Not in Rossmoor’s
best interest
To the editor:
An article in the July 28 issue of The Cranbury Press, "Condo maintenance dispute continues," told of the problems condo residents of Rossmoor are having because of the cost and maintenance obligations for pipes and other utilities that were turned over to them in the Master Deed.
We, the residents, unwittingly voted "yes" to the master deed in 2003 because we did not realize that the cost and responsibility for utilities were being turned over to us.
In that article, when Judie Sforza, president of Rossmoor, was questioned about the responsibilities that were switched to the residents, she said, "I’m not saying there haven’t been changes that was a conscious decision that the directors subscribed to." She also said, "There were deviations that we made in the best interest of Rossmoor."
Unfortunately that is where the whole problem lies; management makes decisions that are in the best interest of Rossmoor instead of in the best interest of the condo owner. Because they have a fiduciary duty that requires them to put the owners’ interests first, above all others; why are they making decisions that are not in our best interest but instead in the best interest of the corporation they call Rossmoor?
Some in management insist that we did know that we were taking on these responsibilities when we voted. If this were so, why are we fighting so hard (for more than a year) to return these responsibilities to our mutuals? Why would we vote yes and then be upset about it? HARC, the residents coalition, now consists of over 140 members and not one of us knew this and none of us knows even one resident who would willingly vote yes if they knew that responsibilities were being switched from the mutual to the individual owner. As residents, I think that we are in a better position to know what our neighbors knew and what they were not told before they voted.
Janet Huet
Monroe
Monroe ethics
panel unbalanced
To the editor:
Last week, Monroe Mayor Richard Pucci appointed a seven-member panel to look at government ethics and campaign finance. Members of the panel include Marguerite Schaeffer, an assistant municipal attorney, Lenora Farber, a Democrat and former councilwoman, and David Rothman, a former councilman, current Planning Board member and the token Republican.
This panel will be assisted by Township Attorney Joel Shain, Ms. Schaeffer’s boss; Ernest Feist, Democrat municipal chairperson and township engineer; and Ruth Mandel of the Rutgers Eagleton Institute.
The first and most glaring issue is that Mr. Rothman was the only Republican chosen.
Why were none of the other Republicans that offered their services chosen? Was Mayor Pucci afraid that they might have views that contradicted his and might have even published their views in the newspapers?
Isn’t asking people like Mr. Shain, Ms. Farber, Ms. Schaeffer and Mr. Feist to investigate ethics in Monroe Township akin to Jim McGreevey asking Bob Torricelli to investigate ethics abuses in the McGreevey administration. There is no way that they will find anything wrong.
If the topic of the bidding of legal services is raised, how fast will Marguerite Schaeffer see that this topic disappears? After all, if legal services have to be bid, then there is a possibility that Attorney Joel Shain will lose his Monroe Township pot of gold. There is no way that the mayor will let his old West Orange buddy lose his income.
Predicting the future is always difficult and I might be surprised at the outcome of this panel. One topic I would encourage the panel to emphasize is accessibility to township information. Today, an organization’s Web site is a portal to the organization. The Monroe Township portal is currently closed. This lack of public information only says that the Monroe administration has something to hide. The citizens of Monroe have a right to know how many municipal employees the township has (400) and what they do. They also have the right to know what the budget consists of without having to go to the township building. The budget would also include the amounts paid to panel advisors Engineer Feist and Attorney Shain.
The State of Florida has Web sites that give entry to all facets of government at every level. New Jersey, and Monroe Township, should use Florida as a model. A perusal of Florida Web sites would allow an average citizen to discover that Mayor Richard Pucci, and his wife Kathleen, have a luxury condominium on Oxfordshire Lane in Fort Myers. They would also find that the property taxes are $1,500 and there is no mortgage. Given the amount of money that John Lynch has poured into the Pucci household, a cash purchase made sense.
I hope that this panel actually does something. Possibly the inclusion of a retired judge and a former reporter for the Star Ledger will help. In all likelihood, however, this panel of yes-men will peck at the edges, make a few minor recommendations, but in the end, do nothing of any consequence.
Harold V. Kane
Monroe
