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Peter Murray and Richard Hauser for Caldwell Council

My wife and I had the distinct pleasure of hosting a "meet & greet" for Caldwell council candidates Peter Murray and Richard Hauser on Wednesday night. Pete and Rich are two fine gentlemen who truly care about the future of our town.

Their platform can be summed up quite simply — no more business as usual!

When they are elected on November 3^rd the Paul Jemas hegemony will finally come to an end. His puppet mayor will be defanged. The citizens of Caldwell will control their own destiny again. Pete and Rich have the requisite business and financial backgrounds to ensure that our tax dollars will be spent wisely and with full accountability.

Ever since Councilwoman Ann Dassing was elected, and then followed by Joe Norton and Gordon Lawshe, the lid has been slowly but surely raised on the backroom dealings that permeate town hall. We're owed more than $1.2 million dollars in sewer fees from surrounding towns, yet Mayor Gartland and her sycophants have done virtually nothing to collect that money.

In fact, they keep writing checks to West Caldwell for recreation department services and police dispatch even though West Caldwell owes us hundreds of thousands of dollars in sewer fees! Is that sound fiscal management?

Borough Clerk and Administrator Maureen Ruane is (if you're being charitable) in over her head. Not being privy to the inner workings of the town council I can't say for certain if she's inept, but all signs point to that conclusion. Her main qualification for being appointed Borough Administrator seems to have been that she's a Paul Jemas acolyte.

Ms. Ruane routinely pays invoices for which there is absolutely no supporting documentation. The NJ State Controllers Office is now crawling up her butt with a microscope. That can't bode well for our town's fiscal accountability.

Five or more years ago the state gave Caldwell $500,000 for a new police desk. It was never built. We now share our police dispatch services with West Caldwell. An accounting for how the $500,000 was spent has never been produced by Mayor Gartland. Her 3 pet Democrats on the council block any attempt to shine a light on the town's finances.

Pete and Rich will work hard to make sure the Green Acres grant money designated for installing artificial turn on The Oval won't meet the same fate. The project must be completed by June 2010 or the state will pull back the money. So far, progress under Mayor Gartland and the Democratic council majority has been painfully slow. If they don't get the contracts for the turf awarded soon it'll be too late.

The only issue on which I part company with Pete and Rich is rent control. They're for it. I understand why that is; Caldwell has a large and vocal tenant population. Going against them is electoral suicide.

Nonetheless, rent control is an insidious intrusion by government into what ought to be a private business transaction. It's price-fixing designed to prevent a landlord from maximizing the value of his investment. Keeping rents artifically low takes away the property owner's incentive to make improvements or even perform repairs.

On balance, Pete Murray and Rich Hauser have much to offer Caldwell and I encourage my fellow residents to elect them to the town council on November 3^rd.

UPDATE 04 Nov 2009 10:59:
Pete and Rich won! Details here.

Posted at 13:58 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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