To the editor
When a person writes a letter that falsely accuses, defames or otherwise injures the reputation of another, there can be only two ways it could happen. Either A), the writer is ignorant of the facts and is making false assumptions, or B), the writer knows what the facts are but ignores them in order to damage the other’s position and to attempt to look good.
The two recent letters written byHillsborough Democrat Party District Committee members are filled with nasty accusations based upon false information designed to make our residents believe their political leaders are doing a great job. Last week’s letter sounded good and claimed I was writing political propaganda.
My fellow residents, before I served this township as an elected official I was not aligned with any party, and since leaving office I have completely separated myself from politics. I merely add the real facts to balance the nasty, personal attacks that have been the hallmark of the Hillsborough Democrats over the past 10 years.
You, the residents of Hillsborough, will be the judge.
In 1999, your Township Committee negotiated with PEC/SKP and agreed on just under 600 units to settle their builder’s remedy lawsuit. There would be no commercial development.
Now, without any changes in negotiating position aside from a Democrat- controlled township, the town has given PEC/SKP an extra 100 units and has opened the door for commercial development.
Anyone who holds honesty, integrity and ethical behavior as important values should be outraged by this blatant misuse of power by their elected officials. This is what makes me angry enough to take the time to put the facts on the table. As I’ve said many times in the past, our residents deserve to know the facts so they can select the leadership that will work for them, and not for some developer or other political supporter.
Last week’s letter did not point out any misinformation I provided in my prior letter but added items to cloud the issue. If you don’t know what’s going on, you shouldn’t finalize your opinion, and you certainly shouldn’t put it in writing and attempt to defame someone like last week’s letter writer.
The closed meeting minutes for the Township Committee for 1999 are public record and provide the support for my information, in addition to the paperwork I received during negotiations.
Last week’s letter claimed 1), the under-600 PEC/SKP homes we agreed to earlier were not age restricted, 2), that Greenbriar was in the "primary position" to satisfy Hillsborough’s COAH obligation when we came to our earlier, lower number, and 3), Bielanski also gained in power after our earlier negotiations.
First, the 581 units we agreed to with PEC/SKP were age-restricted just like now. Last week’s writer obviously didn’t do any research on this important issue. Next, when COAH revoked our certification in 1998, Greenbriar was essentially cut out of our affordable housing plans. Nowhere in our discussions and negotiations will anyone find that Greenbriar had an impact on negotiations with PEC/SKP, Bielanski or Krame.
There was no added power given to PEC/SKP following Greenbriar legal finding of conflicts of interest. In fact, Bielanski received basically what we had agreed to in 1999 and so gained no advantage.
The only builder’s remedy lawsuit developer to come out ahead of where they were in 1999 is PEC/SKP. Interesting, eh?
To close, last week’s letter by a hard-core Democrat Party elected official shows the usual themes of baseless claims, false accusations and generally avoiding the real issue to make their refuse smell better. To claim the Dems are controlling development due to small numbers of residential approvals is a nice a nice thought but in reality it merely reflects a low number of applications the Republicans had similar low numbers following larger earlier numbers.
The real power of your elected officials is embodied in the township’s Master Plan, which was promised by the Democrats to be totally revamped too eliminate further residential growth. Well, my neighbors, the Master Plan we put together years ago is apparently pretty darn tight since not one substantive change has been made.
Despite what you’ve read in this paper, there is absolutely no reason to delay revamping the Master Plan because of builder’s remedy lawsuits. That’s pure nonsense but that’s what we’ve gotten these past couple of years from our elected officials.
Get them out this November by voting for the Republican candidates for Township Committee.
Brookside Lane