This year Hillsborough’s voters are being asked to choose whether to keep their current form of government (a township committee with five members who choose the mayor from among themselves) or to change to a form with a directly-elected mayor and a separate five-member committee.
For years those in Hillsborough against government change have been fighting a so-far losing campaign to prevent the citizens from making this decision. Now, with elections on Tuesday, the people of Hillsborough are finally getting a chance to decide by voting on Question 5: Do you want to change to a mayor-council form or stay with the current township committee?
An anti-change group, apparently unnerved by the possibility of the question passing, has now activated a final all-out well-funded propaganda crusade against question 5.
They have erected “Vote No” signs from one end of town to the other, posted mailers posing as Charter Study Commission (CSC) news, cut-and-pasted bits of videotape from CSC meetings using quotes out of context and then run the results on the local TV station, funded a web site, and had group members and their families, neighbors, and friends send a steady stream of letters to the editor.
They have tried to instill fear in groups in the township from employees (You’ll lose your jobs!), to taxpayers (Taxes will sky rocket!). Playing with statistics is such a timeworn technique that I won’t even bother to go there.
They have even claimed that the new senior citizen center is in jeopardy if the change goes through. [The reasoning behind that one still eludes me. We’re Senior citizens; ergo, we weren’t born yesterday.]
They have returned over-and-over to the “bigger more expensive government cry”. Okay, we would add one part-time mayor, but there is always the possibility that having someone to oversee the township committee that is not a part of it could produce some savings.
If these crusaders were so sure that they were right, they should have been able to logically and rationally explain their position to the voters and then have confidence in the outcome.
This panic-stricken scramble of disinformation leads me to believe there is more here than meets the eye; that there is some really really big reason that the current politicians don’t want this change - and it doesn’t have anything to do with logic.
If question 5 passes, maybe all those who worked so valiantly against it can apply for a job at The Daily Prophet alongside Rita Skeeter
**
Hillsborough’s own township committee decided that a one-page CSC-designed educational flyer about the proposed change should not be mailed out, under the guise that they were heroes saving taxpayers the cost of mailing it. In actuality, the money was already in the CSC budget and had been there for almost a year.
Showing posts with label CSC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSC. Show all posts
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Monday, September 3, 2007
No Wards...just June, Wally, and the Beav
Unfortunately no matter which way Hillsborough’s change-of-government vote goes in November, wards will not be part of the result.
I say “unfortunately” because I was a little disappointed when Hillsborough’s residents voted two years ago against a change that, among other things, would have created ward representatives on the township committee.
Why did I support wards?
First, Hillsborough is physically large – 54 square miles – with several very different regions with different needs. Each area would have had its own representative on the township committee. The problems of the Sourland Mountain region can be very different from those of the PUD area.
Second, wards would have given residents who were willing to try government service a manageable way to dip their toes into the political pool. They only would have needed a few hundred signatures to run and could have started off slowly, gaining knowledge and confidence while serving the people of their own district.
Third, the current members of our committee seem to be residentially clustered in one area of the township giving the perception that other areas are underrepresented.
Those honest people who supported the continuation of the township committee form without wards because they sincerely thought it was best for Hillsborough had to have been disappointed that their victory was tainted by a “win” based on an anonymous groups use of an organized misinformation campaign to convince uninformed voters to vote against wards. They would have felt more vindicated if voters who clearly understood both choices voted to continue the current form. Their feeling of accomplishment had to have been tempered by the knowledge that it was not an entirely honestly won fight.
For those of us who liked the ward concept, it would have been easier to accept the “no” vote if the decision had been made by educated voters after careful deliberation based on their knowledge of the true merits and weaknesses of the two forms of government.
But, that is now a moot point. The attack on wards was so devious and thorough that the water in that well has been poisoned and wards are not included in the upcoming Charter Study Commission recommendation.
##
“There is a right kind and wrong kind of victory, just as there are wars for the right thing and wars that are wrong from every standpoint…” - Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
I say “unfortunately” because I was a little disappointed when Hillsborough’s residents voted two years ago against a change that, among other things, would have created ward representatives on the township committee.
Why did I support wards?
First, Hillsborough is physically large – 54 square miles – with several very different regions with different needs. Each area would have had its own representative on the township committee. The problems of the Sourland Mountain region can be very different from those of the PUD area.
Second, wards would have given residents who were willing to try government service a manageable way to dip their toes into the political pool. They only would have needed a few hundred signatures to run and could have started off slowly, gaining knowledge and confidence while serving the people of their own district.
Third, the current members of our committee seem to be residentially clustered in one area of the township giving the perception that other areas are underrepresented.
Those honest people who supported the continuation of the township committee form without wards because they sincerely thought it was best for Hillsborough had to have been disappointed that their victory was tainted by a “win” based on an anonymous groups use of an organized misinformation campaign to convince uninformed voters to vote against wards. They would have felt more vindicated if voters who clearly understood both choices voted to continue the current form. Their feeling of accomplishment had to have been tempered by the knowledge that it was not an entirely honestly won fight.
For those of us who liked the ward concept, it would have been easier to accept the “no” vote if the decision had been made by educated voters after careful deliberation based on their knowledge of the true merits and weaknesses of the two forms of government.
But, that is now a moot point. The attack on wards was so devious and thorough that the water in that well has been poisoned and wards are not included in the upcoming Charter Study Commission recommendation.
##
“There is a right kind and wrong kind of victory, just as there are wars for the right thing and wars that are wrong from every standpoint…” - Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Hillsborough's Kulaks
The Founding Fathers designed our federal government with three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Each branch was assigned certain powers with this separation of powers designed to create a series of checks and balances preventing one branch from taking over the country.
One of the forms of government under consideration by our Charter Study Commission would involve a directly elected mayor [Executive Branch] and a council [Legislative Branch], thus adding a form of checks-and-balances lacking in our current form.
Unfortunately some local residents are opposing this basic tenet of The Constitution, with one forum poster disdainfully referring to the CSC as “hiding the divided, separated branches of government, with separate staffs, accountable to the separate branches of government.” Why would they hide one of the major doctrines of United States democracy?
The only argument these anti-Constitutionalists have made against this mayor-council form of government is the possible cost of separate branches. I guess those old Patriots were just a little shortsighted, right?
##
For those who need a refresher course in this divided sovereignty, please reread The Constitution: Article 1 - Legislative Power, Article 2 – Executive Power, and Article 3 – Judicial Power.
Considering what is going on in Washington, I can understand the confusion of a few Hillsborough residents about The Constitution.
##
In the best American tradition I tried to come up with an acronym for the anti-Constitutionalists, but I could only come up with Hillsborough Anti-Constitution Kulaks (HACKs). Any other suggestions?
##
kulak: n. A prosperous peasant in czarist Russia. Wikipedia has an interesting entry on kulaks, including "relatively wealthy peasants in the Russian Empire who owned larger farms and used hired labour....the creation of a group of prosperous farmers who would support the Tsar's government...".
One of the forms of government under consideration by our Charter Study Commission would involve a directly elected mayor [Executive Branch] and a council [Legislative Branch], thus adding a form of checks-and-balances lacking in our current form.
Unfortunately some local residents are opposing this basic tenet of The Constitution, with one forum poster disdainfully referring to the CSC as “hiding the divided, separated branches of government, with separate staffs, accountable to the separate branches of government.” Why would they hide one of the major doctrines of United States democracy?
The only argument these anti-Constitutionalists have made against this mayor-council form of government is the possible cost of separate branches. I guess those old Patriots were just a little shortsighted, right?
##
For those who need a refresher course in this divided sovereignty, please reread The Constitution: Article 1 - Legislative Power, Article 2 – Executive Power, and Article 3 – Judicial Power.
Considering what is going on in Washington, I can understand the confusion of a few Hillsborough residents about The Constitution.
##
In the best American tradition I tried to come up with an acronym for the anti-Constitutionalists, but I could only come up with Hillsborough Anti-Constitution Kulaks (HACKs). Any other suggestions?
##
kulak: n. A prosperous peasant in czarist Russia. Wikipedia has an interesting entry on kulaks, including "relatively wealthy peasants in the Russian Empire who owned larger farms and used hired labour....the creation of a group of prosperous farmers who would support the Tsar's government...".
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The Misinformation Miasma
Recently I was in a small business in town and I asked the owner what she thought about the Charter Study Commission’s work and the possibility of a change of government in Hillsborough.
Well… she was aware of the CSC (unlike many of Hillsborough’s residents) and she was upset because if they changed Hillsborough’s form of government all heck was going to break loose. All the ordinances and zoning would change and it would cost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars and there would be no responsibility to the voters and if we voted in a mayor and didn’t like him we would be stuck with that person for years … and the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
When she finally paused, I asked where on earth she had heard all that? She has a customer involved in all that political stuff who “knows the truth”.
Trying to be the voice of reason, I pointed out that all ordinances wouldn’t change, just the few that needed to be reworded or updated to reflect the new form of government. Zoning wouldn’t change if we had an elected mayor or a manager. While we could be stuck with an elected mayor we didn’t like, we could – under our current form of government - get a council-appointed mayor we didn’t like. No one could judge the cost without knowing what the change was.
She listened politely [I am a regular customer] and reluctantly conceded that okay maybe those things wouldn’t change, but it was obvious that in her heart she believed that, for the most part, horrible things were going to happen if we changed our government to any form other than the one we have now.
It is apparent that an anonymous Hillsborough cabal has made it their mission to run a misinformation campaign that started even before the CSC members were sworn in. They work through individual contacts, repeated anonymous postings on Hillsborough-related forums including personal attacks on the duly elected CSC members, and disrupting websites that attempt to provide neutral educational material on the alternate forms of government available to Hillsborough.
This campaign has involved name-calling, causing alarm amongst the residents, threats of multi-million dollar tax increases, and unfavorable comparisons with the governments of large urban towns in New Jersey. They are convincing residents that any changes will mean soaring township costs, no responsibility to the voters, changes in all the ordinances and zones - always for the worse, and [one of the most bizarre] the entire municipal government – staff, commissions, boards, volunteers, employees - will cease to exist at midnight, December 31st of the year the change occurs throwing the entire town into disarray.
We can only hope that through citizen education Hillsborough residents will begin to recognize tactics that are so obviously outrageous they will be seen as the desperate schemes they are.
This has gone beyond misinformation and become the worst of politics and power.
##
miasma: 1.- A poisonous atmosphere once believed to rise from swamps and cause disease. 2. – A harmful influence (Webster’s II Dictionary).
Well… she was aware of the CSC (unlike many of Hillsborough’s residents) and she was upset because if they changed Hillsborough’s form of government all heck was going to break loose. All the ordinances and zoning would change and it would cost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars and there would be no responsibility to the voters and if we voted in a mayor and didn’t like him we would be stuck with that person for years … and the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
When she finally paused, I asked where on earth she had heard all that? She has a customer involved in all that political stuff who “knows the truth”.
Trying to be the voice of reason, I pointed out that all ordinances wouldn’t change, just the few that needed to be reworded or updated to reflect the new form of government. Zoning wouldn’t change if we had an elected mayor or a manager. While we could be stuck with an elected mayor we didn’t like, we could – under our current form of government - get a council-appointed mayor we didn’t like. No one could judge the cost without knowing what the change was.
She listened politely [I am a regular customer] and reluctantly conceded that okay maybe those things wouldn’t change, but it was obvious that in her heart she believed that, for the most part, horrible things were going to happen if we changed our government to any form other than the one we have now.
It is apparent that an anonymous Hillsborough cabal has made it their mission to run a misinformation campaign that started even before the CSC members were sworn in. They work through individual contacts, repeated anonymous postings on Hillsborough-related forums including personal attacks on the duly elected CSC members, and disrupting websites that attempt to provide neutral educational material on the alternate forms of government available to Hillsborough.
This campaign has involved name-calling, causing alarm amongst the residents, threats of multi-million dollar tax increases, and unfavorable comparisons with the governments of large urban towns in New Jersey. They are convincing residents that any changes will mean soaring township costs, no responsibility to the voters, changes in all the ordinances and zones - always for the worse, and [one of the most bizarre] the entire municipal government – staff, commissions, boards, volunteers, employees - will cease to exist at midnight, December 31st of the year the change occurs throwing the entire town into disarray.
We can only hope that through citizen education Hillsborough residents will begin to recognize tactics that are so obviously outrageous they will be seen as the desperate schemes they are.
This has gone beyond misinformation and become the worst of politics and power.
##
miasma: 1.- A poisonous atmosphere once believed to rise from swamps and cause disease. 2. – A harmful influence (Webster’s II Dictionary).
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