Democratic challenger calls out Morris County Republicans for ignoring cost-savings opportunities

New Jersey and Morris County are the on the edge of severe crisis, stemming from high costs, loss of Federal dollars, gross inefficiencies in delivering services, and inflation that is hitting the entire state. The reality is that everyone knows that something needs to be done, but many in office are unwilling to get out on a limb and take the first step – because as much as change is needed, residents and interest groups are often reflexively opposed to that change.

NOT leading the charge on this issue are the incumbent Morris County Commissioners, who represent five decades of one-party rule, spend over 1/3 of a billion dollars every year, and focus more on photo ops than on governing.

As a public policy professional, I have spent the past 20 years helping local governments be more efficient, effective, and responsive to residents – while reducing costs. That unique expertise has allowed me to use my seven years on the Chatham Borough Council to improve our operations across the board, bringing in new technologies and expanding shared services to reduce costs for residents so that our services are up to par with the best of the best – not in New Jersey, but nationally.
If elected to the Morris County Commission, I will skip the photo ops and roll up my sleeves to do the same for their much larger budget and massive scope of operations.

Many municipal leaders in Morris County see opportunities that the County could – but doesn’t – take to lower not just county costs, but municipal costs. Towns across the operate in a vacuum, duplicating programs and struggling to procure critical services such as health services, building inspectors and even tax collection.

On a broader level, we see our towns spending millions upon millions of dollars duplicating expensive public safety equipment because there is no master plan associated with how we deliver these services in the county – just town by town programs based on arbitrary borders.
Our residents are tired of paying high taxes for duplicate services, and they want us to do better. The current Board of County Commissioners doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. And this is not a County thing – Atlantic County serves as the health department for all of the towns in the County, and took the lead on providing a regional court; Monmouth County just held a shared services symposium, and Bergen County is beginning a study to look at how to address challenges with delivering fire services in the wake of high equipment costs and fewer volunteers.
Morris County doesn’t even take free money from the state for a shared services coordinator, something that has been brought up to them repeatedly.

Change is hard, but our job is not to do the easy thing, it is to do the right thing. I urge all voters to help bring about that change – and innovation - by voting for me, Marie DeVenezia, and Max Blum in November and break a 50 year streak of groupthink.

The author is Council President in Chatham Borough, New Jersey and is a candidate for Morris County Commissioner.