Editor’s Note: Each year, the Hillsborough Beacon asks candidates for the Township Committee to share their views and ideas with readers. This year, voters will fill two, three-year seats on the committee on Nov. 7. Democrats Karen Gaffney and Christian Mastondrea are running against incumbent Republicans Carl Suraci and Robert Wagner.
What will you devote your first year in office to achieving for Hillsborough? Please be as specific as possible to help voters understand how you will accomplish your priorities.
Christian Mastondrea
When elected, I intend to call for a full investigation of the deal that lead to the creation of the VA transload facility on Route 206. Every aspect of the agreement must be reviewed as soon as possible.
This town is now faced with the all too real prospect of having to live with the largest such facility on the East Coast. This facility will bring increased truck and train traffic, pollution and safety concerns.
Recently, the Fire Commission has expressed serious concerns about their ability to protect our town in the event of a fire at the transload. For our troubles, this town will receive the ridiculous sum of $300,000 per year.
The costs that Hillsborough will incur in traffic, safety, policing and pollution will far exceed that amount. The taxpayers of Hillsborough are subsidizing a commercial facility benefiting the largest trucking and shipping companies on the planet. This situation is simply unacceptable.
This town must demand every dime of tax revenue it is owed and use every tool available to obtain it.
During this year’s budget process I will call for a line-by-line review of spending. We must control costs and limit spending by securing grants and sharing services when possible. We must also move to challenge those costs that have been defined as "fixed" in previous budgets.
We must also develop a comprehensive economic land-use plan to promote the full utilization of commercial properties in order to maximize tax revenue.
Carl Suraci
Bob Wagner and I have fulfilled our campaign pledges from 2003. We’ve stopped the practice of rolling assessments, we are holding the line on taxes, having drafted and passed multiple budgets with no municipal tax increase, and we are preserving farmland and open space (currently over 2,500 acres) in order to control growth and development.
In addition, with regard to the federal facilities in Hillsborough, we have worked effectively on behalf of our residents’ interests. With Congressman Michael Ferguson, we worked hard togain the decision by the DLA to remove the mercury from Hillsborough. With Somerset County, we preserved the Belle Mead GSA Depot from development, for its future use for recreational facilities (e.g., lighted ball fields, an ATV track, etc.).
Another significant achievement is that we reached an agreement with the leaseholder at the VA Depot, which produces revenue for the township for the first time ever from any federal property in Hillsborough and preventing hazardous material from ever entering the facility. The annual payment is equal to what the taxes would be if it were private property.
We have obtained rights that didn’t exist prior to the agreement, including the right to forbid hazardous materials storage and the right to perform unannounced health and safety inspections. This will insure that we will never have a situation like the mercury that was shipped into our community back in 2001.
Bob Wagner
In a letter Carl Suraci and I sent to the Hillsborough Beacon in 2003 as candidates, we promised, if elected, to stop rolling reassessments, bring fiscal responsibility to municipal government, and work hard to get rid of the mercury. We kept our promises, and delivered what people wanted: we stopped rolling reassessments in 2004, we’ve had NO municipal tax increase in two of the last three years, and the mercury is leaving in early 2007.
But that’s not all. We’ve preserved 428 acres of open space, and also joined with the county to purchase the 432 acres of the Belle Mead GSA Depot, at no extra cost to taxpayers (The purchase will be funded from the existing balance in the Open Space Trust Fund). We have made it convenient for residents to do business with their government by establishing evening hours for our administrative and recreation offices, and offering evening hours and Saturday inspections by our Building Department.
We have listened to residents’ concerns and taken action. We are currently working with several neighborhoods to get them sewer service, and are moving ahead to establish a Quiet Zone for residents whose quality of life is adversely impacted by earsplitting train horns. We have created a deer management plan with a perfect safety record, and have expanded it every year.
In sum, Carl and I have made government work for the people. I am very proud of that, and look forward to doing even more in the next three years.
Karen Gaffney
One of my immediate priorities is to expedite an investigation of the agreement regarding the trans-load facility at the VA depot on Route 206 in the northern section of town. The Township Committee signed a 30-year agreement with the company running this operation without demanding environmental, traffic, and safety impact studies. I will immediately demand these studies be completed.
In September, the chairman of the Board of Hillsborough Board of Fire Commissioners, Ronald Berju, sent a letter to the mayor stating, "because of this lease we do not have the ability to assure the safety of the employees, our citizens and firefighters."
Furthermore, the township agreed to a mere $300,000 per year in revenue when that land may be worth at least $1.5 million in taxes a year, if not significantly more. Despite the land being federally owned, the use of this property is now private and could be taxed. All aspects of this agreement and the impact of this facility on our township must be investigated, and I will immediately begin that process.
During my first year, I would also work to hold developers accountable for contributing to the town’s appropriate funds. If ratables increase, the residents of Hillsborough will not carry so much of the tax burden.
Finally, while the development of farmlands and other open space should be limited, redevelopment of some existing commercial areas is needed. During my first year, I would work to ensure the continuation of plans for a pedestrian-friendly, community-oriented Town Center.
What in Hillsborough would you like to change? How could the Township Committee be effective in leading this change?
Carl Suraci
We will continue our business-like approach to government. This includes continuation of our "pay-as-you-go" policy. By not incurring debt for operational expenses and capital budget expenditures, we have saved substantial amounts of taxpayer dollars. We need to continue that sound fiscal policy.
What needs to change is that we need to get the Route 206 Bypass project built. The Bypass offers traffic relief for our commuters, and the potential for economic development, and the resultant property tax relief, for our homeowners. Our Town Center Master Plan needs to be moved forward, with the kind of constructive input from our residents that we’ve been getting so far, for it is designed to work hand-in-hand with the Bypass to bring about the appropriate development and new tax ratables that we need.
We also need to plan for the conversion of the GSA Depot into a top-notch recreational facility. It is clear that we need more ball fields more for all recreational opportunities in a place where there are no neighbors whose quality of lives may be affected. The GSA Depot property is that place. Hillsborough’s recreational future is there.
I am also proud that we are in the process of addressing issues at the neighborhood level, and I look forward to doing more of the same in my next term. We will keep working on expanding our deer management program, obtaining sewer services in neighborhoods that want and need these improvements, and establishing a railroad quiet zone.
Bob Wagner
With all that Carl and I have accomplished, there is still more to do and change, and the Township Committee can take the lead. The great opportunity presented by the purchase of the Depot raises the need to create a Recreation Master Plan to guide that land into becoming a premier recreation facility. This is of great importance for our residents, for the promise it holds to improve our quality of life now and for future generations.
We must also press forward on the Town Center Master Plan, and keep up the pressure on the NJDOT to build the one thing that is essential for Town Center to succeed, and for congestion to be relieved in our community the Route 206 Bypass.
Not everything needs to be changed we are going in the right direction already. Carl and I will continue to aggressively seek out additional open space and farmland to preserve.
We will continue to hold the line on taxes and spending and look at ways to gain efficiencies through the use of shared services with adjoining communities and the county.
We will continue to address the needs of those residents who are in need of sewers due to failing septic systems.
We will see through the implementation of the railroad Quiet Zone.
The next three years look to be exciting and promising for Hillsborough. We will do everything we can, as we have done for the past three years, to make Hillsborough a better place to live.
Karen Gaffney
I was away from Hillsborough while I was in graduate school, and when I came back three years ago, I realized more and more that the majority on the Township Committee is not managing our township very responsibly.
I am concerned that the unsound decisions made now will have a serious negative impact on this town for years to come. I want to change that by creating a more accountable, responsible, open government.
A lot of people are not aware of these problems because they are not encouraged to get involved. We need to break the cycle of public apathy and instill a greater sense of community identity that will encourage more people to get involved and invest in this town’s future.
I think we need to hold town forums to give residents a chance to voice their concerns and contribute their ideas.
We need to inform them about decisions being made and the impact these decisions have on the township.
The decision-making process must be transparent and ethical and must avoid "pay to play." People need to know government represents their interests, not special interests.
Christian Mastondrea
I believe that our Township Committee must be transparent. We must have open access to our government in away that fosters consensus building and good decision making.
Too often government decisions are made that benefit the few over the many due to the undue influence of money in politics.
We must end pay-to-play at all levels of government and Hillsborough is no exception. Appointments should be given to those with ability, not those with connections.
I will support strengthening town ordinances to make the practice of pay-to-play a thing of the past.
I believe that this one change will have a dramatic effect on the way our town is run and the quality of our government. People have become so cynical about government that they have no faith that politicians will do anything but help their friends and line their own pockets.
As a result people have become disinterested in the decisions that are being made even when those decisions are bad for the community as a whole. This attitude must change.
This town is rapidly growing, and in 20 years Hillsborough will be built out. The decisions that we make today will effect what that fully developed town looks like.
We must all be involved in this process, or we risk leaving it to the developers and other special interests to decide our fate. People have a right to expect honesty, transparency and integrity from their government.
I will work to ensure that Hillsborough gets nothing less.

