By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Despite numerous concerns, objections and voting against recommending consolidation to the governing bodies, Councilman David Goldfarb said he will vote to send the issue to the voters in the November election.
”I will definitely vote as a member of the governing body to submit the referendum to the voters, I have no difficulties with that at all,” he said, although he said he has not made up his mind about the issue.
Mr. Goldbarb made the statement at Wednesday’s Joint Shared Services and Consolidation Commission (JSSCC) meeting.
However, he expressed his displeasure with the foreword of the recommendation packet, basically calling it propaganda.
”It’s very well done, but essentially it is a marketing tool to promote the idea of consolidation to convince people that consolidation is a good thing,” he said. “It goes beyond where I feel comfortable in terms of what this report should do.”
”I really don’t believe that the work of the commission should be compromised by a foreword that appears to be so strongly in favor of consolidation with reasons that are not entirely objective,” he continued. “If you start off saying consolidation is a wonderful thing … that will color the way people look at the report … I don’t think we should start off by selling anything other than the hard work that was done by the commission.”
The document has support from the other municipal officials on the JSSCC.
Mayor Mildred Trotman spoke first and said the group was given a choice of what to recommend and 9 of the 10 members voted to recommend consolidation and “this means there isn’t anything wrong with marketing it that way … and I don’t understand why we wouldn’t want to market our recommendation,” she said.
Mr. Goldfarb was the lone dissent on the vote to recommend consolidation to the governing bodies that took place in May. He objected because he thinks the negatives and concerns against consolidation were not properly vetted and presented to the public.
”We would be remiss not to advocate for what we recommended,” added Bernie Miller, a township committeeman. “We have voted 9 to 1 for consolidation … if we didn’t advocate for it, who would?”
After much back and forth and tinkering, Mr. Goldfarb agreed on the document with changes, as the commission wanted 100 percent support for the packet it was sending to the governing bodies.
Ms. Trotman and Township Mayor Chad Goerner also announced there will be a joint municipal meeting on July 25 to allow for public comment on the issue and a vote will be taken to place the question on the ballot in November.
The commission set the rest of its meeting dates: July 20; August 17; September 20 and October 26.
