Even though Council President Will Anklowitz publicly announced he was removing from the agenda both the salary increase ordinance that Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh had vetoed two weeks ago and the discussion of a flat monthly council reimbursement, residents still voiced their opposition to the move and criticized the council for dragging the issue out.##M:[more]##
When Hsueh announced last month he vetoed the controversial ordinance that would have increased his salary and the salaries of the West Windsor Council members by 50 percent, some council members then proposed a resolution that would instead institute a flat reimbursement system similar to the mayor’s flat $250 mileage allowance each month that would cover all of a council member’s expenses. That was put on the agenda for the June 9 meeting, but Anklowitz then removed it from the agenda prior to public comment.
About 50 residents attended the meeting to voice their opposition to the issue, many of them alleging that the amount of time spent by the council on the issue was sidetracking them from other, more important issues in town, like redevelopment.
Former councilman Franc Gambatese said he appreciated that the council effectively killed the issue, but said “what I don’t understand is why for at least four weeks that I know of, this council has persisted in antagonizing the residents by talking about this endlessly almost to the point where it has debilitated you from doing any other business.” He said to have almost 50 people come out to the meeting because they “were so outraged by it, and now you’re going to tell us all to forget about it, is pretty indicative of what this new council has done in everything they touched over the last year.”
Gambatese called for a referendum on the ballot that would give voters a say as to whether they want to change the form of government from a nonpartisan council, which he alleged “leads to a lot of back door dealing.” Said Gambatese: “I don’t think this form of government is doing this town any justice.”
There were residents who defended the council. Berrien City resident Mary Ann Siegel chastised Gambatese for the suggestion that back-door deals were carried out by members of the council. “I see people who work hard, people who care about West Windsor,” she said. “All of the people here have my highest respect. I want to tell these people that I respect you, and the thought that any of them are cutting deals is a terrible thing. It’s just unspeakable.”
Her husband, David Siegel, also disagreed with Gambatese, including his suggestion that the current form of government doesn’t work. “I believe that in general, we have had a reasonably transparent government here,” he said. “I believe we have gotten more things done — not as many as I would like in some cases, and certainly I’ve spoken here many times and disagreed with things they have done — but I think this form of government has generally served West Windsor well.”
Council members responded to the public and spoke one more time about their positions on the matter before dropping the issue.
Councilman Charles Morgan said he wasn’t on council for the money, and that the “fact that four people up here made an issue of the salary increase and reimbursement tells you there is an issue.” Morgan said he finally got reimbursed for expenses for a lunch and a phone bill he put in six months ago. “Instead of coming and shouting, it would be nice if maybe a group of you would get together and help us work through a solution.”
“I do agree it’s time to get back to the business of redevelopment and other issues,” Morgan added.
Geevers said she would have preferred that the issue remained on the agenda so that final closure could be brought to the issue. She said that she came into the meeting thinking that the issue needed to be resolved because “things were getting a little bit out of control.”
“Sometimes you have to just make a decision and stand by your principles and what we believe in, and it’s OK,” she said. “We obviously have disagreements among ourselves. We can still respect one another. But I feel like this issue has taken on a life of its own.”
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman said the issue was very complex. “West Windsor residents are a demanding group,” she said. “They expect that services provided by the township are to be excellent, they expect the schools to be outstanding, they expect the real estate to be the highest in the county, and they expect the best form of representation. All these requests are drastically changing the role of council members and the time it takes to be a successful council member.”
She said as a resident herself, she expects council members to give selflessly of their time to the community, and that members would come prepared to meetings, which is very time consuming. She said she also expected them to attend several other meetings other than council meetings each week to be informed about community groups, and she expects them to be engaged in dialogue with residents on a continuous basis. All of this, she said, consumes about 15 to 20 hours a week alone.
“Where in society is it acceptable that there is never a pay raise — that there is not even a cost of living increase?” she asked. “As a resident, I want to make sure we are not creating a hurdle for new people to be involved. It would be a loss for our community.” She said she didn’t want to see only those who were retired or were wealthy enough to not have to have a day job become candidates for office.
“I want future council members to have a variety of professional backgrounds,” Kleinman said. “These backgrounds add to the depth of these debates on many issues that affect all of us. We need individuals who work in our community, but have the flexibility to take a half day off work and give us that time.” She said that $7,”000 “is a minimal acknowledgement of the costs to give back to your community. I have the guts to vote for this resolution, which I realize has been pulled off, to allow for fairness in compensation for elected officials.”
Anklowitz said when he ran for office, he did so because he wanted to know which issues were important to people, and that when the salary increase came up, as did many other issues before it, he made suggestions for it. “I hope that by pulling this off and putting it aside — and I have no intention of coming back to it in the future — maybe someday we can have a small cost of living adjustment, a small percentage,” he said. “At least in my mind, I have to be able to focus on other things.”
After the meeting, Anklowitz said that before the meeting on Monday, he talked to Councilman George Borek on the phone, and “he and I both decided to withdraw support for the salary and the reimbursement policy at that point.”
“I don’t know that there was enough votes,” he said. “The reason is based on the public input. We listened to the public, and that’s what happened.” He said he felt it was just time to move on.
