Plans to resign from Hopewell Township Committee this week
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
David Sandahl said Monday he intends to resign from the Hopewell Township Committee this week.
Mr. Sandahl, a Dublin Road resident and a former deputy mayor who has been on the committee for five years, has been appointed by Gov. Jon S. Corzine to the New Jersey Recovery and Accountability Task Force, a group that will oversee the state’s use of federal economic stimulus funds.
Mr. Sandahl said he is resigning from his local governing body post to avoid any possible conflict of interest, or perception of conflict of interest, that could result from his being on the Task Force.
Mr. Sandahl worked in the federal Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He has a master’s degree in economics from Yale University and owns a business consulting firm.
At Monday night’s Township Committee meeting, Mr. Sandahl said the Task Force’s mission will be to provide “responsible standards and performance reporting” on how New Jersey spends its share of the federal economic stimulus money intended to jump-start America’s battered economy. The state and nation are in the midst “of a historic economic crisis,” he said.
The state Task Force is scheduled to hold its initial meeting with Gov. Corzine on Friday at the Statehouse.
Mr. Sandahl was recommended to Gov. Corzine for the Task Force by U.S. Rush Holt, D-12th, a Hopewell Township resident.
”We will miss you, David, but I’m so glad you’re going where you’re going,” Mayor Vanessa Sandom said.
Other committee members agreed with the mayor, noting he will be a perfect fit for the Task Force.
Committeeman Michael Markulec, one of two Republicans on the committee, said he “can’t think of anyone who could be better suited to provide accountability and transparency” on the Task Force than Mr. Sandahl.
Committeeman Jim Burd, the other Republican, called Mr. Sandahl “a knowledgeable gentleman with a capital G.” He thanked Mr. Sandahl for the time he spent with him on the affordable housing issue.
Mr. Sandahl was the township’s point man on submitting an affordable housing plan for 2008-2018 to the state’s Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). That plan has just been certified by the state, Mr. Sandahl noted Monday night.
Mr. Sandahl also has served on the township’s Planning Board since 2004.
Prior to his service on the Township Committee, which began in January 2003, Mr. Sandahl was a member of the Dublin Road Task Force, which was formed to look at ways to address increased traffic resulting from the opening of Merrill Lynch’s Southfields campus, located south of Pennington-Washington Crossing Road near its intersection with Dublin Road.
In a statement about his job on the Task Force, Mr. Sandahl said: “As we take steps to recover from this historic economic downturn, it is critically important the federal stimulus funds flowing into New Jersey be used effectively and efficiently. The job of the New Jersey Recovery and Accountability Task Force is to ensure we have good measures of performance, that Recovery Act funds are being used well and timely, and that the public can see what is going on and provide feedback to improve performance.
”In over 30 years of watching the federal budget closely, I have never seen anything that approaches the level of transparency that has already been achieved,” Mr. Sandahl added.
Other members of the Task Force are: N.J. Medicaid Inspector General Mark Anderson, N.J. Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper, N.J. Chief Technology Officer Adel Ebeidm, former N.J. State Auditor Richard Fair, N.J. Director of Office of Management and Budget Charlene Holzbaur, former N.J. OMB Director Richard Keevey, and the governor’s Deputy Chief of Staff Diane Legreide.