Health & Fitness
Howell Needs a Change
Candidate for mayor William Field explains what he thinks is right and wrong with the town and offers his platform.
The last six years have been difficult for Howell. The housing market peaked in 2006 or so, just when now-Mayor Bob Walsh took office. Throughout Walsh's time in office, from councilman to mayor, he and the other members of the town council have had to deal with a financial squeeze, a massive snowstorm, a hurricane, rising unemployment and other problems both natural and man-made.
Bill Gotto joined the council in January 2011 and joined the struggle.
As the Democratic candidate for mayor, I don't think they have done a particularly good job at responding, but I do think some initiatives are right.
Find out what's happening in Howellwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I'm starting this blog to present what I think is right with the town, what's wrong with the town, and what I propose to do if elected.
What's right
Find out what's happening in Howellwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
We have a beautiful town. We're on the edge of the metropolis, balanced between a rural world and a developed suburban world. We have open land for hunting and fishing, walking and boating. We have parkland for kids to play, for organized teams to compete. We have built up areas of residential subdivisions and retail space with a tiny amount of non-retail commercial activities. We need to keep this balance, maintaining as much open space as we possibly can while targeting development carefully.
The economic problems that hit us in 2008 have eaten into our tax base. Hundreds of properties lie empty in town. Storefronts are vacant, homes abandoned. The resulting drop in property taxes has forced the town to reduce spending. And they have: the headcount of municipal employees is down 20%. This has severely impacted services, including police protection (crime is up, frustratingly), but this has been needed to keep us from borrowing even more to cover operating expenses.
The town council searches for new revenue sources. One idea they have is Community Choice Aggregation, a program where the town would act as the buyer of residential electricity and redistribute it to homeowners who don't opt out. The benefit of this is the greater pricing power that the town brings to the deal. Residents might save several pennies per kilowatt while the town takes a small slice. Residents and the town would both benefit.
What's wrong
That said, I believe the town council has made major missteps. These fall under finances, service delivery, managing the town's infrastructure, and communication.
Finances are out of balance. Costs are rising, services are falling.
Municipal property taxes are up 55% since 2006, when Bob Walsh joined the council. Part of this is because of lower state aid. More important is financial mismanagement of both revenue and spending.
Debt is rising. Municipal debt is up $12 million since 2006. All but $4,000 of our open space money goes to paying the interest on debt. Debt service has jumped from $1.8 to $4.7 million. And just yesterday the town announced a new $7.5 million bond issue.
Personnel costs are rising. Our manager has a pay and benefits package of nearly $200,000. Police salaries have risen by $1.4 million even as we have staffing to the levels last seen in the 1980s.
No-bid contracts are killing us. The town has a close relationship with Birdsall Engineering and sends nearly every contract through them: $600,000 in the last two years. The town has also given Birdsall the power to hire and fire municipal employees.
Meanwhile, the township administrator is moving qualified employees into jobs they’re not trained for. Lawsuits are piling up as a result of inadequate training and oversight.
Service delivery is failing us.
The business climate is bad. Sure, a big reason why there are so many empty storefronts in town is the overall state of the economy, but I've been talking to people who have started new businesses in the last year or two. Mr. Gotto brags about the efforts (and money) going into streamlining the permitting process, but one new owner told me that the same town inspector came by 4 times to inspect the construction, and each time he failed the business for a different reason. Other businesses have similar stories. It's no wonder hardly anyone wants to open a small business here.
Meanwhile the town council has put an outside contractor -- Birdsall Engineering -- in charge of the Office of Community Development. At a claimed cost of $60,000 we're supposed to get streamlined approvals for homeowners and businesses seeking construction permits and inspections. It's not working.
Infrastructure problems continue
Traffic gets worse. Mr. Gotto and the council worked with the state to retime the lights on Rte. 9. The result is a nightmare. NO ONE in North Howell wants to come down Rte. 9 to shop; they go to Freehold. The long-proposed traffic light for Ramtown, which was fully funded 10 years ago, just got killed. Rte. 33 gets busier and busier.
What I propose
Property tax levels are killing us. We need a paid business consultant who can attract non-retail commercial development. It worked under Mayor Konopka; it can work again. This can rebalance our tax base and lower the tax burden on homeowners.
Traffic needs short term and long term solutions. I proposed changes to the intersection of Rte. 9 and Aldrich Rd. here: http://howell.patch.com/blog_posts/the-right-choice-for-howells-future#c... and would work to help Ramtown and Rte. 33 residents with their problems. Long term we need to move commuter traffic off our local roads.
We need someone with real experience on delivering government services to improve the business climate, NOT some engineering firm that’s pals with our elected officials.
Citizen committees that have been disbanded need to be reconstituted, including the Economic Development Advisory Committee, the ad hoc Ordinance Review Committee, and the Recreation Committee. A new committee to speak for the retirement communities may be a good idea. MORE eyes and ears can only help the council govern.
Finally, we need to work with our municipal employees to restore morale while controlling pension and health care costs.
The town council and the municipal employees work for the people. I think we’ve forgotten that.
