An Evening with the Mayor February 9, 2011

For many years, the Civic Association has sponsored this event to give citizens a chance to hear from the Chairman and other members of the Township Committee (TC).  On a bitter cold night, with a dusting of snow many intrepid residents turned out for an interesting discussion.   Mayor Marshall Bartlett started off the event with a run down of over a dozen topics:

Skating – Bartlett complimented Tracy Toribio and Tom Deportere on the “great job” they have been doing keeping Bayne Park in good shape for skating.  The temperature has cooperated but the Dept of Public Works (by day) and volunteers (by night) have been flooding the rink and adding a fresh layer of ice daily.  He termed the usage “gratifying to us all”.   Spring maintenance will be tackled later.

Joint Court  -- Harding has signed an agreement with Madison and the two Chathams for a joint court.  Harding’s share of expenses is 16.81%.  Harding will get the revenue (net of expenses) from Harding written in town.  Expected savings “over time” are expected to be $50-$80K annually.  The shared court will be in Madison, at a new facility in the Hartley Dodge Memorial.  This eliminates a future renovation of Harding’s Kirby Hall. .  Nic Platt and Regina Egea will be our two representatives on a Joint Court Operating Committee.  One “major issue” has been getting Harding’s Court Administrator, Barbara Schwab, whose job will be eliminated, vested in her pension plan.  Bartlett said this will be done but that details couldn’t be discussed.

Open Public Records Act – Bartlett referenced a “big article” to run in the Observer Tribune.  Our gadfly, Mr. Jesse Wolosky, admits all he was doing is testing the system and really had no need for requested information.  Jon Bramnick our NJ State representative is sponsoring legislation to allow seven days for a town to correct errors before gadflies can go to Government Records Administrator and initiate penalties.  Bartlett encouraged the audience to read the article and form your own judgment, but to remember that Harding spent 40 man hours answering Mr. Wolosky’s voluminous questions.   Bartlett said that Harding does, “of course want to comply fully with OPRA” but admits that the Township made a few minor mistakes such as using white out rather than a black marker for redactions.

Downtown Redevelopment – Committeewoman Regina Egea shared with this audience much of the information from the TC recent meeting that Thumbnail covered in another report.  She added that the Downtown Redevelopment will make recommendation in the April/May timeframe and take public comment then.

Construction Office – Committeeman Nic Platt told the audience of the commencement of an efficiency study of the Construction Office (CO).  This study and the appointment of Nic Platt as an ombudsman to directly oversee the CO is a response to complaints that Harding is much too slow with inspections and approvals of construction applications and inspections.  Recall that fees were raised sharply last year.   A key element of a solution to the lengthy turnaround problem may be to work in parallel rather than serially – once zoning approvals are complete, engineer, health and sub-code (fie electrical and plumbing) inspections can proceed, saving as long as months.  As important, will be a new system to add transparency to the process. The CO will inform via email BOTH homeowners and contractors along the process.  This will mean that contractors can no longer blame delays on the Construction Office.

Bicycles – Mayor Bartlett met recently with the Morris Area Freewheelers, an organization of 750 bikers which rides frequently through Harding, because he was faced with riders coming at him 3 abreast as he drove on Van Beuren.   The Freewheelers will tell all its riders about a single file requirement and the they will prepare a memo on driver rules and etiquette vis a vis bicyclists.

Glen Alpin --  “We are still good and stuck”.  No good use has been identified but “not for lack of trying”. Bartlett was meeting soon with Jill Hawk, the new Jockey Hollow park superintendent.  Federal takeover of the property will be suggested as it has been, unsuccessfully, in the past.   Another idea is to use part of Glen Alpin property as a town cemetery as the New Vernon cemetery is full. The Kemble family is buried at Glen Alpin.  The Glen Alpin Conservancy and the Harding Land Trust are not in favor and it would likely foul the Green Acres grants which helped purchase the property.

Appointments to Boards, Commissions and Committees -- Bartlett thanked your Civic Association for promoting the need for volunteers which helped generate a large number of resumes from interested citizens.  Last remaining appointments will be considered soon.  A raft of good candidates came forward or were suggested.  The TC wants “new blood’ and volunteers.  Most committees have already been reconstituted.

Environmental  Commission:  The Chair needs to be chosen and the TC has had several discussions already.  A strong Chair will be needed to make for an orderly process to keep emotions cool.  In 2010, the fertilizer ordinance, which was state mandated and therefore wasn’t something that could be debated at the local level, caused ill feelings.  For 2011, lighting and a tree ordinances are potential “hot button items”.  Bartlett wants the Environmental Commission to formulate recommendations and then work with Planning Board to keep things rational.

Windy Hill Preserves (fka Von Zuben property) --  A management plan needs to be finalized.  Goal is vegetated meadow with wildflowers.  This is joint project of the Harding Land Trust and the Town.

Kurz/Glatt Subdivision – This subdivision request will be coming soon to the Planning Board.  First issue is whether to grant a “lot size averaging” exception on the 30 acre tract.  The plan might call for one large lot of 11-12 acres and say 5 smaller lots of 3-5 acres, which might violate the min lot size for that area.  The developer would request approval because the average lot size is over the 5 acre minimum.

Primrose Preserve -- This preservation project is “in abeyance” at the moment.  The Trust for Public Land and the Harding Land Trust is trying to find more financing (or get the seller to reduce his asking price) because Morris County came up $1M short ($2.45mm, not $3.45mm).  Harding has promised $700K of the Town’s Green Acres funds.  Bartlett wanted to make it clear that Harding is not buying the property, but is simply earmarking State and County allocated funding.  Further he said that Harding is “supportive” but “not the “prime mover” of the project.  Would the seller come down in price?  Bartlett said he didn’t know.

A member of the public asked if the project is “viable”, why not use Township Open Space money to make the deal happen?  Bartlett said that the property is not a major viewscape, like Margett’s field, and that the Township is cautious about taking on debt.  He also added that the Township has not been asked for any “real money” (as opposed to simply earmarking funds).  He called that a “smart idea”.

Budget – Regina Egea said that the current budget has been negatively impacted by the heavy snow fall and that off-setting cuts must be found.  Regarding next year, the budget process is still in high gear and the major departments of police and DPW had some “action items” to attend to.  The bottom line is that there will almost certainly be a tax increase this coming fiscal year.  Current estimate is 2.55%, above the 2% Trenton mandated cap because certain items are excluded from the cap.

Q&A Period.

1. Mayor Bartlett opened up the Q&A session with a short statement and then a request for feedback on the Police Department.  The mayor said we have “a fine police department” and that “we are very proud of them”.   He also said something that isn’t widely known and that is that day to day police activities are not the responsibility of the TC .  The TC sets the PD budget but police operations reports to the Morris County Prosecutors Office.   Bartlett pointed out the fact that motor vehicle stops are up 40% year over year from 1200 to 1600, and that there wasn’t a good answer for the upsurge.

Committeeman Ned Ward, the TC liason with the Department, commented that the Chief said that the Department is able to meet all obligations without difficulty at the current staffing,  He further commented that additions to the force are “very expensive”.   Ward reiterated Bartlett’s comment that the TC can’t tell the department how to police.

It was thought that the 25 mph speed limit in the center of town was adding considerably to the total and that possibly younger and more aggressive patrolmen could be a factor.  Regina Egea recalled that during his budget presentation last year, the Chief said this is part of a “crime prevention strategy” to “create a boarder around town”.   She also mentioned that the Township has no quota for tickets and that ticket revenues are not “a budget item” so as to not drive excess stops and ticketing.

Input from the public was on both sides of the issue.  Some liked the idea of a visible aggressive presence while others thought the town has, or was, getting a reputation as an unfriendly speed trap.  And one resident wondered if the metric used by the Dept in the fiscal benchmarking exercise (to compare its costs to other neighboring towns) was a root cause of the upsurge in tickets because.  The Dept chose to use a metric that includes the number of ”incidents” as factor in its denominator – thus   more incidents would lower the figure and make the Dept appear more cost effective.

2. Other areas for consolidation or shared services?  Animal control is a possibility to share with Morristown.  The cost at St Hubert’s is up 12% perhaps due to financial problems.

3. Citizen highlighted that a recent report in the Star Ledger indicated that Harding’s cost to educate one child was the highest in Morris County.  A Board of Ed member who was at the meeting  countered that Harding is hamstrung because it is a small district and therefore has less students over which to spread non-class room costs.

A Committee person asked specifically about sharing the superintendant position.  The Board of Ed representative said that the District is obligated by state mandate to have two supervisory positions – 2 certified school administrators.

It was also stated that consolidating the district was studied in depth and found that cost savings are minimal.

4. A citizen asked if it’s true that the Harding school district could be forced to consolidate with another without putting it to a vote of the public. There was discussion as to the feasibility of that situation occurring and  Egea said that Harding is “a jewel” of low taxes and fiscally conservative government.  She suggested that neighboring towns would gladly consolidate Harding and its tax base, but stated firmly that Harding’s own best interests are served by remaining independent.

5.  A citizen asked about the possibility of sharing the relatively high cost of Harding’s Health Department.  In response, it was made clear that we do share a portion of the services (a nursing contract) with Hanover to good effect   But, because Harding has an unusually high percentage of homes (about 90%) that have septic systems and well water, it is hard to share much more of this department’s activity.

6. A member of the public asked the Mayor about a comment he had made that Harding was facing a “tsunami” of property tax appeals.  Mayor Bartlett  said that there was not a tsunami and that the Township would fight all appeals and that it successfully defends most.  A town-wide reassessment costs about $100K and the next one will be commissioned in 2015.