MICHAEL COLANNINO FOR MAYOR SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT(ER)

I would like to respond to the post, “Mayor Cogger sets the Record Straight.”  The Mayor’s version of “setting the record straight,” is indeed a very curvy, winding journey filled with misleading claims.

First, concerning property taxes, the property where we have resided for the past 10 years is owned by my wife and me.  We have paid property taxes on our home every single year we have lived in town.  I have a financial interest in this town as a resident and taxpayer.  The Mayor cannot say the same, given that he owns no property in his name and therefore, pays no property taxes in our town.  This fact should be very disconcerting to any taxpaying resident.  If he does not “feel the pain” of paying property taxes, what incentive does he have to manage the town’s finances and to keep taxes as low as possible?  The simple fact is that during the Mayor’s tenure in office, the municipal portion of our taxes has increased by 177%.  That is the largest increase of all the municipalities in Morris County.   Note that this does not include county or school taxes as Mayor Cogger states.  When confronted with this fact from the January 8, 2012 Star Ledger article, the only response from the Mayor and his supporters is to say that the Star Ledger is not a good source. 

The Mayor has regularly touted the statistic that he has lowered the budget nearly 1 million dollars.  The decrease in the budget is due solely to the closing of two property transactions in a single year, Tranquility Farm and the Telecordia property.  The effect of this was to decrease the budget for one year by over $2.6 million dollars.  This is the reason for the drop in the budget and is not related to any financial acumen or skill on his part.  As a matter of fact, in the last 3 years alone the budget has increased each year - totaling over $1.65 million dollars.  Regarding his claim of reducing debt, the devil is in the details.  The reduction in debt has come from the regular maturity of municipal securities issued by the town in the past.  These bonds would have matured regardless of who was sitting in the Mayor’s chair.  Again, this confers no skill on his part.  This information was provided to me directly by our Township.

The Mayor and his campaign supporters praise his post Sandy response.  I live near East Fox Chase Road and we never saw or heard from him once during the 14 days we were without power despite repeated calls to town hall.  We ate meals at St. Lawrence church many nights and the Mayor never appeared.  The simple fact is that there was no communication, no visibility and no power for 14 days, ranking Chester Township one of the longest to be without power in Morris County.  His real response was to place blame on everyone else and take no responsibility for his lack of leadership. 

The Highlands Ridge Community Center/Warming Center has been the Mayor’s project since he took office.  He has been promising completion since 2009.  Sadly, it was not available for Irene, the 2011 Nor’easter and Superstorm Sandy.  It is still not completed - period.  I do not fault the volunteers for this, in fact, I applaud them for their efforts.  I fault the mayor for lacking the leadership and management skills necessary to see the project through to completion.

The Mayor and his campaign love to use scare tactics, especially for our older residents. They have produced ridiculous flyers with pictures of industrial buildings and slogans such as “watch out for change agents.”  For the record, I am not in favor of development – period. What I am in favor of is treating all residents with the respect they deserve.  Also to dispel another rumor the mayor and his “campaign” have spread, I do not and will not favor taking pensions from our police officers. Again, another meaningless scare tactic meant to garner votes.

As a tax paying resident with 3 children in the public school system, I could not conceive what logical reason the Mayor of Chester Township would have to not support the funding of the feasibility study that will determine if it makes sense to de-regionalize the West Morris School district.  I have since learned that the Mayor has a major conflict of interest.  His daughter is a teacher at West Morris Central High School.  The appropriate action for him would have been to recuse himself from any vote on the matter.  He simply cannot be objective.  He maintains that he supports the study now but this is yet another example of him being dishonest with taxpayers.  He supports the study but only if it includes examining a super K-12 district. He is very aware this is a non starter as no one with children wants this.  I favor funding the study and keeping the focus on the sole issue – does it make sense to split the district? 

The Mayor regularly makes reference to his prowess in obtaining preservation land and properties.  One such property he and former Mayor Spinelli would rather not speak about is Glenlora.  The town completed the purchase of the property in 2006 for $3 million dollars.  The town agreed to pay the first two years of principal and interest on the bonds issued for the purchase.  After this period, the United Cerebral Palsy foundation of Morris/Somerset was to lease the property and begin making the principal and interest payments on the bonds.  In a January 9, 2009 Observer Tribune article, the Mayor said, “it’s going a lot slower than we hoped but it’s still on track.  They are a year behind which is not unusual in the non profit world.  If they were two or two and half years behind, I would be concerned.”  Another quote from the article, “It is a very low risk proposition for the town,” Cogger said.   Lastly, he said he did not expect it would be difficult to find a new occupant if the current plan falls through.  It is now2013 and the Glenlora property still sits empty, while we the taxpayers foot the bill.  But again, the Mayor does not pay property taxes so why should he care?  How fitting that there is a “Cogger for Mayor” campaign sign on the property. 

And speaking of campaign signs, my final topic in this post concerns how the Mayor and his campaign staff have been engaging in an ongoing smear campaign against me coupled with other underhanded campaign tactics.  They have routinely attacked me personally in the press and in their campaign literature.  They even resorted to verbally attacking my wife.  This is a sad commentary on the Mayor and those that surround him.  I have criticized his record and failings as a Mayor, however I have never attacked him personally.  His campaign staff has routinely stolen dozens of my campaign signs around town and replaced them with his signs.  He has also posted huge signs in many locations in town that are over 16 square feet in size.   The Mayor and Sarah Jane Noll are very much aware that this dramatically exceeds the town’s 6 square feet temporary sign ordinance, Section 113-351(d)(2).  I began placing my campaign signs on 9/8.  I received a letter dated 9/9 informing me that my signs would violate the 30 day temporary sign ordinance and needed to be taken down.  As a law abiding citizen, I complied.  Why was the ordinance enforced for me but not for the Mayor?  This lack of enforcement suggests that there is one set of rules for the Mayor and his supporters, and one set for everyone else. 

The Mayor has routinely criticized me for not attending council meetings.  I would remind him that I am a business man who facilitates meetings on a routine basis. The mayor has attended all these meetings and has still managed to produce a failing record.  I would also remind him that in our society we get rewarded for producing results, not just showing up. 

As you head to the polls to vote on Tuesday, please consider the following:  The taxpayers in town have paid the Mayor approximately $175,000 in cumulative pay for his time in office.  Have you gotten a sufficient return on your investment in the form of great service, excellent town amenities and fair property taxes?   If you can’t answer this question with a quick and resounding yes, I respectfully request your vote on Tuesday. 

Sincerely,

Michael A. Colannino