Political control of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders is up for grabs in the Nov. 2 election and the four candidates vying for the board’s two open three-year seats are fighting for every last vote.
Tom Arnone The board, which Republicans have controlled for 24 of the last 25 years, is currently split 3-2 in favor of the GOP.
Looking to hold on to that control are incumbent Republican Freeholder Robert Clifton, who is seeking his third three-year term on the board, and Neptune City Mayor and former councilman Tom Arnone.
Trying to return control of the board to the Democrats are Democratic incumbent Freeholder John D’Amico, who is vying for his second consecutive term, and his running mate Janice Venables, who currently serves as a councilwoman on the Spring Lake Borough Council.
Democrat Amy Mallet and Republicans John Curley and Lillian Burry are the other incumbent freeholders.
Robert Clifton According to the Monmouth County Directory, the board of freeholders collectively oversees five mandatory functions of county government delegated to it by the state. Each freeholder is assigned responsibility for one of the functional areas. Those areas are parks, library and public services; finance and administration; commerce, planning and education; human services; and public works and engineering.
In 2010, the freeholders are overseeing the county’s $493 million budget.
At the heart of the election for each party is a promise to try to reduce taxes and cut government spending.
“Tom (Arnone) and I have knocked on almost 10,000 doors, door-to-door campaigning since Memorial Day, and the one thing we hear whether it’s a state, county or local issue is spending and taxes,” Clifton said.
Cutting spending, according to Clifton, has been the hallmark of his previous two terms on the board.
Janice Venables “Before I took over the finance department at the county, we were looking at our budget growing annually by $20 million,” he said. “In 2008, I was able to come in with our budget team and we were able to stop that $20 million growth and get it down to $6 million.
“And that significant reduction in the budget is based on the fact that we are now much more vigilant in the way were do our budgets,” he explained, adding that he and Arnone will continue the practice in the hopes of finding more savings.
In addition to budget changes, Clifton and Arnone are calling for more shared services between municipalities and the county.
“I’m a very big proponent of sharing services and I think right now, this is the perfect time for municipalities to work together and for the county to be reaching out to municipalities,” Arnone said.
Arnone touted his record in Neptune City as proof that he is capable of cutting taxes and spending.
“Taxes, taxes, taxes, that’s all people want to hear,” he said. “They want smaller government and lower taxes, and I can truly say that smaller government, I think I’ve achieved in Neptune City by consolidating certain positions.”
D’Amico and Venables are also calling for lower taxes; however, they believe it must not only be done with reduced spending, but with a different political mindset.
“Republicans had control of the county government for 24 of the last 25 years and during that period county taxes collected from municipalities have increased by 102 percent, from $149.5 million to $302.5 million,” D’Amico said.
“My point is, obviously we need a change. We’ve had over two decades of tax-and-spend Republican rule and I’m running to continue the progress I have started to make during my most recent term to bring taxes under control,” he said.
Both D’Amico and Venables pointed to key programs in the county government that they believe need to be examined for savings.
D’Amico pointed to the county jail, while Venables said the county’s care centers should be looked at.
“The county jail costs us about $68 million a year to run,” D’Amico said, “and the Republicans over the last several years have given such favorable contracts to corrections officers or jail guards that the two highest paid officials in Monmouth County are jail guards at $186,400 a year.
“Five of them (corrections officers) make more than the judges and the prosecutor who send the people to the jail,” he explained. “So there is something wrong here in terms of that area.”
D’Amico said he has suggested privatizing the operation of the jail in order to “get out from under these onerous contracts with the correction offices that have generated these out-of-control salaries.”
Venables suggested a similar proposal for Monmouth County’s two care centers, the Geraldine L. Thompson Division in the Allenwood section of Wall Township and the John L. Montgomery Division in Freehold Township.
“We lose about $4 million a year [on the care centers]. I think we need to take a look at that and see where we can run that more efficiently,” she said. “One idea is maybe to bring in a private management company.
“I’m not saying that I will definitely do those things, but I think they need to be looked at and we have to find a way to run our government more efficiently,” Venables explained.
D’Amico and Venables pointed to their history as proof of their ability to cut spending if elected to the board of freeholders.
“In terms of saving taxpayer dollars, I spearheaded a move to hold the tax increase to zero in 2008, which was the last year where we had really good revenue and could squeeze fat out of the budget,” D’Amico said.
“In 2009 with the help of Freeholder Mallet and then-Democratic Freeholder Barbara Mc- Morrow, we reduced the budget by $36 million.
“We imposed a hiring and promotion freeze and a wage freeze, and we ended up laying off over 200 employees in various unions that did not agree to the freeze,” D’Amico said. “And what is significant in the budget, although there was an increase, it preserved the county’s AAA bond rating.”
For her part, Venables said her success on the Spring Lake Borough Council is a good predictor of her success on the board.
“I have a good record in Spring Lake as a fiscal conservative,” she said. “We have had great success with maintaining a flat tax increase, for just about three years. We had a minimal one last year, 1.5 percent, but before that we had a zero tax increase in 2008 and 2009.
Venables said Spring Lake also managed to reduce its debt by 25 percent and found more than $3 million in grant money for projects in the last four years.