Editor’s Note: Bryan Maher was elected to West Windsor Council in 2011 and served as its president in 2013 and 2014. He declined to run for a second term in 2015, citing increasing work obligations. He was interviewed by Vincent Xu of the News.
What have you learned after serving on Council? The process of getting stuff done in the government environment is painstakingly slow and frustrating and in no way resembles what goes on in the private markets.
When I ran I was frustrated with many of the decisions being made. Ms. [Linda] Geevers warned me things would move more slowly than you would anticipate. I agree with her view.
I think so many things in government, they seem to be in no rush. Time is not of the essence. There did not seem to be appreciation for the time value of money. It’s hard to get people to get motivated when they are working 35 hour work weeks. In the real world I don’t know too many successful people who put in 35 hours a week.
I think it’s frustrating that even if you have consensus among Council members, even with a 5-0 vote, trying to get certain changes made to employee contracts, it’s seemingly impossible. I think some of the contracts have gotten out of control in the past 15 years and have lost touch with most of the employees in the private marketplace.
Even when we have a super majority that agrees something needs to be changed, the realties are when speaking with the labor attorneys, we would be lucky to get one change of many that we want to get changed. Disputes go to arbitration, and they will rarely look to make meaningful changes. That in my view hurts the taxpayers.
It’s frustrating to see that there can be no corrective measures even though in the last 10 years things have changed tremendously. The government world seems to not change to reflect those new realities. It’s not fair to the taxpayers, and you see it in the extremely high level of property taxes in and around West Windsor.
I think we’ve got a lot of great volunteers. That is very encouraging. My hope would be more people step up to the plate and vote. The low turnout is frustrating when you are really trying to get a pulse on what’s going on.
What will you miss? I will miss most not being directly involved in decisions that are being made as it relates to the budget, upcoming issues of affordable housing, open space acquisition, and eventually what happens with the Howard Hughes property.
What won’t you miss? I won’t miss racing home from New York on Monday nights getting to Council meetings.
What are the biggest issues going forward? West Windsor’s affordable housing obligations and having that dealt with. The town is in good position as to what’s been already put in place and what’s been identified. If the obligation is what we think it is going to be, the impact won’t be that big. However you just don’t know what it’s going to be.
The numbers that have been bandied about of a 1,000-unit obligation relative to neighboring towns is a startling high number. That being said over the past 10 years, we’ve already had in place or had designations for 800 to 900 units. The delta is slightly over 100 units. There is an appropriate plan to deal with that. I don’t think 1,000 is fair compared to what other towns are being asked to provide.
The Howard Hughes tract has been quiet the past 12 to 15 months. However if the U.S. economy continues to plug along in a positive manner, my suspicion is Howard Hughes would seek to re-engage in some type of effort.
How can Council-Administration relations improve? The problem with the relationship has been that, in my view, the mayor has not been wanting to engage with the opposition.
I ran for Council because I was in material disagreement with what he was doing, including raising our municipal taxes dramatically in the first 10 years he’s been mayor.
I think it was frustrating to him losing control of the majority on Council, and he could no longer have his way. We were going to hold the administration accountable for how he spends taxpayer money.
Just look how Congress reacts with the White House. It’s very similar. That Council must be friendly, that’s a false narrative. The administration must be held accountable for its spending and how they handle the business of the town. To have a Council that is a pawn of the mayor is a bad way to go.
In his first 12 years in office, he had Council stacked in his favor, and we saw the result of dramatically higher taxes. To the extent that the Council may play a little nicer in the sandbox now, that’s probable, but I don’t think he has a majority in his favor.
Everybody being nice, that’s a wonderful thing. The problem is then you have no serious cross checking. That is an environment that sets up for abuse and significant tax increases. The municipal taxes have gone up dramatically his first 10 years, and in the last four years they have gone up very little. We’ve put a stop in the significant increase in the West Windsor taxes.
I know that some supporters of the mayor were displeased with my demeanor, but I can assure you that many, many residents that have reached out to me telling me to keep it up, that they were hugely supportive. The mayor’s polling numbers fell dramatically in the last mayoral race when people saw there were other ways of doing things.
My view is the mayor has different motivations than someone like myself who doesn’t want to see taxes go up dramatically. My view is the mayor would like to see West Windsor developed more. I think if you were to ask Hemant Marathe, he would share my view.
The mayor in his first 10 years, supported, promoted, and worked towards a train station downtown development that would have brought significant increases in residents and taxes and school children to the center of our town. He really wanted a transit village and all that goes with that. There are many of us who vehemently disagreed with that plan.
There are lots of people in government who would like to be in charge of a bigger municipality. I don’t think people are moving to West Windsor for an urban environment. They move to West Windsor for what it is.
Will you run for public office again, maybe at a higher level? We’ll cross that bridge when and if it arises, and as it relates to my work obligations.
