A discussion about putting language into West Windsor’s sign ordinance to prohibit the permanent lease signs seen up and down Alexander Road’s commercial sector led to a debate between council and the mayor over the amount of funding put into the planning board’s budget this year and whether the council and mayor have been working together.
The issue arose during the August 18 council meeting, when Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman had asked again whether township officials could put language into the sign ordinance that addressed the permanent lease signs on the busy road.##M:[more]##
Kleinman says the signs are not even necessary because those who are looking to move their businesses into the town would seek real estate agents or browse the Internet. Instead, “it really looks like the whole town’s for sale.”
Kleinman seemed frustrated about the issue, saying she has been asking for resolution to the problem for the past three years, and that nothing has been done. Referring to the language that could be put into the ordinance, Kleinman said: “It could be just a line or two.”
After the meeting, Kleinman explained that she wants language put into the ordinance that would police, limit, and prohibit the leasing signs on the commercial properties, some of which, she speculated, may not be advertising for space in West Windsor at all, but rather for other nearby areas, which are owned by the same companies in West Windsor.
“This is a very narrow scope of the sign ordinance,” Kleinman explained, saying she feels that Township Attorney Michael Herbert can simply add the language into the document. “I wanted it reviewed. I have brought it up continuously for three years.”
She says the Planning Board did review the sign ordinance, but only focused on the signs along Route 571.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said during the meeting the Planning Board, which usually works on land use and sign ordinances, was busy this past year with focusing on the Master Plan re-examination and ordinances dealing with rezoning 80 percent of the township.
He also pointed to the cuts made by council to the Planning Board’s budget this year as another reason its professionals have not yet been able to work on everything requested by the council, including this language in the ordinance. Hsueh also said that township officials were worried about costs associated with having their professionals work on the ordinance to add the language. But, “Sam [Surtees, divisions of land use manager] said if we do have a clear direction, and you don’t have to do a lot of research, it can be done.” He said he would look into what could be done that is at low cost to the township.
Kleinman said in response: “It’s three years to talk about the leasing signs on Alexander Road. I don’t think it’s a budget issue at this time.”
Councilman Will Anklowitz became even more frustrated, particularly by the mayor’s mention of the budget. “If you keep throwing the budget at us, I’ll think about cutting it again next year,” he said.
He said council’s requests have not been addressed, and that the language could be added into the ordinance “fairly easily and inexpensively.”
“The budget issue is rubbing me the wrong way,” he added.
Hsueh said he would follow-up with Planning Board attorney Gerry Muller to see what could be done as soon as possible. “Legally, if it’s very straightforward, we can do it.”
Council President Charles Morgan said he also thought the budget was “nothing more than an excuse” and suggested asking Herbert to work on drafting the language.
The question then became whether to do so, or having Planning Board Attorney Gerald Muller work on it with Herbert, bring it to council, and then send it to the Planning Board for review.
Kleinman said she did not feel two lawyers needed to get involved with working on the ordinance for adding language that would only accumulate to a few lines. Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she would also prefer to just have Herbert work on the language.
When Anklowitz suggested having an update in two to four weeks to make sure work on the ordinance was moving forward, however, Hsueh said he felt like the council was treating the administration “like a criminal” and that there was no mutual trust between the two entities.
“Please let’s try to have some mutual trust,” he said, visibly frustrated. “I’m sincere in trying to work with the council. Let’s try to deal with each other with some mutual respect.”
After the meeting, Morgan said respect and working together must be done on a two-way street, and says that it is the mayor that is disrespectful. “I have complained to the administration for years that it is inappropriate to bring professional services and other agreements to council after they have expired (or, in the case of a contract for snow plowing services, after winter is well under way), and there is no opportunity to address real questions or problems with any particular contract,” he said, referring to the agreement with bond counsel Ed McManimon’s firm earlier this month, in which Morgan and Anklowitz alleged the mayor waited until his contract expired to bring it to council and urge it to move on the issue quickly, or risk bringing government to a halt.
He said one of council’s jobs is to act as a “check and balance” for the benefit of the community, and the mayor’s practice “nullifies an important feature of our democratic government unless council is willing to endure the criticism that goes with the appearance that council is ‘not working’ with the mayor and the appearance that council is threatening to ‘stop the wheels of government’ if council has the temerity to raise serious questions at an 11th hour imposed on council by the mayor.”
“This is the antithesis of working together,” Morgan said. “It shows immense disrespect to those folks on council raising legitimate concerns, and it shows immense disregard to the best interests of West Windsor residents. It’s unfortunate that the mayor’s action never seem to match his words. In effect, the mayor wants us to do it his way without regard to concerns expressed either in the community or on council.”
“In my experience, people who criticize are usually the ones most guilty of the criticism,” Morgan added. “There’s a willingness to accuse others of something he’s guilty of himself.”
With regard to the sign ordinance, Morgan said because the Planning Board had not worked on the council’s concerns, the council had to take action. “This Planning Board decided for whatever reason that it’s not going to move on important ordinances,” he said, adding that “for whatever reason, it decided it didn’t want to do the redevelopment plan.”
However, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said he never heard any complaints about the routine professional appointments and that he is disappointed that Morgan is “making everything so political.”
He says he agrees the respect has to be mutual, and that council should have enough time to review professional contracts, but, like Morgan, says communication has to be a two-way street. He pointed to the cancellation of the August 25 meeting to hear the Goldin proposal (see story this page). He says he did not even know it was rescheduled until he read the newspaper. “This is something we have to really communicate,” he said.
Still, he said, “I don’t want to make this a big issue. There are things we need to do. If any council members call me, they always get my response. I just feel all these accusations are coming from nowhere. I really don’t understand.”
Further, he says, council members should contact him and let him know of any concerns because he does not always get involved in every single detail, especially when it comes to routine contracts.
“Why does he only pick on Ed McManimon, whose been around working for this town for more than 10 years?” Hsueh said, adding that other members of the administration have been happy with his work. “Any time his appointments came around, I never heard any complaints. It really hurts the whole community in terms of the trust between the people and the government. I think we all have to work for this town together in the best interest of the community.”
Hsueh also said he looked up all of the snow removal contracts for the past few years, and all have gone to council in October, except in 2004, when council received them in November.
In response to the debate at the council level, Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner said he was certain that because Kleinman and Morgan have served on the Planning Board within the past year that “if they wanted to provide input on their recommendation for changes, we certainly would pay considerable attention to their recommendations. If we review those recommendations as having merits, we would certainly input those changes.”
In addition, he says the Planning Board welcomes recommendations from council on issue like this, and that council, independently of the Planning Board could draft any ordinance it wishes and pass it. “If Heidi’s correct, and three years have lapsed, the question I raise is why didn’t the council make these relatively simple changes earlier instead of pointing the finger elsewhere?” Marvin said. “I’m highly supportive of making changes with respect to the type and size of the signage and the number of specific signs that can be located by a particular entity throughout town.”
Gardner said the board has discussed the issue with its professionals “It is being worked on,” he said. “The revisions in my view would probably come before the Planning Board in the very near future. I share the concerns of the council members; I don’t disagree with them.”
He said the board has been conscientious of conserving taxpayer dollars. “We don’t conserve taxpayer dollars if we prepare an ordinance, send it to them, and they then start revising it,” Gardner said. “It’s more prudent for them to just indicate which revisions they would like to see in our existing signage ordinance so that we would consider the inclusion of their recommendations in drafting that ordinance.”
Gardner also addressed the concern raised by Anklowitz and Morgan that council’s requests have been ignored. He pointed to the 22 ordinances passed by the Planning Board this year already, and the eight more to come soon. “Just for the record, this township for nearly 15 years has permitted 5,”100 homes to be in noncompliance with existing zoning laws,” he said. “It is this Planning Board that took the initiative to remedy this situation despite the fact that we knew it would create controversy in the town.” He said that close to 200 people attended the first discussion of the ordinances, and the board took residents suggestions into account and worked to resolve the controversial issues.
“We are unpaid volunteers who depend upon the professional services of outside planning consultants and land use professionals who are paid by the township, and if there are no monies in the budget to pay them for their services, it is up to the council to either allocate additional money if they feel that is required, or by statute, they can draft these very same ordinances and pay for these services out of their own budget,” Gardner added.
“In terms of future budgets, I hope that council would carefully evaluate the respective needs of various departments in terms of providing services to township residents. Threatening further reductions in the future is mere political rhetoric and can only be characterized as immature,” he added. “The Planning Board will continue to function in the same manner as it has previously, and refuses to be intimidated by political rhetoric.”
