Voll Did What Was Best for Middle

To The Editor:
I am endorsing Mike Voll for Middle Township Committee for a number of reasons.
Voll was on committee when I first began my duties as Township Assessor 28 years ago. During Voll’s years in office, he always respected, and sought advice from, his department heads. And we ended up respecting him in return because, whether or not we agreed with him, Voll always did what he believed was best for the township. One of his goals was a clean community; another was to seek balance during our years of growth. He sought new business, new housing, and grants for new businesses and homeowners.
Habitat for Humanity became active in the community during his tenure.
Voll has been out of office for 10 years. During that time, I believe the Township Committee made extremely costly errors in property acquisition and awarding township contracts to “special friends” of committee members.
For one example, Fort Apache has been a boondoggle costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. For another, I grew so concerned about a recent administration’s favoritism toward one company and its principals that I actually had to institute litigation to try to recoup some of our community’s dollars in “host community benefits” that were not being paid. It was only after we got a court order to force committee members to show up at depositions that they finally saw the light and rescinded a gravel-mining license that, in my opinion, they should not have issued to begin with.
And for a third, there is the township’s purchase of the old fire hall for $1.2 million — a price suggested by an appraisal report that was over three years old. The taxpayers in District 1 already technically “owned” that building and now are paying for it a second time.
Equally egregiously, as a state-certified real estate appraiser as well as a Certified Tax Assessor, I advised that even in the best of times an appraisal report is valid six months at most. Not only did it overpay, but also the committee has spent tens of thousands in upgrades for a building it did not need, and now will spend tens of thousands in “double” utility costs at a time when the number of Township employees is lower than I can remember.
None of this would have happened if we had a strong watchdog on committee, and that is what Mike Voll will provide. In my opinion, there has been a lack of true leadership in Town Hall since he left. Our newly elected Committeeman Dan Lockwood, is a good start. Mike Voll, an independent, can help Dan rid the township of stale, politically connected pay-to-play vendors, and start using our precious tax dollars wisely.
A vote for Voll is a vote for self-control — after 10 years of self-serving, unwise spending by elected officials who often seemed to have only their own interests at heart.