West Windsor Township Council held off on supporting a proposal by one of their colleagues to form an ad-hoc committee charged with finding ways to implement more sustainable initiatives in the township.
Fearing that the committee would duplicate work already done, particularly by committees that worked on the Sustainability Plan adopted by the town in October, members of council were wary of supporting Councilwoman Diane Ciccone’s draft resolution on December 7.
The sustainability element of the township’s Master Plan was adopted by the Planning Board in October. It offers goals, objectives, strategies, and targets to direct the township toward more sustainable practices.
Members of the sustainability task force, an idea Ciccone has previously proposed, would be residents, business owners, council, administration, and township professionals. The task force would make recommendations to council for ways to implement some of the initiatives in the sustainable plan.
Councilman Kamal Khanna said he thought it was a great idea to “engage the residents of this town” in making recommendations to the government, but “I don’t want to repeat it; I don’t want to step on their toes,” he said, referring to the people who worked on creating the sustainability plan.
“My concern is with some of the overlap with all the committees we have now,” echoed Councilwoman Linda Geevers. “It seems that so much of this that’s written into the resolution has already been done in the sustainability plan.”
Ciccone explained that the ad-hoc committee would be formed for a finite period of time. “My goal or hopes with this committee is that we can get together residents who have the expertise” in examining the township’s current situation and researching and finding ways to improve its sustainability. She said that even though the sustainability plan was adopted, there needs to be follow-up and continuous work to implement its suggestions.
However, “I don’t want us to keep spinning our wheels,” said Geevers, who said she felt there should instead be a review of the policy work by council or members of the administration.
“We do have a sustainability plan, but there are a lot of things that haven’t been done that can be done by residents to save the township money,” Ciccone replied. For example, she said, residents can look at the community education called for in the sustainability plan and recommend ways of communicating with residents to educate them on sustainable measures.
But Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh recommended that council hold off on establishing the ad-hoc committee. He said he wants administration to first review the sustainability plan and determine measures that have already been taken, and initiatives that still need to be put into effect. Business Administrator Robert Hary said he could have a list ready shortly.
Ciccone suggested that once the administration knows of anything that needs to be reviewed or researched, residents could take on the initiative.
Hsueh also expressed concern that creating more committees could lead to further review and revision of township ordinances, creating more costs for the township, which has to pay its professionals for the time and expertise they spend on each issue.
He pointed to a review of the township’s cell phone tower ordinance currently underway as an example. Residents approached the council earlier in the year to demand revisions as a result of the board’s approval of a T Mobile wireless communications facility earlier this year.
Council sent the issue back to the planning board, where its professionals, including attorney Gerald Muller had to rewrite the ordinance and then sat through a three-hour public hearing on the changes. Even then, the issue is still not resolved, and the board is expected to continue the hearing in January.
“We wanted to address [the issue] next year, but because of the pressure, we found out we needed to do more” this year, he said, adding that the Planning Board budget is a big concern of the administration.
Township Attorney Michael Herbert weighed in: “If you’re talking about generating costs, that’s a key issue,” he said.
