Candidate Profile: Hedy Grant

No stranger to the workings of New Milford government, Hedy Grant was a council candidate in 2009 and is currently President of the Democratic Club, the Vice Chair of the Planning Board, and a Library Board Trustee. 

Grant has also served as a member of the Historic Preservation Committee, the Environmental and Energy Commission from 2008-2009, and in addition to being a member of Women Lawyers in Bergen, she also served as President from 1990-1992. 

Grant's introduction to politics began when she organized a group of her New Milford neighbors and co-founded RAID (Residents Against Indiscriminate Development), which successfully fought the construction of a 28-unit apartment building on a 1.2-acre tract of land, part of which was located in a flood zone.

Grant sees flooding as one of the major issues of the campaign. Living in a flood zoned area, Hirschfield Brook, she has often dealt with water damage.

"When the weather is calm, it's a beautiful brook, but during Floyd, the Nor'easter of '07, and Irene it turned into a raging body of water and overflowed."

Grant feels that when it comes to flood mitigation, New Milford needs input from experts in the field — ideally, experts who understand the reservoir systems in both Bergen and Rockland Counties. "There needs to be a large concerted effort with New Milford officials working with other towns who experience the same flooding issues."

Grant wants to know whose policy it is that says the reservoir has to be kept at 100% capacity.

"United Water has said that they're in the business of potable water, not flood mitigation, but people and property are drowning." She says that the water company cannot continually plan for a drought situation, especially since the reservoirs are at historic levels.

Grant would like to see a coalition formed within the county, state or even interstate, working together to force a change to the 100% capacity policy.

"It's unconscionable the devastation that occurs after every major storm." She continued, "I also don't remember having flooding issues like we have now before Hurricane Floyd." (In 1983, Hackensack Water reorganized as United Water Resources. Hurricane Floyd occured in 1999, the same year that Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux purchased United Water.) 

Post Irene, Grant says that both dumpsters and compacters were needed to effectively deal with the aftermath. "The governing body needs to have a plan of action in place that can be immediately put into action when there's a severe weather situation." She maintains that it's impossible to develop a successful plan after the fact; there must be forethought and solid planning.

Grant insists that you cannot talk about flooding without talking about taxes and future development. She admits that taxes pose a complicated situation that requires delicate handling and acknowledges that the governing body has to walk the tightrope of dealing with falling assessments while still bringing in revenue.

However, she disagrees with the present Mayor and Council raising taxes to the 2% maximum. "People are suffering due to the economy and having to deal with flooding expenses." 

Instead, Grant says that all areas of the budget should be scrutinized for duplication, excess and waste before increasing taxes. She believes that sharing more services with neighboring towns and the county will result in a substantial savings to the borough and must be explored. 

Grant agrees that development is a contributing factor to flooding. "If you pave over property in a flood plane it will add to the flooding problem." She feels that the Mayor and Council "dropped the ball" on purchasing the United Water property. She feels strongly that when  brought his proposed plans before the Mayor and Council they asked very few questions. 

As of now, Grant says, "No one knows what's really going on with that property. I recently read that two Republican councilmembers want to look into the possibility of purchasing it, but it's too late." 

Grant believes that when the town had the option they should have investigated the feasibility of purchasing the property. "You can't decide to purchase it whenever you feel like it," she commented. 

Rather than going before the Planning Board, Hekemian decided to bring the zoning issue before the Mayor and Council for a vote. The vote was initially postponed to deal with the immediate flood-related issues of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Grant contends that the flood is a huge issue, but so is this vote and does not understand why it has been postponed for so long. 

What is also at the heart of her campaign is having an open and transparent government. "I believe every board and commission should keep minutes," Grant said. 

"The current Mayor and Council voted to have minutes meet only the bare minimum required by the state statute. Minutes now need only show actions taken, not discussions, ideas, suggestions or reasons for actions taken. I believe minutes of all work and public sessions of Mayor and Council meetings, board meetings, commission meetings and committee meetings should be comprehensive in order to keep New Milford residents fully apprised of what's going on and to create an historic record." 

She continued, "If only a vote is recorded, the public doesn't know the thought process of that vote."

Grant wants to be a part of a governing body that's responsive to the needs of the residents in every way—whether it's tax relief or flood mitigation.