Doughty-Clark Agenda? Voter Amnesia

COURT HOUSE – With just four weeks to go before Election Day, it seems all too clear that the Middle Township Democrat power brokers are once again committed to a one hundred percent negative campaign. Just when voters thought Doughty, Barry and Co. could not stoop any lower (after the vicious, misleading personal attacks against Dan Lockwood in 2012), they have now launched an anonymous Spout Off campaign, bolstered by more personal attacks, distortions of the record and just plain ignorance of the truth. No wonder they’re ashamed to put their names to such baseless accusations.
Doughty, Alexis, Barry and Clark have nothing positive to offer the voters of Middle Township. Mike Clark may be their new candidate, but their agenda has not changed in the last three elections. That agenda is to get their hands back on the purse strings of the Middle Township treasury. That agenda relies heavily on the notion that the taxpayers of Middle Township have very short memories.
On Monday, 4/18/11, the Democrat-controlled Middle Township Committee approved the highest municipal levy in Township history, $12,314,248. With the passage of this levy, the old regime had more than doubled the cost of government in just seven years, raising the levy 107% between 2004 and 2011.
That same month, Tim Donohue captured the GOP nod for Township Committee; on a promise of ending the yearly tax increases averaging over 11% for a decade. Donohue campaigned to finally put the taxpayers first and to end the decades-long control of the Township’s purse strings by an entrenched group of special interest. He went on to a convincing victory in November 2011. That victory put Republicans in the majority on Committee for the first time in living memory.
Donohue, now Deputy Mayor, and Mayor Dan Lockwood kept their promise, holding the line on taxes, while cutting 550k dollars from the 2011 levy.
In 2012, the voters put their seal of approval on the Township’s new direction. Dan Lockwood was reelected, solidifying the GOP majority through 2014. Once again, in the 2013 budget, the GOP majority kept spending below the old regime’s all time high of 2011.
Donohue and Lockwood refinanced the sewer debt, saving 1.8 million dollars in the process. Upgrades, modernization and a reverse auction of electric and gas accounts have reduced the Township’s utility costs by tens of thousands of dollars, now and for years to come.
Through attrition, reorganization and consolidation of departments, the GOP majority has reduced spending in both the short and long term. New management hires, brought on board in the most open interview processes Middle has ever seen, were hired on their merits and qualifications, not because they had “connections”.
Sewer billing was moved into the Tax Collector’s office and the employees there have spent the better part of year cleaning up irregularities in the billing that were allowed to persist for a decade. The end result will be the cost of sewer actually being shared by all residents connected to the sewer. This will lower the cost for all users over the long term.
Through a community wide effort, spearheaded by Township Planner Elizabeth Terenik and a hardworking group of volunteers, the Township developed an Open Space and Recreation Plan that was instrumental in securing over 600K in County Open Space funding to finally develop the Ocky Wisting site in Rio Grande as a premier recreation destination.
Just this week, the Township agreed in principle to a new contract with the officers of the Middle Township Police Department. This agreement will allow for the hiring of new officers, fairly increase salaries for the Department and reduce long-term healthcare costs. All this will be accomplished without a significant effect on the Township’s budget. The cost of the MTPD in 2015 will be roughly equal to the cost in 2012.
All this and much more, achieved in less than two years. Promises made are now promises kept. A solid foundation for reform has been laid. The election of Melanie Collins will provide the unified consensus needed to bring about even bolder and more innovative changes to improve local government, while bending the cost curve downward going forward.
The power brokers of the old regime in Middle Township want the voters to forget all these accomplishments. They want to focus on the petty, the personal and the political. They have the audacity to attack the GOP majority for cleaning up the messes that they themselves created. This strategy failed in 2011 and 2012 and will fail once again in 2013.
For three election years now the Republican Candidate for Township Committee has called for an open and honest debate on the important issues facing our town. For three consecutive years the Democrat candidates, devoid of any positive platform and running on the tired, tax and spend policies of the past, have avoided this debate.
The Voters of Middle Township deserve better. They deserve an open and responsive government that puts the taxpayers first. They deserve a government that works hard to hold the line on spending now and as we move into the future. They deserve a fair and open process for all, whether it is in hiring or in our planning and zoning processes. A vote for Melanie Collins will assure that we can continue to move down this path.
With just four short weeks left until Election Day, Mike Clark has yet to reveal any positive platform. He has continually dodged Melanie Collins’ calls for a series of three debates. Voters are left to draw their own conclusions. One thing is crystal clear. Whatever his motivations for running might be, Mike Clark’s candidacy represents a return to the past of never ending tax increases, special rules for special friends and a return to the back of the line for the taxpayers of Middle Township.
Middle Township voters aren’t likely to forget that.
*Ordered and paid for by Committee to Elect Melanie Collins, Scott Bluth, Treasurer, 21 Acorn Lane, CMCH, NJ 08210, 465-9269.