If you’re used to national political debates with candidates exchanging rapid-fire verbal attacks interspersed with drilling questions from commentators, the West Windsor Council debate on October 24 was, in contrast, a calm exercise in political conversation.
Approximately 75 residents were in attendance at the municipal building to hear the two slates of candidates square off; West Windsor Moving Forward, featuring Councilman George Borek, Kristina Samonte, and Lindsay Diehl, versus Strong Leaders for West Windsor with Gary Zohn, Bryan Maher, and Lauren Kohn.
Before the questions began Ron Slinn, co-organizer of the debate and president of the West Windsor Retirees’ Group, explained why the independent candidate, Greg Harris, was left off the dais. “In previous debates over the last 12 years we have included only those candidates who have qualified to appear on the relevant ballots. Mr. Harris did not qualify to be on the ballot because he did not submit sufficient approved petitions by the due date. In light of the established criteria he is not being included in this debate. If he were it would be unfair, in our view, to the other candidates who did qualify. He has, however, indicated publicly that he will run as a write-in candidate,” Slinn said. Harris was present at the debate and answered the questions online as they were asked. See accompanying story for Harris’s answers.
In presenting the questions, Slinn was joined by Village Grande Civic Association representative Barry Kushner. One bone of contention was whether InterCap’s proposed development on the west side of the train station or the former Acme site (Cyzner Properties’ Windsor Plaza) on the east side should serve as the new center of the township’s downtown redevelopment.
Lindsay Diehl has lived in West Windsor longer than the other candidates — 22 years. She said the InterCap site will be a perfect anchor for a new town center, insisting that the township must capitalize on its major asset and build right around the train station.
“We have a sea of people coming into that area every day. They will populate the town and we will add housing there as well, so we will have a population there 24 hours a day,” she said. Diehl wants to see West Windsor take a cue from “every town in northern New Jersey, which has a village around its train station. If they get off the train there is a place to go have a slice of pizza or go to a restaurant. We need to offer that,” she said.
She presented other advantages of that area as well. Diehl wants the town center to be located on the Princeton side of the train tracks, calling it a very good location because “it’s a quiet, enclosed area without major roads running through there.”
“If we try to develop our town center on Route 571, which has been tried for many years now, it just isn’t going to work. That is a major road, a county road and major thoroughfare, and it’s not going to slow down. We can improve the attractiveness of that area and have shops there but it’s not going to be the town center,” Diehl said.
Diehl said because West Windsor is designated a transit village state funding is guaranteed to help pay for infrastructure, plus businesses coming in would offer their own infrastructure improvements.
Samonte was more certain about where the money would come from. “The InterCap site is owned by a developer and one of the things I want to do is keep that independence for the township. Our role will be to facilitate amenities for the residents,” she said.
On the town center question, as well as several others, Bryan Maher was quick to refute Diehl. Maher presented his vision for a town center similar to northern New Jersey and other suburbs of New York City like Westchester County, naming Scarsdale as one example.
“Along the train lines up there every little stop has a wonderful little town. But one of the key things about that is they’re built along the major road, the main street of the town, not in an office park cul de sac,” he said.
Maher stressed the need to reach out to all business owners along Route 571 and find out how Council can help remove the obstacles preventing them from growth, success, and making infrastructure improvements. That help should not translate into direct financing though, as he believes a town center’s funding should come from existing landowners, developers and business owners.
“That’s how it has evolved over hundreds of years throughout the country and that’s how it should evolve here. Quite frankly I’m shocked that a town that’s 200 years old located next to one of the top 10 train stations in the country has not evolved in that manner,” Maher said.
Councilman George Borek offered a compromise between the two locations. “Main street was Route 571 at one time. That’s where commerce was and where people had their homes. That should be the start of main street, and it should flow into InterCap’s property. We can’t forget about the history of this town,” he said Borek’s financial view, however, was oddly similar to Maher’s position. He says funding should come solely from private capital invested into the area and not taxpayer dollars. He said business will attract more business.
“If people see a vibrancy there they will invest dollars to make sure it happens,” he said.
Lauren Kohn said Route 571 remains West Windsor’s true town center and InterCap could cause a threat to that. “We’re looking to protect businesses at an alternative location from our town center that don’t even exist yet. By creating another 50,000 to 100,000 square feet of commercial space we could be jeopardizing the businesses that already exist on Route 571,” Kohn said.
Kohn said West Windsor needs a community gathering place but breathing new life into Route 571 was a top priority. “We need to work to address the fact that there is empty space there. Attracting new businesses would bring tax revenue to the community without putting huge draws on the system.”
Kohn asserted that improvements to Route 571 for pedestrian and cyclist safety have been approved by Mercer County, and the new council will need to work with officials “to bring those funds here to West Windsor because we pay the taxes,” she said.
Gary Zohn told a story about knocking on a random door during his recent campaigning. He said the woman who lived at the home was a realtor, and she conveyed to him that while trying to sell houses in West Windsor she avoids driving down Route 571 near Alexander Road.
“If we can’t fix that up and a realtor can’t show our town center, then we have a real problem moving forward,” Zohn said.
In order, candidates were also asked the following questions:
1. Council’s function is to legislate. What would be your top priority?
Bryan Maher stressed bringing renewed fiscal responsibility to Council. “Beginning in the first quarter of 2012 I would make addressing the budget my first priority. The budget would come before Council pretty much as soon as we are brought into office, so I think a deep analysis of all the items which we can trim is needed so we can consolidate debt and take advantage of the long-term interest rates, which are at generational lows,” Maher said.
Maher also says he would “closely track the InterCap developments and the variables that they’re using when they say that it’s tax-positive, and make sure that this is true.”
“I think the TischlerBise fiscal analysis was grossly flawed in a number of ways, and I hope that the Planning Board, when they get the proposal in the next couple of months, realizes that and has their own analysis put into place,” Maher said.
Kristina Samonte’s first priority would be to work with the administration to support economic development. “It’s very important that we work to expand our local tax base and work with businesses in our community — partisan politics should be removed from that,” she said.
Gary Zohn said after public safety, debt service is the largest part of West Windsor’s municipal budget and it needs to be reconfigured immediately. “We need to go over this as a major part of our development going forward and see how we can trim or refinance bonds to help our budget so we can spread out funds,” he said.
Diehl once again made revitalizing the train station area her top consideration. “We need to offer commuters places to shop and dine and live right at the train station and also make it more accessible and give parking to the commuters,” she said.
Having spent the last four years on Council, George Borek stressed the importance of forming a governmental body that works together. “A lot of times people have their own personal agendas and sometimes those agendas cloud what’s really important which is working for the people we serve. We need a governing body that respects each other and works with each other. There’s diversity in this community and everyone has something good to bring to the table. We have to be able to put personal feelings aside and work collectively for the community,” Borek said.
Borek also believes some positive things the administration has done are easily overlooked, citing a recent announcement by CFO Joanne Louth to refinance municipal bonds. “Two weeks ago our CFO announced that we are putting out for bid refinancing bonds that will save $100,000 over six years just by refinancing, because of our AAA designation. The administration and Council has been working to reduce costs. Anywhere we can save money, we will save money.
Maher challenged Borek’s comments on the township’s refinancing of bonds, saying in his review the yield was not high enough.
“That was for $3.9 million as a re-fi, and we calculated that a one percent decrease which you wouldn’t really do more than that, should yield $250,000 in savings over six years. My question is if there’s only $100,000 in savings are we really paying $150,000 to advisors to actually do the refinance? I would suggest that we refinance a lot of our debt in bulk at low rates now to yield much more savings. I don’t think that we’re making enough of a progressive stance to save the taxpayers money — something’s wrong here,” Maher said.
Lauren Kohn sees West Windsor’s flooding factor as in need of urgent action, stating that her chief goal, if she is elected, would be storm water management.
“As a member of Council one of the very first things I would consider would be an engineering study to address flooding issues in our train station region. We’ve had three major floods in the last five years. There are people in Penns Neck who are going to be spending Christmas with their contractors cleaning up their property on these main streets and thoroughfares,” she said.
Kohn asked a rhetorical question about the difficulties residents and other drivers have getting to InterCap site, a future home of commerce in West Windsor, even when it’s not flooded.
“We’re talking about bringing in places to shop and dine and residences, but we don’t want to bring 800 new homes to our community and have them underwater. You can’t shop there if you can’t get there,” she said.
“We have to consider that for people on Princeton Road and Penns Neck, Alexander Road and Washington Road, right now storm water is a big issue which we need to address. Our entire community suffers when that particular part of the community is faced with flooding,” she said.
Kohn pointed out the monetary impact the train station has on the community, explaining that if people can’t get to work there are days lost, and other people use the train for purposes such as traveling to chemotherapy appointments.
Borek rebutted her assessment of the situation, mentioning aerial photography taken of the Penns Neck area after Hurricane Irene. He says it showed the InterCap property was only one-third full versus heavy flooding in the Penns Neck area, a fact that developer Steve Goldin told the WW-P News in early September. Borek believes West Windsor can use the data to strategize for the future.
“If that was only a third full we need to look at using that basin to offset the water collecting in other areas,” Borek said.
2. What specifically can the township do to make West Windsor more business friendly?
Gary Zohn said West Windsor needs to find tenants to take up between 1.5 and 2 million square feet of empty office space in town.
“We have to get people in here. Nobody wants to be the first one in the building, although if you are you would probably get to claim the sign because you are not allowed to have multiple signs. If not we won’t be able to get ratables and help our citizens by lowering property taxes,” he said.
Maher restated the need to reach out to business owners in town who are having problems. and ask them what the problem is? “We know signs are a big problem. It took up an inordinate amount of time for Mr. Cyzner to go through the Planning Board to get his sign appropriately sized for the new Acme Plaza. That is ridiculous. He was about ready to walk away from the deal because our planning board has sign issues,” he said.
Maher sees a clear way to get solutions. “Clearly people who want something done get together in a room, negotiate what each side needs and come to a rational decision. We need to listen to these people, understand their needs, and work together to solve their problems.
To this point Diehl said she would like to establish a committee to work directly with the business community. “Council will not have time to do this on its own, so if we establish a committee whose responsibility it will be to work with local businesses and attract new businesses to the area, it will be a much more effective relationship,” Diehl said.
Maher challenged that notion. “You specifically said Council won’t have time to do this on our own, so my question is why not? We have to have time. If we’re the ones voting on ordinance changes we should be directly interacting with people like Irv Cyzner and Steve Goldin and others wanting to bring money into West Windsor for redevelopment,” he said.
To defend Diehl’s comment on the committee Samonte outlined the role of council members “to facilitate conversations with the business community but also to respect the work of professionals such as lawyers, planners, and engineers who can offer a better understanding of projects or property management concerns,” she said.
Samonte and Lauren Kohn then exchanged views on the impact West Windsor’s sign ordinance could play in attracting — or failing to attract — businesses.
Kohn noted that “while no one wants to see West Windsor overrun with huge flashing signs, it is a legitimate issue for business owners. Within the last two years, 40 percent (10 of 27) of Council meetings have dealt with sign ordinance variances.
She says a key would be decreasing the amount of money businesses have to spend in getting plans approved to move into West Windsor. “If they are paying attorney’s fees to site at six-hour-long meetings then they have to make up that money somehow. If we can navigate the process more quickly hopefully we can bring those businesses in and the tax ratables that come with them,” Kohn says.
Samonte said a well-written sign ordinance should strike a balance between facilitating economic development, promoting safety, and enhancing and preserving the community character.
In regards to the heavily-debated issue of signs, Councilman Borek used this question to put a problem he has encountered over the past four years into context. “Sometimes Council will deal with an ordinance going back to when the council first evolved, and the ordinance doesn’t coincide with what’s going on in the real world. Sometimes we need to revisit them, such as with the master plan, because the sign ordinance is not part of it. This a tough, changing economic time and businesses are hurting. How can we change our ordinances in order to address those concerns?” Borek said.
Borek said West Windsor’s “phenomenal” building department works diligently with property owners to get projects done but simultaneously keep track of day-to-day changes around town. “We have to be able to evolve much quicker than we have in previous times,” he said.
2. The municipal tax levy has increased 124 percent in the past 10 years while the population has grown just 21 percent. What concrete steps will you take to lower West Windsor’s taxes?
Zohn said an initiative he would like executed is establishing a line of credit for the town.
Maher, a financial analyst by profession, rolled out more numbers to demonstrate the discrepancy he sees. “A forty-five percent increase in school taxes, a nine percent increase in county tax, yet 124 percent increase in municipal tax. Something has to be done. Thank goodness Governor Christie has put into place certain steps that could be taken to lower our obligations under pension liabilities. That will begin to help next year but more steps need to be taken,” Maher said.
He feels that a number of departments within the town budget have been doing quite a good job, citing the town clerk’s office and garbage pickup, which has remained flat over the last 10 years, as prime examples. Yet Maher has wholesale changes in mind with “fixing” West Windsor’s capital structure as the start.
“I think we need to look at our capital structure and we need to aggregate all of the debt in town and refinance it, matching it up to the useful life of what the debt is applied to. We should not be front-end-loaded on current residents if the land that was bought is financed over a two to three-year period. It should be financed over a 10, 15 or 20-year period. That would lower our tax burden, particularly with today’s low interest rates,” Maher said.
Kristina Samonte told the room not to hold their breath over the 124 percent as “there is another context to all these numbers,” she said. “We haven’t looked at inflation costs and healthcare costs for the township. Eighty to 90 percent of the revenue stream coming in is set forth by contracts, so you’re looking at a 10 percent portion that you have to work with,” Samonte said.
Her way of lowering taxes would start with securing a maximum amount of funds at the federal, state and county levels and seeking opportunities to do shared services with other governments.
Maher, going back to his calculations, countered that his platform looked at the inflation factor over the last 10 years, which was 27 percent.
“A 124 percent tax levy increase versus a 27 percent increase in inflation is simply unbelievable. The reason the levy has gone up so much is because the non-residential tax revenue has been non-existent. It has only gone up five percent over the past 10 years — less than one-half of one percent per year — and that is the problem in this town. We’re not matching our residential growth with our business growth,” Maher said.
Kohn says Council should look at the socio-economic position along with the township’s fiscal outline. “This is a tough time for families. When we address the budget we need to begin with that in mind. All the money comes from individuals’ pockets,” she said.
Kohn wants West Windsor to evaluate all its expenditures and make sure that they all make sense. “Ask do we need to do the projects now, is it the right thing for West Windsor? Can we find outside funding for it? Should this be handled by a private group instead of by our community? The administration should approach department heads with a mandate of 0-cent increases or even a reduction, which is not being done right now,” she said.
Kohn also said where it would make sense the township should put professional contracts out for bid instead of continuing relationships because of familiarity
Similar to Samonte’s stance, Diehl said the 124 percent tax levy increase is not the only fact to evaluate. “You can never look at numbers in a vacuum. I’m a market researcher and I know that you cannot look at a single number you have to look at the greater context of that number. We need to look at Mercer County and how our taxes have increased comparatively with other towns. Our tax increases have been the steadiest and flattest of any other town. In Hamilton taxes have spiked and lowered with each new election year. That has not happened in West Windsor in the last ten years and we should be proud of that,” Diehl said.
Councilman Borek said he had done some math, stating that in 10 years his taxes had risen a total of only $1,127.18. That prompted a few disapproving shouts from back of the room. Maher immediately took a jab.
Maher responded: “Glad to hear, Mr. Borek, that your taxes have only gone up $1,000 because many of our taxes have nearly doubled. During the last couple years and since the revaluation in 2006 the tax assessor has gone around town systematically lowering taxes in certain neighborhoods. If you were one of the lucky people assessed early on in the process then yes your tax burden was less than those of us who did not get our houses reassessed lower, and our houses have actually gone up more than the rates we stated,” Maher said.
3. When the WW-P school budget was voted down by West Windsor voters only a small change was ordered by Council. Should the cuts have been deeper?
Councilman Borek explained that a problem the school board was faced with was that in the year before $7 million in state aid was cut.
“Class sizes increased as a result and went from 16 students to 25 or 26. I value education and if we’re going to give the youth of West Windsor the best opportunities we have to look at things in objective manner. When we have just two weeks to deal with a school budget and the process is hard,” Borek said.
Borek offered a solution of having legislation put in place where a council member becomes a sitting member of the school board that is a voting member. “When you have that you have more ability to deal with the budget. Right now we only have a liaison,” he said.
Zohn pointed out that the budget doesn’t come to Council unless it’s turned down by the public. “Obviously they looked at it and they weren’t very happy with what they saw. Yes, there was the $7 million cut but the school board has to anticipate that and work it into their numbers,” he said.
“If Council took a closer look, albeit they had only two weeks, they would have found more items to cut without hurting our students and the educators teaching them,” Zohn said.
Maher followed that up by stating that after he perused the $160 million school budget he found room to cut slightly more than $500,000. “I think it’s important to convey to those who work in the school system and have been getting raises year-in and year-out for the past 10 to 15 years, that the median household income in the U.S. has been flat or, as indicated in some recent studies, has declined. The median household income of $50,000 has gone nowhere and yet public employee salaries have gone up every year. We need to have an open discussion on this. You don’t want to cut into the bone but you want to get a little bit of fat out of this,” Maher said.
Lindsay Diehl offered reasons why Council should not heavily tamper with the school budget. “As I understand it much of the school budget has been determined by the time it comes to the council due to contracts with unions for teacher pay and administration, and there is very little you can cut at that point. We have to keep in mind that our schools are one of our top assets and we have to keep them excellent and we have to keep bringing new residents into the school district too,” she said, following up with comments on West Windsor’s need to better compete with towns like Robbinsville and Plainsboro in several different ways.
Kohn said her family moved to West Windsor five years ago because they knew the school district “was excellent and top-rated” and they wanted to be able to take advantage of that when the time was right. She does not want to see Council cut too much but be vigilant of spikes in the school budget.
“Fact is a lot of the school budget is contractual so we have to honor our contracts and stick by our commitments. However we should send the message that we expect fiscal responsibility in all parts of our government. For everything that gets past the taxpayers need to be approached carefully,” Kohn said.
Samonte also moved to West Windsor in part because of its schools’ reputation. “Do I think Council should keep an open mind? Yes, but a lot of those funds are state-mandated and there’s not a lot you can do with it,” she said.
Maher threw another thought into the mix, recognizing that what impacts WW-P schools is essentially a state problem. “The council and the administration need to be demanding to the state that we need to get our fair share. Our system, as it’s structured statewide, rewards failure by granting more money and it penalizes success. We need to change that,” he said.
Maher then parlayed his concerns into the InterCap project, addressing Councilman Borek’s prior point. “I don’t know what you think is going to happen with class sizes when we add what’s going on at the development on Clarksville Road and the InterCap project. They’re only going to go higher,” Maher said.
Diehl countered with a recap of what was said in front of Council in September days before the deciding vote. “InterCap would add approximately 224 students. The school board has gone on record to project that enrollment in our schools has been declining. This new population that comes with the transit village will not cause us to build new schools or impact the current capacity,” she said.
4. Several candidates have suggested that West Windsor should have more shared services — what services and with whom?
Borek said a top priority would be emergency services and communications on a county level. “Years ago West Windsor took the initiative and spent the money in order to be prepared for shared services. Right now we’re on a time clock for 2013 to try to get public safety under one umbrella but unfortunately everyone else is not on the same page as West Windsor. But we will explore ways to do this while keeping taxes down,” he said.
Kohn said it makes sense to look into combining our resources when possible but she noted it doesn’t always work out. Kohn points to the township’s failed attempt in sharing animal control with East Windsor.
“It caused impacts for folks in our community, especially with the rabies issue in Mercer County, and we don’t actually have and ACO right now. That’s a good example of when it doesn’t work. If we’re going to consider shared services we really need to be careful to avoid that kind of situation,” she said.
Diehl said because New Jersey has many individual municipalities it leads to property taxes going high across the state. She observes that in the past 20 years “West Windsor was on the cutting edge when we made our school district into a regional school district,” she said.
Diehl suggested having studies done to see if West Windsor could share major services.
“Why can’t we look into sharing our police department or firefighters to see if it would benefit us and our surrounding towns? Why can’t we share with Princeton or East Windsor, or all the Windsor’s could have one regional fire or police department?” she asked.
Zohn designates Princeton Township as a neighbor West Windsor can work with on transit and transportation issues.
“The dinky brings thousands of people to our train station every day and people use Washington and Alexander Roads. Keeping these roads and crossings as clean as possible could certainly help everybody,” he said.
Connecting West Windsor and Robbinsville is another of Zohn’s ideas. “A lot of those people don’t have sewers and I don’t know if it would be more economical to partner with them to share sewage so that we could save money for everybody in both towns.
5. Route 571 has seen three fatalities in the last 10 years. A senior pedestrian in 2004, a senior pedestrian in 2005, and a teenage motorist in 2006.
Kohn said hearing the voice of an influential group of citizens is key. “The suggestions of the WW Pedestrian and Bicycle Alliance are very strong. The pedestrian refuge or the addition of a median in the center of the road to help people crossing or for better access to places such as Windsor Plaza. The flip side of it is that pedestrians and bicyclists will have better access to parts of the township, and when you bring in more people you can bring in more business. If that helps bring in ratable and lower the tax burden on the residents then it makes a lot of sense to me,” she said.
Samonte urged state funding and collaboration to help the township make traffic and safety improvements. “What we need to do so that we don’t lose that money is make sure that the county maintains funding coming into West Windsor for improvements. We need to be able to work with the county and modify at specific points in the funding cycle to get those traffic and safety improvements on 571,” she said.
Kohn attested that Mercer County is spending money in West Windsor. “We’ve seen some new curb cuts where there are no sidewalks. The question is, are they spending money in the right place.”
Samonte then told the forum to recognize that government is different than business. “You are working with several stakeholders and when you talk about pointing that it’s a county road, if you understand transportation finance it starts at the federal government and works it way down to the local level,” she said.
Maher agreed that Route 571 is a county road but because West Windsor residents pay “a lot of county taxes” the administration must push for the work to get done.
“This was approved five years ago and they have been collecting our county taxes for five years, yet they have not delivered on their promises to fix this road. The council and the administration need to be persistent. You need to get on these people to get the money to fix the roads. How you succeed in business and how you should succeed in government is to be persistent. The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” he said.
“We have to consistently be on the county and the state to get our fair share. If we don’t your taxes will go up and we won’t get anything done for the next ten years. If that is what this township wants to happen, you know who to vote for,” Maher said.
Borek says that the county has had a plan for working with the township and some things have been addressed.
“When the teenager was killed in 2006 the DOT came in and did a temporary fix there. This past spring the county came in and paved the roads, making them smoother. We fixed Alexander Road and Meadow Road. We had to schedule this to only have one project going on at a time. You have to do the work in conjunction with other projects that have gone on in the town,” he explained.
Zohn came up with the notion of more traffic lights and a beacon by Windsor Plaza, across from the Sherbrook Estates. “We have to appeal to the state and county to get things done on a timely basis. We have to take every chance that we can because we don’t want to hear about another horrible accident,” he said.
Diehl, in stark contrast to the Strong Leaders’ opinions, said in over two decades in West Windsor she has seen Route 571 improve dramatically and the progress continues. “It was just paved. We have new lights to cross over, there are blinking lights for pedestrians to tell them how to cross safely. I saw the plans at a public viewing and 571 will have bike paths, and that will make it safer too. When there are bikes on the road, cars slow down. It is all in the works but we just don’t want to slow it down, we want the county to move forward with their plans,” she said.
Maher jumped in once more, referring to the tragedies in the original question and said Council needs to address the areas where people are being killed, with Route 571 as a major area. “To quote Ms. Diehl ‘we don’t want to slow things down’ the difference between us and your ticket is that we want to speed things up. We don’t want things to stay the same and we don’t want to slow them down, we want to speed things up,” Diehl said.
6. There was one question posed in the debate that all the candidates soundly agree on. Slinn asked candidates to remark on “the potential for West Windsor taxpayers to have to fund boutique charter schools in the township. Your view on boutique charter schools?”
From all six candidates came essentially the same answer. Charter schools serve a purpose in some communities but not in one such as West Windsor. PIACS and similar charter schools would not be a welcome addition to West Windsor.
