VILLAS – Suppose your township councilperson had a chance to reduce your taxes this year, and each year after that? Suppose that tax reduction would only occur if your councilperson voted to make changes in local government to finance that tax cut. What if you didn’t know about that opportunity and further, your councilperson would not vote for the change unless you specifically demanded it via the ballot box? You would be pretty miffed; why didn’t my councilperson have my back on this?
Analysis
Well, who is to blame? With a voter turn-out of 42 percent, do we have a “democracy” where the majority rules or the minority rules? Do we have an obligation to pay attention, to ask the right questions and demand answers of our leaders? Do we have our own “backs?”
Atlantic City is currently in the throes of a financial crisis that, in part, calls to mind the Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority dissolution issue of 2014. Among all the financial bomb shells Atlantic City is dodging we see a controversy over dissolving the Atlantic City MUA in order to save tax dollars. Sound familiar?
In Lower Township, the November 2014 elections provided a concrete example of an opportunity lost to critically examine and decide if dissolving the Lower Township MUA was a realistic opportunity to save $1 million yearly, or if it was just a lot of political smoke.
Trouble is, the total voter turnout in Lower for that election was 6,169 of a population of about 23,000 residents; only 28 percent made that decision for the rest. The minority rules again.
Background: LTMUA Dissolution
According to Mayor Michael Beck, in February 2014, council decided unanimously during a closed session, to bring in an independent auditor to review the finances of the MUA, based on a series of complaints and issues that arose at that time. (The Feb. 3 meeting included a closed session regarding MUA issues)
According to Beck, the MUA’s auditor, Leon Costello of Ford-Scott & Associates recommended that Robert Swartz of Ford-Scott conduct that independent audit.
Subsequent to that audit, Swartz concluded that there was a potential for $1 million per year in savings if the MUA merged with the township Department of Public Works.
Throughout this debate, MUA employees, families and officials who violently opposed disillusion exercised their democratic rights and political muscle by showing up and loudly voicing concerns at public meetings. Isn’t this democracy?
Three particular Lower Township council members also opposed the MUA dissolution, despite having previously voted to bring in an independent auditor; a curious development that voters might have wondered about, had they been on top of the issue throughout.
A pre-2014 general election forum called “Meet the Candidates” was held Oct. 16, 2014. Although attended by well over 100, it was clear that a large percentage of attendees were families and active supporters of those three candidates.
When we consider that the population of Lower Township, the largest municipality in the county, reaches 23,000 or more, 100 or so attendees (not counting the video feed) seems troublingly low.
On Sept. 17, 2014, independent auditor Swartz, who is now retired, provided his presentation to council and the public. At that time he stated “It’s the million dollar question; … just how do we get to a million dollar savings?”
Swartz continued by listing the savings he found in administrative costs alone. He also listed $71,673 in savings by canceling the outsourcing of the billing function, a function that the township computer system and clerks could absorb without additional costs.
The state Local Finance Board, which is part of the Division of Local Government Services, heard testimony from both township officials and MUA representatives regarding the plan to consolidate the water and sewer authority with township services.
At that point, the Local Finance Board felt that the savings were real and unanimously approved the merger, yet somehow the residents of Lower either missed the entire debate to that point, or did not mind paying an extra $1 million a year.
Disengaged Electorate
Former Lower Township Administrator Michael Voll’s memory is that the MUA’s auditor Costello declined to do the audit himself to avoid a conflict of interest, but recommended Swartz of his firm conduct that audit.
Voll’s take on the sudden turn around by some council members after the audit results were released was “Whatever Independents Mayor Michael Beck and Deputy Mayor Norris Clark wanted, the Republican members automatically opposed.”
In Voll’s opinion, the residents of Lower do not seem to care what is happening in township government, which explains why three anti-dissolution council candidates were elected despite hard information that they could have saved $1 million a year by voting differently.
Beck expressed similar sentiments about the issue of apparent voter apathy in Lower Township. Beck noted that the local media reported on the audit results and the implications for Lower Township residents, but for some inexplicable reason, voters chose to ignore all that in the 2014 election.
The typical family in America today needs two incomes. Usually both parents, or single parents are engaged in raising children, long working hours in low paying jobs with no benefits, just to attain what they feel is an acceptable standard of living.
It’s an exhausting lifestyle that we seem to have chosen in order to enjoy the latest amenities in American life. So how do we keep track of local issues?
Local news is difficult to find when small TV stations close, and all we see is national cable news or large metro area stories.
Newspaper readership is also a victim of the 24-hour e-news cycle; it takes a lot of effort for residents to attend meetings, watch videos of council meetings and view online or print papers such as the Herald to become informed, and to act on that information.
This new reality for family daily life, the political disengagement trend we see, must be reversed or families risk missing opportunities to improve their own lives at the local level.
The question as to whether voter apathy and complacency is eroding our democratic process to a “minority rule” model remains. It does seem that a critical review of the MUA dissolution issue should lead a reasonable person and taxpayer to ask more questions before passively watching a possible $1-million savings plan implode.
Interestingly, pro MUA council members have repeatedly cited the results of the November 2014 election as proof of their “mandate;” that the voters have spoken loud and clear on this issue.
Of course that “mandate” was only 6,169 residents who voted out of 14,612 registered voters, who speak for 23,000 total residents of Lower Township. And so, who can argue with that logic? Generally we, the people, get the quality of government that we truly deserve.
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.
