Susan Cohen MANALAPAN — Three residents with experience on the Township Committee and one newcomer to the political arena are vying for two three-year terms on Manalapan’s governing body in the Nov. 8 election.
The candidates are Democrats Michelle Roth and Seth Ptasiewicz and Republicans Don Holland and Susan Cohen. The winners will take office in January to begin serving terms that will end Dec. 31, 2014.
Roth and Holland are current members of the committee. They were successful running mates on the Democratic ticket in 2008.
Earlier this year Holland switched to the Republican Party. He told the News Transcript that “the Democrats threw me away.”
Cohen is a former member of the committee who did not seek re-election in 2010.
Ptasiewicz is making his first bid for public office.
Cohen, 54, has lived in Manalapan for 25 years. She is a real estate professional who works for Monroe Manor, a site in Monroe Township. By contract with her company she is not permitted to list or sell homes outside of her site.
Don Holland Cohen said she intended to serve only one term, but she said that after leaving office, “people were still calling me, asking for help and asking why I didn’t run (in 2010). The atmosphere in the township has changed. My husband told me it was time for me to come back and Don (Holland) and I have worked well in the past.”
Cohen said that during her three-and-ahalf years on the committee she enjoyed helping residents address problems. She said she welcomes being contacted by individuals and business owners who need help with various issues.
“That’s what we are here for,” she said.
Holland, 73, has lived in Manalapan for 38 years. He is retired from the construction industry and works on his farm. He and Cohen said that as they have discussed their hopes and plans with residents, several topics always come up.
Seth Ptasiewicz One of those topics is property taxes.
“I’m not sure we can do anything to lower taxes, but I will do everything I can to keep them stable,” Holland said. “I don’t like to make promises based on the actions of four other people on the committee because I am only one vote.”
Holland said one important factor in any attempt to keep taxes stable is the way in which municipal officials negotiate with unions that represent municipal employees, including police officers. He said the state’s cap on property tax increases is a starting point for negotiations, not a guarantee as to how much of an increase union members will receive.
Manalapan’s municipal tax rate has remained stable the last two years, in part because officials have been able to take money from the surplus (savings) account and apply it as revenue in the budget.
Michelle Roth Cohen and Holland said they support the use of surplus as a means of keeping the tax rate stable. Cohen said the township expects to generate between $3 million and $4 million in surplus heading into the 2012 budget cycle.
In 2011, Manalapan’s municipal tax rate is 33.2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The owner of a home that is assessed at the township average of $378,000 is paying $1,254 in municipal taxes in 2011. The owner of a home that is assessed at $500,000 is paying $1,660 in municipal property taxes in 2011.
Municipal taxes do not include school or county taxes. The Township Committee is directly responsible for the municipal portion of the tax bill.
Another topic residents have raised with the candidates is garbage collection. The Republicans said no one with whom they have spoken has asked for garbage collection to be privatized.
Manalapan provides for garbage and recycling collection within the municipal budget, and the cost to a homeowner for that service is about $200 per year. The $200 is included in a property owner’s municipal taxes.
Holland said if the township stopped contracting for garbage and recycling pickups and told residents to hire their own waste collection company, that $200 cost would likely double and would have to be paid separate from property taxes.
Cohen and Holland said they prefer to keep the garbage and recycling collection as part of the municipal budget.
Cohen said residents can help rein in garbage collection costs and tipping fees (the fees paid to dump garbage at the county landfill) by increasing their participating in recycling.
The candidates said that as members of the Township Committee, they will continue to pursue shared services by having Manalapan be a provider of services that can generate revenue, or by having the township be part of an agreement through which another entity can provide a service at a lower cost than if Manalapan provided the service itself.
Cohen said Manalapan has entered into an energy cooperative that is expected to provide savings to the municipality.
Ptasiewicz, 47, has lived in Manalapan for 11 years and in New Jersey since 1994. He is an attorney who practices in the areas of labor and employment law. He said he represents employers, not unions, but he deals with unions as part of his legal work. He does not currently serve on any municipal boards or committees.
Asked how and why he decided to throw his hat into the political ring, he said, “I read the local newspapers and I saw things about a lack of decorum on the committee, about communication between committee members, about a lack of professionalism on the part of committee members and about potential conflicts of interest on the part of committee members. That raised some eyebrows for me.”
Regardless of whether Ptasiewicz or Roth, or both Democrats, win a seat on the governing body, they will be a minority of one or two people. Asked how he would see his role in that scenario, the candidate said he would not look at his fellow committee members as members of a political party.
“As a lawyer, I try to be a problem solver and with government my role would be to solve problems in a cost-efficient, timely manner, regardless of the political affiliation of the people I am working with,” Ptasiewicz said. “I am happy to work with people, to listen to the problems of my constituents and to come up with solutions that work. I toldMrs. Roth that if I can vote with her on an issue, I will, but that if our positions are different, I will vote the way I believe I should and she said that is fine.”
Ptasiewicz said that during the campaign, residents have mentioned items such as potential conflicts of interest among committee members, garbage and recycling, taxes, municipal services and traffic and safety as issues about which they are concerned.
Asked if there is a specific area he might like to focus on as an elected official, Ptasiewicz said he believes his professional experience dealing with negotiations among unions and employers could be a benefit to the committee as it negotiates contracts with Manalapan’s unions, specifically during difficult economic times such as these.
“People know we are in a difficult time and economy, and the last thing anyone wants to do is raise taxes or do anything to hurt a constituent’s pocketbook,” he said. “I understand the collective bargaining process and I understand how to deal with unions. I would also talk to the public and ask them what their needs are. We don’t have all the answers. I would consider taking a suggestion made by a member of the public and presenting it to the committee.”
Roth, 54, has lived in Manalapan for 25 years. She owns an investor relations consulting firm and works with investors globally .
Roth said if she wins another term on the committee, she understands that she will still be in a minority position because Republicans will maintain control of the governing body. Her role in that scenario will be as “a watchdog.”
“I ask questions, hard questions, that make people uncomfortable, but that is the role of a local government official, to not be a rubber stamp,” she said. “I can be effective in a minority position. I have been effective that way before.”
Roth takes pride in being well prepared for municipal meetings.
“I read everything. A very large part of this job is reading material from our professionals, from the state and from residents, asking questions and making decisions,” she said.
During discussions about the municipal budget over the past two years, Roth has clashed with the Republicans on the governing body over the use of surplus funds in the budget.
The surplus funds (savings) that are inserted as revenue in a budget help to reduce the amount of taxes that must be collected from property owners. On the flip side, if the surplus account is not refilled during the year, there will be less surplus available the following year to be used as revenue in the budget, and that makes the possibility of a tax increase more likely.
“We cannot keep relying on surplus to support the budget because surplus is not being regenerated at the same rate as in prior years,” Roth said.
Given that outlook, how should municipal officials address the budget?
“Since 2007 we have been very disciplined about cutting expenses in a variety of ways, through attrition and shared services, and by re-examining how operations work in the township, but you reach a point where you start cutting into bone and suffer a collapse. That’s where you will see a problem with the ability of government to provide services.”
For example, Roth said the Manalapan Police Department is down to 53 sworn officers. The last time the force had 53 officers there were 16,000 residents. Manalapan has more than 40,000 residents today.
So how do officials get the police force closer to where it should be, given the current population?
“We have to start hiring officers,” said Roth, who characterized the police force as being “severely understaffed.” She said new officers could be hired on a staggered basis, as the Monmouth County Police Academy begins several training courses each year.
“What are people paying taxes for? Safety, parks, garbage collection, snow removal, road paving … the offset to get lower taxes means you have to give up these things. You should be getting something for your tax dollars. I expect to live in a safe community, to have parks that are well maintained, to have roads repaved, to have a construction department that ensures things are built correctly, to have an inspection department to make sure that work in my home is done right,” she said.
Given those needs and desires, “that is what the public must decide” when a discussion of the budget includes a possible increase in taxes, Roth said.
The last big discretionary item in the budget is the $2.8 million Manalapan pays each year for garbage collection, according to the candidate.
Roth supports keeping garbage collection as a municipal service because residents are getting a better deal from the township than they would if they had to hire their own waste collection service.
She expressed concern that the garbage collection provided by a private firm hired by the municipality could be a potential target for elimination when decisions regarding increasing taxes or cutting spending have to be made.
On the issue of bulk purchases for items such as energy, Roth said she supports those initiatives, but has expressed concern as to whether Manalapan could face penalties if it wanted to pull out of an agreement early.
“My concerns have been routinely ignored,” she said.
Roth said she believes she has accomplished several achievements during her time in office, including starting blast email notifications, revamping the municipal website, establishing a dog park, making Manalapan’s parks dog-friendly, and forging an agreement with neighboring Marlboro that allows Manalapan residents to join the Marlboro Swim Club.
More recently, she said, she has suggested to the township administrator that Manalapan diversify its banking relationships to protect access to cash flow.