessings on his plan to build 51 single family homes at a time when more than 200 homes are on the market in the Borough, prices are dropping, foreclosures are rising and the loan funding stream from financial institutions has slowed to a trickle.

The Permit Extension Act may explain his reasoning, in part. If the political leadership of the Borough changes in November, the Planning Board and other governing bodies may change composition – quickly if the old-timers resign en masse, gradually if they each ride out their appointments. The new board and commission members may be less willing to bend over and grab their ankles for McNerney and his attorneys.

But the Permit Extension Act in the NJ Legislature – much pushed by builders’ lobbying groups - will make it so that permits granted now don’t expire for years, even if the construction projects languish for years while developers like McNerney wait for the real estate markets to turn and the financing capital pools to replenish.

To read a letter by the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, and other open space/environmental groups, about this latest attack on local decision-making authority, it’s posted HERE.

As of Sept. 7, those advocacy groups were still trying to get Gov. Corzine to veto the measure.

Over that same weekend, he quietly signed it into law.

“The Permit Extension Act is one of the worst environmental bills ever passed by New Jersey legislators and one of the biggest giveaways to developers in the state’s history,” [Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club of NJ] said. “The way in which the Governor chose to sign this bill shows just how bad this bill is – he couldn’t even sign it in public or let the public know what he was doing.”

Once again, a state preemption of municipal authority.

Which is probably why McNerney is so intent on getting his 51-single-family-home project application approved as soon as possible: he doesn’t have his municipal permit yet, but once he does, it’s good for a long time.

For more on the Permit Extensions Act, federal EPA objections to it, and plans for court challenges, check out this story:

The act would allow the extension of building approvals granted after Jan. 1, 2006. Some may last until two years after the economic slowdown ends which the bill puts at Dec. 31, 2012.

Matt Stancheck on Water Quality

By Matt Stancheck

I would like to bring attention to the recent EPA decision not to clean up a toxic rocket fuel ingredient in drinking water.

The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in 495 sites in 35 states. Some scientists claim it can interfere with thyroid function and cause developmental problems, particularly among babies and fetuses. According to the article much of it has been found in the West Plains around former and current military sites where they stationed certain types of missles that were designed for the Cold War.

They didn’t indicate if New Jersey was one of the states infected, but according to the same article the EPA did release a document claiming that a clean up would not bring any significant risk reduction for people using public water systems. But we can only guess how reliable that is.

Story is here:  http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=9054460&nav=menu683_2_10

Robert Gatto – Just a Minute of Your Time

By Robert Gatto, Candidate for Mayor (R)

 

A residents, I’m sure at one time or another we’ve all had an issue that compelled us to interact with Borough Hall – we’ve tried to engage a Borough employee to help us with a particular issue and we’ve all experienced varying levels of success in this endeavor.

When things do not go our way, some of us have used the statement “I’m a tax payer and I would appreciate some assistance,” (or words to that effect), because being a taxpayer should entitle us to some time and consideration from Borough employees.

However, there are only so many employees to go around and their limited time has to be dedicated to assisting all the residents of North Plainfield in a way that is both efficient and fair.

At least, that’s what I thought.

On Wednesday night, I attended the Planning Board meeting where Mr. McNerney’s attorneys for Watchung Hills at North Plainfield were presenting a plan to build 51 Single Family Homes on the Villa Maria site.

The entire Planning Board was in attendance, along with our Mayor, Janice Allen, and our Borough Administrator, David Hollod. Before the presentation, Mr. Hollod asked that a statement be read into the record – a statement written by Councilwoman Barbara Habeeb. It was brought to Councilwoman Habeeb’s attention that Mr. McNerney was in arrears to the tune of over $300,000 in property taxes owed on the Villa Maria property.

Even though Mr. McNerney had appealed this tax bill, the appeal did not excuse him from his obligation to pay his tax bill, which he has refused to do.

Councilwoman Habeeb had strongly suggested that an immediate tax lien should be placed on the property, and the statement so distressed Mr. Hollod that he asked the Planning Board if he should recuse himself from the proceedings.

This situation is addressed by certain laws which state that a Borough can deny the issuance of any permits based on nonpayment of property tax. It is also common practice in New Jersey to deny developers access to any review or supervisory board based on nonpayment of property taxes.

You would have thought that this situation uncovered by Councilwoman Habeeb would have brought the Planning Board proceedings to a screeching halt.

Surprisingly, this was not the case.

In fact, this situation caused Mr. McNerney’s lead attorney to laugh out loud and state that if the Borough wished to place a lien on the property, they could do so and his group would address it at a later date.

The Planning Board, for some unknown reason, did nothing and the meeting continued even though they had clear grounds to stop the proceedings and compel the property owner to pay a huge tax bill that I thought this Borough desperately needed. There is still a question as to whether the back taxes owed are approximately $300,000 or well over $1,000,000, because the Villa Maria officially lost its tax exempt status in 2004 and the tax obligation follows ownership of the property.

Therefore, the next time you venture down to Borough Hall in need of assistance and wonder why it is not immediately forthcoming, the reason may be that the majority of your governing body (from the Mayor, Administrator, Engineer, and countless volunteer Board Members ) are busy listening to the largest delinquent taxpayer in North Plainfield who laughs out loud at our laws and procedures while deciding in what manner they can extract the most time, attention and money from all the resources North Plainfield has to offer.

After they are done, maybe the current administration can spare a minute for an insignificant taxpayer like you.

[For background on Villa Maria's tax situation, click on the Fact Sheets page up top, click on the Villa Maria Fact Sheet, and scroll down to the Property Tax section.]

Monday’s Borough Council Meeting

I asked Barbara Habeeb to let me know what happened at Monday’s chock-full Borough Council meeting. She reported:

“Everything passed except the commercial vehicle one which is tabled until further notice.”

If any readers know more about how the discussions went, and what the key provisions of the adopted measures were, please fill the rest of us in.

Dispatches from M.Emory Layne – Calling All Occupants: “Just DO It.”

By Emory Layne

Not occupants of “interplanetary craft.” Occupants of North Plainfield.

A lot of people have answered the call over the years in North Plainfield. Not the political call. For a long time around here, I don’t think there was political call; it was more like a waiting list, with people penciled in to take the place of other people when they decided to move on.

I mean the call that’s rolling pretty strong now, the one related to NPCCR and a wealth of information being made available to residents of North Plainfield for the first time in, well, maybe for the very first time. Katherine Watt got that ball rolling, pretty much single-handedly to start.

A lot of people tried in the past. (In Ms. Watt’s case, I’d imagine it’s a combination of her unique skills and being in the right place at the right time.)

But other people did try in the past.  They tried to join committees and commissions, but saw their Talent Bank applications “lost” or ignored in favor of others. They participated in the activities that call for citizens to interact with elected official and employees, but ended up throwing up their hands in despair or disgust.

Or maybe just throwing up.

Their efforts were no less important than those happening now. There was simply less organization, less communication and less knowledge that other people in town felt the same way.

But now, with great opportunities to participate without the game-playing and politics of earlier times, it’s time again to get back on board.

Everyone’s got something to offer. But you have to offer it.

There have been calls on this blog, for example, for people to submit OPRA requests to Borough Hall. I completely understand that visiting Borough Hall for any reason, let alone reasons Borough Hall staff regard as confrontational, has been and still is a royal pain. It’s not for everyone.

But I wonder if there are any residents out there who are pretty sure of themselves and who have less to fear from Borough Hall than others, who could step up to this challenge. Perhaps law enforcement professionals, whether they work here in town or for other towns. Perhaps educators - after all, we’re always told that Borough Hall politics are completely removed from school politics.

For too long, retaliation (real or simply anticipated) have allowed Borough Hall to be the town bully. When everyone bands together and stands up to the bully, the bully usually runs away crying to Mommy.

A gentleman by the name of Oleh Kaniuka has corresponded from time to time, offering his insight into accounting practices and finances in the Borough. There are more people in town who have professional experience – in finance, accounting, law, public health, telecommunications and other areas. People who can also provide firm input, or even use a treasure hunt approach to tracking down documents that let us all know what’s been happening with our money for years. Those professionals already know what to look for; lay people have to research to even figure out what to look for. Point us in the right direction.

In lots of situations, but particularly Villa Maria, we’ve heard “opinions” from the Borough Attorney and statements in hearings and in court by attorneys representing developers. I’m sure this town has quite a few lawyers among its residents. What do YOU think?

This isn’t someone asking for free legal advice; it’s a whole town asking for your input in areas that you know far more about than we do.

A gentleman by the name of Morgan Shevett reported on a Council meeting, and didn’t hold back anything. Yet following his insightful, detailed - and uproariously funny - commentary, he wasn’t (to my knowledge) consigned to a dark dungeon or even slapped with so much as a traffic ticket.

There are loads of people out there who’ve seen and heard things first-hand who could tell us about them. Not gossip. Not catty sniping. The real stuff about real public issues that often is intended to be out of earshot or sight, but slips through.

It doesn’t have to be funny – this whole situation has become far too serious for us to look for laughs. I may chuckle about something someone writes, but the dead-serious message behind it is always painfully clear.

Finally, things didn’t get the way they are last week. Over the years, there have been lots of situations I personally witnessed - part and parcel to the whole mess that’s happening downtown. Some of them, I’ve raised on this blog; others have been consigned to a “wait and see” file, held until the day they can be investigated without having to first trade a limb for the information.

Lots of people know about these things … and until now, it’s been perfectly understandable that they chose to remain quiet. Spilling the beans would’ve been like telling the guy robbing you with a 12″ hunting knife that you just swallowed all your valuables.

To now, discretion was the better part of valor.

But no one’s asking you for money. For the past decade, people downtown have been demanding your money, without oversight, prudence and accountability – and you didn’t have a choice.

No one’s asking you to commit substantial amounts of your time. If you’re reading this, you spend some time on the computer, and the time it takes to write down a few words is about the same as it takes to answer an emails. And no one’s asking you to write and rewrite and edit and reedit a literary work of art. This isn’t one of those blogs where people who make a typo or misuse a word get reamed by the get-a-life know-it-alls. There’s respect here.

I think we can agree on a few things.

Things in North Plainfield ain’t the way they ought to be. There are documented cases of elected officials circumventing laws, attempting end-runs around the taxpayers and blocking attempts to see just what’s going on.

Taxes go up every year, and all the incumbents talk about is “stabilizing” them – “lowering” is apparently blasphemous.

We pay substantial salaries to administrators who appear to answer only to those who hired them, not to those who foot the bill, do their jobs incompetently, and get rewarded with pay increases and promotions.

Laws and ordinances are regularly violated. While you and I pay a speeding ticket when we get it, other people don’t even get them … or the money goes uncollected.

While you and I take pride in our homes and our neighborhoods, other people view theirs as fleabag hotels to be packed with as many people they can find with money to pay.

And when someone comes along who doesn’t even live here and pay taxes, and they want to do something, our elected officials and committee heads bend over backwards to alter and amend the ordinances to please them – and tell us to go to hell.

How did things get that way?

They got that way because we allowed them to.

No, we weren’t offered a choice and picked the mule behind the curtain instead of the box Carol Merrill was holding.

We just believed what we were told by the people who wanted to hold power in town. When it started to become obvious that they were saying one thing but doing another, we didn’t have a chance to make a change because of the little cliques running the local political machines wind up toys. Some people blindly voted the party line, thinking they were doing the right thing; others tried to get involved, but found the doors closed and the curtains drawn.

Here are some of the reasons why people keep mum about the things they’ve experienced first-hand, and why they need to step up anyway.

1. They work for the Borough, and “fear for their job.”

If you’ve done something unethical or illegal, it’s going to catch up to you sooner or later and you won’t have a job anymore. If you were asked to do something like that, you always had a choice, and someday I’ll introduce you to people who did the right thing instead of copping out with rationalizations. And if you saw this stuff, even if you weren’t directly involved, who are you protecting? Certainly not your neighbors and fellow residents.

2. You’ve known something, but it involved “a friend.”

Well, there are friends … and there are “friends.” One earns your trust; the other demands your trust. One does the right thing; the other does the right thing for him or herself, and makes excuses for doing it. If socializing with that person is so much more important than watching this stuff continue, you’ve crept into a position not too far behind your friend – as an enabler.

Would it have been okay for Ted (the Unabomber) Kaczynski’s brother to have held his tongue and not pointed the authorities in the right direction because he loved his brother? What about the people who’d been killed and maimed? Well, he could always have said “I didn’t know them….”

3. Maybe it’s just that you see other people doing stuff for the town now, and it looks like they’re accomplishing a lot, so you figure everything’s taken care of.

That’s how the whole mess got to where it is now.

Everyone is welcome in this newly-open community … with the possible exception of those who have kept silent and reaped  benefits from their go-along, get-along cooperation with the shenanigans.

[Editor's Note: They're welcome too.]

You can use my relatives’ names:

• Penny Layne;
• my Louisiana cousin Tu Layne;
• my bean-eating uncle Gas O’Layne; or
• my niece who used to drive a taxi in New York, E. Layne (extreme reach, I know).

Just DO IT.

Dispatches from M.Emory Layne – Public Service Salaries, Revisited

By Emory Layne

Not too long back, I wrote a dispatch that dealt with police and fire salaries. I made a typographical error, and it was corrected by a reader.

In response, a police officer [Mark Messinger] offered his opinions – not Borough policy. I applaud him for that, since it’s something our elected and hired administrators … the people who actually set these policies and pay scales … simply refuse to do.

Mr. Messinger pointed to the difference between the lower number of crimes in North Plainfield compared to Plainfield, and concluded that higher pay for North Plainfield police reflected the great job those police do in fighting crime and enforcing the law – he implied a cause-and-effect relationship between paying police higher salaries and the getting lower crime rates.

I can’t confirm or refute that belief – and I doubt anyone can.

My point was that there ought to be some kind of quantifying factors involved in setting the salaries of public servants, and I was using available statistics to discuss the topic.

There are no readily available figures to compare one community’s zoning office enforcement record to another. Or clerk’s offices. Or the feet of streets a Public Works department has to clean or plow in one town as opposed to another.

But I did have crime statistics.

The September 23, 2008 Star-Ledger published a chart titled “Somerset County crime by town… The crime rate per 1,000 population, accompanied by the number of crimes reported to police in 2007.”
21 Somerset County communities were listed in this chart. Of them, North Plainfield at 27.9 crimes per 1,000 residents, had the second highest crime rate, after Watchung (46.6). The next three in the “top five” were: Somerville (25.2); Bound Brook (24.6) and Green Brook (20.7).

Often, when someone wants you to see a point in a certain way, they’re happy with the numbers as they come out.

 For example, comparing Plainfield to North Plainfield, Mr. Messinger felt that more per capita crimes in Plainfield reinforced the payscale for our police are paid under; higher law-enforcement demands along a common border with Plainfield and with a major highway running through town proved that a higher pay scale is exactly as it should be.

Among the 21 Somerset County towns, there’s quite a disparity among them … but no benchmark that could be used as a justification. There are towns that are commonly viewed as “rich” (Bedminster, Peapack-Gladstone) and towns viewed as “urban” (Somerville, Bound Brook). There are other towns with Route 22 running through them (Green Brook, Watchung, Bridgewater). And there are also demographic disparities between community populations.

Off the main topic, I think crime happens because there will always be people, regardless of race, color or religion, who will commit a crime when they think they can get away with it. And personally, I believe that enforcement of laws and punishment for crimes is the only way to address the issue. We can’t rehabilitate each and every criminal, but putting a criminal in jail effectively eliminates his or her opportunity to commit crimes outside the prison walls, in the communities where we live and pay taxes for protection and enforcement of laws.

So I did a little number-crunching again.

Salary figures are under the heading “police and fire.” In North Plainfield, I can tell who is police and who is fire; I can’t realistically do that in other towns. Some towns have full-time paid fire departments; others have volunteer departments. So in fairness, I grouped together North Plainfield police and fire to be able to compare with other communities.

I think that’s fair, because even though police patrol for criminal and dangerous traffic activity while firefighters put out fires, perform rescues and handle medical emergencies, both are public safety jobs. I think a police officer would just as readily rush into a burning building to save someone as a fireman, while a fireman would jump in and attempt to stop someone from being beaten up and robbed.

Here are the “top five” Somerset County communities by crime rate-per-thousand with the number of police and fire employees they have and the average salaries earned:

• Watchung (46.6): 28 employees, average salary $84,760
• North Plainfield (27.9): 68 employees, average salary $89,738
• Somerville (25.2): 32 employees, average salary $81,386
• Bound Brook (24.6): 21 employees, average salary $87,818
• Green Brook (20.7): 23 employees, average salary $84,352

I didn’t do the “bottom five.” Instead, I picked five communities similar to the top five in number of police & fire employees, geographic area, access to major highways, diverse population, and common borders.

Here’s how those five communities work out:

• Hillsborough (9.4): 55 employees, average salary $88,234
• Warren (8.7): 27 employees, average salary $86,345
• Bedminster (7.3): 17 employees, average salary $84,608
• Bernardsville (7.0): 18 employees, average salary $97,400
• South Bound Brook (6.4): 12 employees, average salary $83,034

I conclude that these figures prove nothing except my original premise: there’s no rhyme or reason to how salaries are set and maintained.

Can we say things like:

“Wealthier communities pay better than poorer communities.”

Seems to be true in a place like Bernardsville, commonly viewed as well-off, but doesn’t explain why North Plainfield pays 6% higher than wealthier Bedminster and Watchung.

“Smaller and/or economically depressed communities can’t afford to pay higher.”

Is Bound Brook is a thriving, growing community, or a small, economically depressed community? Well, they pay within 2% of North Plainfield. And one of the mid-range crime rate communities, Manville (at a 15.1 rate per thousand) pays the almost unbelievable average salary of $94,047. Manville is not flush. Perhaps this explains, in part, why Mayor Allen was moved to write a letter full of glowing praise for the Mayor of Manville who was voted out not too long ago.

What about,

“There is a parallel between the amount paid and the crime rate.”

I don’t see one. Crime is related to a lot of factors, but the amount paid law enforcement certainly isn’t one of those cause-and-effect factors. If it were, then since North Plainfield pays more than Hillsborough, Warren, Bedminster and South Bound Brook, our crime rate statistics should be similar to theirs, and they’re not.

I think my original point is proven: police and fire salaries are almost solely a function of decisions made in individual communities. There’s no way to justify any level of pay based on crime statistics. If the crime stats are too high in a “not good” way, it could be argued that pay should be increased. If the stats show a “good” level, it could be argued that the higher pay caused the low rate. But I doubt anyone will argue that since ‘x’ community has a lower crime rate at a lower average salary, perhaps North Plainfield should drop down to that salary level too.

And anyone hired to be a rank-and-file officer would be a fool o be offered a wage and respond “Sorry, that’s way too much; make it lower.” I don’t think I’d want that person entrusted with making important, spur-of-the-moment decisions.

Part of the problem lies in the wage scales for administrators, the bosses of the cops and firefighters who ‘walk the beat.’ The public safety administrators are hired by elected officials and the sidekicks they hire as business administrators; they set the salary levels.

There’s been a lot of discussion in North Plainfield about enforcement. I’ve never been a cop, but I think cops do what they’re ordered to do. Rogue cops running their own little justice systems, so beloved by Hollywood, are as credible as the annual panic about razor blades in apples at Halloween – a couple of instances don’t make an epidemic. Cops do as they’re told.

But who does the telling?

Council candidate Frank D’Amore recently presented us with some statistics from Mayor Janice Allen about “levels of enforcement” in North Plainfield being at their “highest” in years. But Frank provided the context left out of Mayor Allen’s speech – Mayor Allen believes writing or giving warnings are as enforcement as fines and jail time.

 The crime rate statistics referenced earlier in this dispatch aren’t about traffic – they’re about crime crime. I believe that when a community takes a firm position that criminals within its borders will be busted and have the book thrown at them, some of the criminals will hesitate. I can’t figure out why North Plainfield cops haven’t been instructed to say, and mean: “Listen up, scumbags: take your act somewhere else, because here, you’re as good as locked up.”

Crime rates may well be influenced by factors other than enforcement policies, but changes in North Plainfield’s crime rates and enforcement policies during the last 20 years (less enforcement, more crime) certainly suggest a relationship between the two that bears serious consideration and possibly a change of direction. Instead, it appears that North Plainfield decision-makers have supported these trends.

Perhaps our signs should read:

“Welcome to North Plainfield – the politically-correct community that makes sure no one gets in trouble, so as not to offend anyone. (Just don’t kill anyone.)”

Emory Layne – Information Update

By Emory LayneIn a recent dispatch, I commented on a possible relationship between Villa Maria developer Robert McNerney and Bergen County Democratic politician Dennis McNerney, i.e. that they might even be brothers.

A highly reliable source whose information is unimpeachable has told me that there is NO direct familial relationship between these two men. While the possibility always exists that they may far-distantly related without actually knowing it, it can safely be cleared up that there is no close family relationship between the two.

Further, I’ve been told that the politician McNerney (Dennis) is a man that Bergen County can truly be proud of as both a political representative and as a person.

While this lays to rest any blood relationship issues, it still leaves us with the open question as to why a Glen-Rock-based developer (Robert McNerney) and a Warren-based attorney (Eric Bernstein) have contributed such large sums of money to the Bergen County Democratic Organization. On that topic, we have no leads.

Dwight Torlay Clarifies LOI and Local Project Approval

In response to an e-mail from Barbara Habeeb about whether the Planning Board can approve development applications without an LOI, Dwight Torlay of DEP writes:

Ms. Habeeb:

That’s a good question. Technically, a municipality can issue whatever permits they like, but if the applicant falls under our regulations, they would still need a permit from us, regardless of whether or not the town gives them the okay.

It’s not uncommon for a town to issue permits before we do, but the applicant will still have to wait for our permit before they can start work. That’s assuming they are affected by our regulations, which is what the LOI will determine. If the LOI shows wetlands that will affect their project, they would need to then apply for the appropriate permit with us. If our regulations don’t affect them, then the municipal permit would be all they would need.

Dwight Torlay
NJDEP
Division of Land Use Regulation
Technical Support Center
PO Box 439
501 E. State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625-0439
(609) 777-0454, option 5

Dispatches from M.Emory Layne – Your Attention, Please – Part II

[Part Two of Four]By Emory Layne

We’ve had some elections recently.

Note I said “recently.” I’m not taking a Greyhound bus back to the Janice Allen mayoral campaigns. ‘Nuff said about them.

I’m talking about more recent campaigns and elections.

October 23, 2005.  Current Democrat mayoral candidate Mike Giordano was opposing Republican Gary Lewis for a Council seat. (Don’t ask how this seat was vacated in an odd year; I’m completely confused with all of this over the last few years in North Plainfield.)

A Star-Ledger article from Oct. 23 was headlined “Former Firefighters Vie for North Plainfield Council.”

The headline writer was reaching there; what either guy did before had little to do with the article. If the topic had been shared fire services or something, okay, but otherwise?

In that article,

“both candidates said illegal housing remains a key issue for the borough. Giordano said he considers it one of several “quality of life” issues he would address if elected.”

“Other issues he cited include complying with property maintenance codes, revitalizing borough hall, stabilizing taxes and improving communication between borough government and taxpayers.”

“Giordano…is making his first run for a council seat. He said he would look to control taxes by finding ways to share services, attract new businesses, secure grants and cut waste.”

Hey, you might ask, what did Lewis have to say?

I’ll answer. It makes no difference; he lost. What does it matter what a candidate promised if he didn’t win the opportunity to follow up on his promises? Comedian Pat Paulsen used to run for President ages ago – do we care what his platform was?

Giordano won.

Illegal housing was a “key quality-of-life issue” in October, 2005.

Still is, bub. So tell us, Mr. Giordano, what have you done to “address” it like you promised?

I’m channeling Bob Hitchcock from the last post - when he said the Democrats opposing the incumbents this year didn’t understand the big picture or the issues.  Mr. Giordano must have known the big picture in 2005, because Hitchcock supported him then and merrily runs alongside him today.

So what was it? You were going to ‘address’ illegal housing.

“Hellooooo, illegal housing!”

That’s about the extent of the ‘addressing’ you’ve done since Election Day in November 2005.

If you didn’t have a handle on what needed/needs to be done, why talk about it? If you did have a handle on what’s going on (which is now painfully obvious to all North Plainfield residents because of the complete lack of any substantive work on the issue), why the pathos about ‘quality of life?’

Mr. Giordano cited other issues. He certainly came through on one – “revitalizing borough hall.” So much ‘revitalizing’ has been going on down there, I’m expecting the Fountain of Freaking Youth to bubble up from the foundation any day now.

Rearrange the letters in “Levitra” and you get “Revital,” which is appropriate, because the hard-on the Democrats have had to pour money into this Borough Hall project must’ve been chemically induced.

What about the others, though?

“Complying with property maintenance codes.” Nice trick, though. Giordano didn’t say which codes would be selectively enforced on which residents. So, as I read on this blog, some poor bozo in town gets cited for having a collectible recreational truck on his property, but just about everything else goes unnoticed.

“Stabilizing taxes.”

Appropriate term, because the tax situation in this town smells like a stable. What exactly does ‘stabilize’ mean when it comes to taxes anyway? Keep them high? Keep them increasing at a steady rate? Let’s not forget, people who want lower taxes are those evil ‘special interest groups’ that incumbent Democrats downtown can’t abide.

Finally, “Improving communication between borough government and taxpayers.”

That project has gone swimmingly, from what I can see. The ‘communication’ between borough government and the taxpayers was superb when they tried to slap together a Reassessment Meeting out of school glue and construction paper.

The ‘communication’ between borough government and taxpayers is outstanding when people can’t even hear what you’re whispering at public meetings.

And the ‘communication’ is off the hook when taxpayers can’t even access the documents they paid to have made in the first place.

Amid all of this, we haven’t heard a peep out of Mr. Giordano even suggesting that, well, some things might be a little out of whack.

Mr. Giordano did suggest how he was going to ‘control’ (not reduce) taxes. “He said he would look to control taxes by finding ways to share services, attract new businesses, secure grants and cut waste.”

There’s that “shared services” line again. More people have done something about the weather in North Plainfield than about this shared services carrot that’s always dangling just out of our reach. As best as I can determine, the only shared services achieved in God-knows how long of its being promised is a shared-service agreement with the North Plainfield school board to buy fuel for both the borough’s and the school board’s vehicles.

That’s it. What any business owner would figure out in ten seconds – “Let’s combine our fuel purchases to reduce the cost” – is the extent of what’s been achieved.

Everything else? It’s still being “worked on.”

[Editor's Note: The $15 prize (offered Sept. 9) for the first Borough resident to request and obtain a copy of the 62-page July 2008 Shared Services Report and forward it to the blog, is still unclaimed. Will any reader do the job for $25? I'll pay the prize money, but your OPRA expenses are reimbursible - contact Gary Lewis, NPCCR Treasurer, at underyourroof@yahoo.com.]

Attract new business? Short of Giordano standing along Route 22 with his pants hiked up to show some leg, I haven’t seen any coordinated effort to “attract” new business from anyone even remotely involved with the concept.

[Editor's Note: Grassroots Groundswell has no evidence that Mr. Giordano has actually done this. Photos welcome to corroborate Mr. Layne's fanciful conjecture.]

Lots of ballyhoo about Circuit City coming in, for example, but no acknowledgement of that one business replacing an office supply outlet and furniture store that went out. That’s a 1-for-2 tradeoff, in my old-fashioned math. Too many politicians view ‘attracting new business’ the same way as ‘winning the lottery.’ Becoming an instant millionaire doesn’t prove financial acumen any more than businesses coming to town replacing businesses that left town proves someone’s ability to attract new business.

“Secure grants.” “Cut waste.”

For the umpteenth time, securing grants is what any politician worth his salt does. Bragging about that – or even implying that it’s some ‘new’ idea – would be no different than a fundraising manager for a non-profit demanding a raise because he or she obtained some contributions. That’s what you’re supposed to do. And it’s no solution to rising taxes: it’s taxpayer money to start with, paid into the grant system. Little elves don’t manufacture gold that the state distributes?

I won’t even justify “cutting waste” with a rebuttal. Mr. Giordano has cut no waste. I can’t imagine he’d even know how.

I don’t know about other readers, but I get really tired of this little game the insider Democrat candidates have played for years – address the issue, claim that you will do something about the issue, and then proceed to ignore the issue.

Or worse, do the exact opposite of what the issue calls for.

Illegal housing? Once elected, claim it’s not there.  Claim you’re afraid of lawsuits (forgot to mention that little phobia when you were running, didncha?). Pay people to not enforce the law, while you feverishly pass ordinances about campaign signs, storage units and dog poop.

Reading the papers and blogs, there are a ton of people calling for Rutgers coach Greg Schiano’s head . They claim he snookered taxpayers with a couple of good seasons to get a huge contract and millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money spent on bogus projects. Are they right? I don’t know. Maybe they are. But I can see that they’re really hot-and-bothered by it all.

But I’ll bet a lot of those people are the same people who’ve looked the other way or done whatever they can to impede change while local elected officials have gotten millions of dollars out of the taxpayers and haven’t even had to post a won-lost record.

Where’s all the Waste Posturing in this town? Where’s all the Empty Promises’ Outcry around here? It’s  been all talk and no action with them, and when we look at their performance on the important issues (the closest thing to a winning percentage for them), we see utter failure.

At least in sports, sometimes there’s an outcome you didn’t see coming.

In North Plainfield, it’s been nothing but same old stuff, different year.

Greg Hatala – Message to Recreation Parents and Players

By Greg Hatala

I’ve been volunteering my time as a coach in Recreation for a lot of years now, and I wanted to put this out in the public view, even though the people who it ought to be seen by probably won’t see it or will ignore it.

The men and women who coach in Recreation are volunteers. We don’t get paid a dime. A lot of the time, we go out-of-pocket because it’s needed. Everything from bringing extra water to games to buying equipment and stuff needed to practice, a lot of it costs money. Sometimes, a kid doesn’t have a mitt, or a pair of cleats, or shinguards, so we give him ones that we’d bought at some point. We don’t do it because we want anyone to make a big deal out of it.

But it becomes a big deal if people start stealing stuff that we’re paying for. At each of the first two weeks of this year’s soccer season, I’ve had a soccer ball I bought and paid for ripped off. It’s kind of hard for someone to say they “thought it was theirs,” because my name is written on in big black letters. In the past, I’ve had baseballs, mitts, and bats stolen while games are going on.

This is flat wrong. I don’t have any familiarity with the idea of “finders keepers” when something’s got someone’s name on it. Give it back or leave it alone. It’s tough enough coaching kids without also having to make sure I’ve got everything within a few feet of me at all times because someone’s got sticky fingers.