Obstruction Junction, What's Your Function?

Every time I think it couldn’t get more ridiculous, it does. Today’s Ocean Star Letters To The Editor only lead me to the conclusion that the GOP councilmembers and their supporters rely on the fact that most residents are too busy to pay close attention to the regular business of council. The soft pitch letter praising Toni DePaola and her good judgement was obviously written by someone who has never been to a council meeting. I have watched in awe for 10 months as Toni has delivered the same committee report time and time again. Funny thing is her reports don’t pertain to her committee. I believe that our TNR and Community Watch programs are both admirable contributions to our community, but Toni’s responsibility to the residents of Point Pleasant is to keep the Construction and Code Enforcement Departments operating efficiently. Now there was a very slap-shod and rushed for election season effort to merge the Boro and Beach Construction Departments last year, but when things fell apart, instead of getting back on the horse and doing the work of the people, she took her ball and went home. Toni’s only interaction for all of 2011 with her department head was during an Administration Committee meeting. I have to wonder if in his letter Mitch is telling Toni to “get off [her] duff” and fix this failing department. It is after all her responsibility and has been for the last two years although by her record you would never know it. Mitch’s letter is perhaps most disappointing. Here the youngest councilperson our town has elected could have spent the last 2 years proving that our youngest residents deserve a seat at the table. His refusal to accept any line of reasoning other than what he has already accepted as true, whether it is or not, is the definition of “pre-operational egocentrism”. A mature sense of reasoning is open to empathy, persuation, and multiple points of view or perspective. As unmoving and irrational as Bob, Mitch, Toni, and their supporters have tried to make the rest of us out to be on this garbage issue, we all accepted pretty readily that in-house collection was not as promising as a shared service. And again I say a shared service that they try and take credit for yet vote against. Did I yell at Mitch? Yes. Did I use a colorful word? Yes I did. I’m not proud to say I did. I wish I had been able to keep my cool, but I was as angry as every resident in this town should be at the long year of obstruction and game playing Bob, Mitch, and Toni have put us all through. It’s making me lose my faith that the best interests of residents will ultimately prevail. Everyday the office workers, PW crews, and employees of the Boro, so often vilified as leeches by the other side, get up, go to work and make sure that all of our needs are met, that our services continue to be there, that the bills get paid, that the streets are protected, and that our children learn and play, and all the while party politics seep through every seam into every nook and cranny threatening to undermine the security we all deserve. These games are the exact opposite of the work Toni, Mitch, and Bob were charged to do when they took the oath. They are not conservative and they do not serve the residents outside the GOP Club. It is neither conservative nor is it responsible to say no to everything. It is responsible to work and it is conservative to do so with the greatest good at heart. To be conservative means to be a conservationist, to protect and preserve that which is held dear. Someone protecting the common welfare, someone that claims to be conservative, would not jeopardize the interests of the town by putting on an election season performance. However, it can be expected and predicted to come from those with an established history of similar behavior. I should not be surprised by councilmembers that spend more time on their press releases than they do with their committee assignments. If Mitch wants to challenge someone to get to work, maybe he should challenge himself. I can’t tell you how often he meets with his department head, but I do know that the Rec. Center entry door has not been replaced even though the funding was approved 18 months ago. And I know that in a time when capital improvements that can no longer be denied loom over our budget year after year, he would be wise to spend his time working on a plan for the Rec Center that our Boro Engineer and others have confirmed has deteriorated beyond repair. I hear a lot about hard work but I have yet to see it. If Bob Sabosik’s brother-in-law, Marty Murdoch, is waiting for something to happen then he just hasn’t been paying attention. While Bob, Mitch, Toni, and their supporters have been working hard plotting to regain the majority, Bill, Chris, Jack, and I have been working hard to reverse decades of damage. While they’ve done nothing, we’ve done quite a lot: - Fixed the decades long book keeping disaster - Brought on a new CFO and Auditor to construct a responsible debt management plan - Fixed the $350,000 deficit created by Rogers’ campaign promises - Cut spending $400,000 - Came up with a plan to save the Boro $1.6M on garbage collection, which the Bob,      Mitch, & Toni are now sabatoging as they also try and take credit - Created a Complete Streets Committee, and established a Complete Streets Ordinance       (first in the county to do so) to make our town safer and greener - at no cost to the     taxpayers - Set up negotiations to have an actually functioning shared-services agreement on the    Courts - Held a multi-town summit on shared services - Reformed and reinvigorated the Rec Commission into the Rec & Cultural Arts    Commission to bring new attention, new attractions, and new business to Point Pleasant - Begun investigations into several ex-employees and questionable financial activities    that occurred during the prior administration - Obtained grants for energy efficient upgrades (no cost to the residents) that will save the    Boro thousands of dollars a year - Begun a move to Google Apps For Government which will make the Boro more efficient and reduce IT costs If they had been working this hard for you instead of themselves, imagine how much better off Point Pleasant would be!

There's More Lies Than Flies On This Garbage!

I guess it's poetic justice that the search for less expensive garbage collection would yield so much trash. Our former council president and her followers are now coming out to take credit for a plan they simply had nothing to do with, that they chose not to participate in. To suggest that this idea was essentially photocopied with the names whited out is textbook revisionism and manipulation. If this was true, then why have Bob, Mitch, and Toni been doing their damnedest to prevent consideration of any method of collection other than private? Let's review and clear away some of the fertilizer.

After the 2010 election Mayor Schroeder began meeting with the department heads to take stock of the Boro offices and get a sense of priority for the coming year. It had been too long since the people that actually do the work, day in and day out, had been asked instead of told what needed to be fixed. Would you follow the advice of a mechanic or someone that's never even looked under a hood?

In a town our size with a budget as small as ours, there aren't many areas where you can create large savings, but it was suggested to Bill that garbage and recycling collection was a big slice of the pie and needed to be examined. Estimates were made that suggested in-house collection could save a quarter of a million dollars or more, but it would take a long-term effort to get reliable numbers, and we felt every means of collection should be considered. AT NO TIME WAS IN-HOUSE THE ONLY METHOD CONSIDERED!! Look back over news articles and blog posts, at no time did anyone suggest we do anything less then look at every option. The repeated insistence to the contrary is Political Manipulation 101, hoping the casual reader or observer will accept misinformation without investigation. As the saying goes, repeat a lie long enough and some will believe it.

Drawing up bid specs for so many variations of service and the timelines required for advertising and receiving them has been 10 months in the making, and has been the effort of many people in multiple departments. The first whiff of compost came during the budget. In order to cast out all these lines, we are required to have a "deposit" for bonding. This money needed to be set aside for each variation of service. Once the issue was decided the remaining monies would be carried forward into the next year's budget as surplus, which would help reduce the 2012 budget, essentially repaying the taxpayers.  Bob, Mitch, and Toni stood against this deposit for any item associated with in-house collection including the purchase of "robo-cans". Now if they really had already done the homework, really had had extensive talks with Brick, and really were in favor of shared services not just now but at budget time and all the way back to last year, then why in the world would they block the cans needed to carry out that agreement? Why? Because either they don't understand the process, or the assertion is a lie. The only reason given, without any evidence and without a single, solitary mention of a prior shared service plan with Brick, was that they were convinced in-house was a waste of effort and would cost more in the long run. The way their argument was presented was to intentionally mislead the public into thinking this allocation was a commitment to in-house collection. This was nothing less than grandstanding and capitalizing on anti-union sentiments by people that had no ideas of their own to offer. If I had a golden ticket in my pocket I would have been jumping up and down telling the world! Why would the folks that pledge to "put the taxpayers first" withhold a means of considerable savings?

The strategy after the budget was more of the same. Every time one of us would say we were looking at every option, they'd get three people to say the opposite. Look over the blogs from the summer. Even my children aren't that good at hearing one thing and understanding another!

Countless estimates and examples of other municipalities were passed around and shared, but by the end of the summer I still wasn't convinced which method would be cheapest. I was however certain it would involve "Robo-cans". Rear compactors are obviously going the way of the dodo. There are negatives. I particularly don't like that prohibited materials could be thrown out without getting caught, but hopefully in this day and age most folks are responsible with their waste. Philosophically I worry that every time we replace a person with a machine, we further undermine a diminishing middle class. This crisis is certainly the snake that eats itself.

Without taking too much of a detour let's consider the effects of shrinking budgets and lost manpower; less police on patrol, reduced hours and access to services, reduced parks clean up & maintenance, etc. The number of people and hours it takes to orchestrate what we've done with just this one issue is monumental, but now do it in the least conducive climate. Despite the hard work and diligence there is a clock that's running out. There are procedures, protocol, and timelines for every action involved, and it's very important we avoid a lapse in service.

You wouldn't know that if you only heard what Bob, Mitch, and Toni are saying. They've called the non-committal preparation of documents now, to save time later, "premature". I wonder how many of us while driving our trash to the county dump in January would do so thanking them for not rushing into something they say was their idea to begin with? A plan so "premature" that Ms. Rogers was compelled to come out of retirement and congratulate Mayor Schroeder for adopting her plan!

I received a mild threat on the Patch from councilman Sabosik's brother-in-law for suggesting that the Republicans on council have tried to block any plan they can't take credit for. I just don't know how else to explain trying so hard to block something they now say was their idea? I hope the voters of Point Pleasant will remember November 8th that if the Republicans are telling the truth, then they purposefully withheld this tax dollar saving plan the same way they withheld every other plan they pledged would bring you relief! I felt there was a strong message last November to end these kinds of games, but it seems some are going to need you to shout a little louder this time.

We Can't Afford To Go Back To The Way It Was!

Editor, The Ocean Star:

Politics is not a world I was drawn to, but public

service is an obligation I was raised to hold in highest

regard, an obligation I have no right to refuse

when asked. But to be honest I would have refused

if Chris and Jack’s passion for our town wasn’t so

infectious, and when Bill came aboard, not only

was I swept up in the tide, I wanted to row faster.

Serving the community has been time consuming,

demanding, and frustrating, but I respect

the responsibility and I’ve been fortunate to learn from the example

of men whose earnestness and integrity is palpable to anyone who has

met them. Chris, Jack, and Bill don’t have a public façade, they aren’t

guarded or disingenuous, and they don’t leave you wondering about

ulterior motives or agendas. They told me early on to treat the town

the way you treat your family, to protect the town the way you protect

your family.

The street I grew up on wasn’t part of a neighborhood, so I spent

as much time as I could in my friend George’s neighborhood. It

seemed like every house had kids and there was always something

happening. I never called anyone to play; I went to the fields and if

no one was there it wouldn’t be long till someone was. Brian Welch

grew up in that neighborhood and he’ll be first to tell you how special

it was.

When my second son was on the way and my wife and I were

looking for a place to settle and raise our family, Brian’s neighborhood

was the ideal I compared every town to. Ask him and I bet he’ll say

the same.

I can’t believe we both came to Point Pleasant, but why not? The

Boro is really just one giant neighborhood and I can’t think of anything

it doesn’t have to offer. Brian and I aren’t the only ones to figure

this out, 5 out of 7 homes here have school age children, and the

challenges of our town are just the same as any young family. How do

we stretch every dollar as far as possible and still get the quality we

value?

Local politics are not about party. They’re about families and

neighbors. They’re about electing people who want the same things

you want, and most importantly who will dedicate themselves to

working for you and your family. Chris Leitner has proven how hard

he will work for our town and he’s done it without theatrics or grandstanding.

He shows up and does the work without running to the

paper to sing his own praises. He’s here to work every day, not just on

meeting nights to repeat the same reports month after month for

committees that never meet. And when there’s a problem he’s working

on solutions instead of waiting for others to do the work so he

can throw stones and cry foul.

Despite years of acrimony and contentious Councils, Chris is driven

by our common bonds when others have tried to divide and pit us

against each other.

I’m proud of what’s been accomplished this past year. I’m grateful

to Jack McHugh for his graceful dedication. And I’m eager to work

with Chris Leitner and Brian Welch representing the families and

residents of Point Pleasant.

Farewell, But Not Goodbye To An Honorable Man

It’s taken me quite a while to even attempt to express my feelings of Jack McHugh stepping aside from public office. I would not have considered making my own commitment if Jack’s love of our community and dedication to it was not so inspiring. Public office on a national scale and here in our own town is not an environment, most would agree, that rewards sincerity and humility. Names are not made by those that put their shoulder, day in and day out, to the work of those they represent. Maybe politics can be disappointing to so many because we recognize it’s a stage where braggarts, showman, snake oil salesmen, manipulators, and flat out liars play out a sick and desiesed ballet, in the name of our common good, and walk away with all the gate receipts.

Integrity is so rare in our personal lives, it’s absolutely astounding to find it amid the tempest of politics, but there he is, and I have no doubt will continue to be involved any way he can. An honorable man like Jack cannot resist the call of his community, it’s just in his DNA.

Jack also attracts like-minded people and inspires them to do their best. There is a movement just beginning to take shape, that Jack deserves so much credit for. Jack has re-ignited a call to service that brought an end to the status quo, the common acceptance that the elite social circles that have run our town for the last 30 years would always be calling the shots. Thanks to Jack and the people he has inspired we are cutting a new path for Point Pleasant.

“Yesterday, I withdrew my name from the ballot for re-election to Point Pleasant Council.

This was an extremely difficult decision for me, and one I did not make lightly, or hastily.While my time on council has been both challenging and rewarding, in the end, I needed to weigh other considerations before committing to potentially three more years on council.

As some of you know, my career is that of a real estate broker. It will come as a surprise to no one that the real estate business has been extremely challenging these past three years. My clients and staff have been more than gracious and understanding of the constraints on my time and attention. I just feel the time has come to reward their patience with my complete attention to their success.

While I am confident this is the right decision at this time, it is not without some regret. Foremost among these is that I will not be at Chris Leitner’s side throughout this campaign. Since the start of our campaign in 2008, and to this very day, my affection and admiration for this man continues to grow. I only hope that the citizens of Point Pleasant truly understand the gift they have in Chris.Politics aside, he is simply the most dedicated and conscientious public servant I have ever met. And I will work vigorously to assure his reelection.

Secondly, while I feel we’ve accomplished much in my term on council, much work remains. At our opening meeting in January, I said that I would consider this year a success “if we righted the ship, set a new course, our sails were full and we were on our way to better days”. I feel that this council, under the strong leadership of Mayor Schroeder, can proudly say that we have lived up to that goal. But simply pointing in the right direction is not enough. It will still take much effort to keep from drifting off course.

That is why I am so grateful that Brian Welch has agreed to step into my place on the ballot. His energy and ideas along with Chris Leitner’s intellect and experience are a necessity to avoid a return to the turbulent waters we so recently found ourselves in.

When Chris and I began our campaign in 2008, we used the phrase “Believe in a Better Point Pleasant.” I can tell you that I always have and always will believe. I believe that the goodness of our people should be reflected in their government, I believe that there is reason why so many want to call Point Pleasant their home, I believe that we are more than the sum of our parts, and that is why it has been such an honor to serve this community I love so much.

And so it is to the citizens of this town that I reserve my most sincere thanks. I am painfully aware that I will never be able to repay all that this community has given me and my family. It has been the honor and privilege of my life to have had the opportunity, in some small way, to make a down payment on that debt.”

JACK McHUGH

COUNCIL PRESIDENT

BOROUGH OF POINT PLEASANT