In an editorial today, the New York Times endorsed Jon Corzine for a second term as governor of New Jersey. To read the endorsement please go to
editorial.

Bill Allen, October 18, 2009

Below is an excellent response from the Jon Corzine campaign to a message I sent. My message is at the bottom. Bill Allen

Thank you for contacting the campaign, Mr. Allen. Please rest assured that Governor Corzine cares as deeply about the environment as you do, and that his record on environmental stewardship and taking progressive action to address climate change puts him well beyond the other candidates in this area. Governor Corzine has a clear vision recognizing that environmental protection and economic development are mutually related goals achieved through strong leadership, sound science and common-sense policies. Protecting New Jersey’s environment has always been – and continues to be – a top priority for him. Protecting our natural resources, controlling and regulating our emissions, and using clean and renewable energy sources are all vital to our sustainability.

Recognizing the challenges we face and the opportunity they represent, he launched New Jersey’s first Energy Master Plan (EMP) since 1991. The EMP provides a roadmap to guide the State toward a responsible energy future with adequate, reliable energy supplies that are both environmentally responsible and competitively priced.

The major challenges to our energy future are increased costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and an increase in the demand for electricity. The EMP requires an overall reduction in energy use by 20% and a reduction in peak demand for electricity by 5,700 MW by 2020. Incentivizing cogeneration and the use of smart grid technologies will help New Jersey reach these important goals.

Under the EMP, we will ensure that 30% of the State’s energy use comes from renewable sources by 2020. We’re reaching that goal by becoming a national leader in solar and offshore wind energy. We have instituted new goals and programs to support the development of nearly 2,000 MW of solar energy and 3,000 MW of offshore wind energy by 2020, making us more energy independent and environmentally responsible.

Today, New Jersey has the second most solar panels installed in the U.S and the most solar panels per square mile in the country. And, we are poised to become the first offshore wind producer in the nation.

While addressing these challenges, the EMP will stimulate a nearly $33 billion investment into the State’s energy infrastructure, create more than 20,000 new green collar jobs, save consumers nearly $30 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity and heating fuel sectors to 23% below 1990 levels.

This 21st century energy plan will require us to invest in a workforce with 21st century skills, and we will grow our clean energy industry through the development of green collar job training programs and support for public and private research efforts.

Governor Corzine has also championed legislation providing schools, municipalities and counties with the necessary contracting tools to make energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements, and signed legislation providing rebates to new cogeneration projects in New Jersey. He has also budgeted $1.2 billion over the next four years to the Clean Energy Program to support energy efficiency and renewable energy in New Jersey. Additionally, under his leadership, New Jersey is also leveraging approximately $267 million in federal funds from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act to further our energy agenda, including efficiency improvements for low-income households and renewable energy projects for businesses and homeowners.

Understanding that we all share a responsibility to protect our world, Governor Corzine has been working to make New Jersey a national leader in reducing emissions. Making us only the 3rd state to make greenhouse gas reduction goals law, he enacted the Global Warming Response Act, requiring a reduction in carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and to 80% below the 2006 level by 2050.

We’ve also taken a leadership role in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the first mandatory market-based “cap & trade” program in the U.S. to reduce carbon emissions, serving as a model for what we could achieve nationwide.

While working on all of these forward-looking measures, Governor Corzine hasn’t lost sight of our shared conservation goals. Since taking office, he has worked to acquire and protect sensitive open spaces, and he has upgraded nearly 700 miles of waterways and 1,300 acres of reservoirs to the State’s highest level of water-quality protection (C1). He’s also protected sensitive areas like the Highlands, which provide drinking water to most New Jerseyans.

To ensure that all of these initiatives move efficiently and that we can ensure that we’re growing in a responsible way, he modernized and streamlined the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). He created a new Office of Planning and Sustainable Communities to coordinate efficient and sustainable development with green planning policies.

He also created the Permit Efficiency Task Force to conduct a comprehensive analysis of DEP permitting. The DEP is currently implementing its numerous recommendations, including a new electronic permitting service. Under Governor Corzine, DEP has also placed a greater emphasis on stakeholder input in its policymaking, leading to greater predictability in permitting. These measures result in savings in time and money for businesses, and we’ve taken steps to make these reforms permanent.

Our current and new green policies are helping stimulate our economy in conjunction with our other efforts to reduce the impact of the recession. While there’s still work to do, the sound policies Governor Corzine has implemented have made New Jersey a national leader in green economic development. We have the resources, know-how, and drive to push New Jersey forward, and he is committed to keep ensuring that our Garden State keeps advancing economically while embracing policies that protect the world in which we all live. Thanks again for contacting the campaign, Mr. Allen, and we hope that this helps to address your concerns.

Team Corzine

My Message follows.
I am a life-long Democrat and have been planning to vote for Jon Corzine. I also planned to put his signs out in my township, where there are almost none now.

I received a message from NJEF this morning that greatly troubles me. It says that they are supporting Chris Christie and states the reaons.

Slowing climate change and protecting the environment are my first priorities, and I am very disturbed by what I read in the NJEF message. The Corzine campaign needs to respond to this message quickly and show that Jon Corzine also places high priority on these things. If not, he will risk losing my vote and those of many others.

Bill Allen (908-766-2876) 10-09-09

Fellowship Village will host a Democratic Candidates night on October 13th at 7:30 PM.

Come and meet the Democratic candidates running for Bernards Township Committee (Sonal Shah), for the Somerset County Board of Freeholders (Cecilia Birge and Doug Singleterry), our 16th District Candidates for the NJ State Assembly (Roberta Karpincz and Mark Petraske) and there will be representatives for the governorship (maybe (Loretta Weinberg).

Cone and meet them personally, get direct answers on issues and positions, and have an opportunity to make an informed vote on November 3rd.

The event will be held in Fellowship Hall which is reached by entering the facility through the main entrance on Fellowhship Road. It is open to the public, so invite your cohorts.

Dorothy Schleifer, October 6, 2009

Dessert Benefit for Sonal Shah, Candidate for Bernards Township Committee

Dear Friends:

Please join us on Thursday, October 15, 7-9 PM, for a Dessert Benefit for Sonal Shah, Candidate for Bernards Township Committee.
Minimum donation is $50. For more information, contact: Carole Ann and Tom King at mainelady402@ verizon.net or call 908-604-6505.

Your donation will be used to reach the entire township through newspaper advertisements and a letter mailing.

Sonal has the experience, education and passion to bring more open and accountable government to Bernards Township.

Please make your contribution to Shah for Bernards Township Committee and send it to 25 Raritan Place, Basking Ridge, NJ, 07920, or you can make your contribution at www.Shah4Bernards.org.

Thank you for your support for Sonal Shah’s campaign.

Yours,
Carole Ann & Tom King

Shaw for Township Committee

Dear Friends:
Please bring a friend to Bernards Township Democrats’ Rally for Sonal Shah, Candidate for Township Committee,
August 6, 6:30 to 9:30 pm
at the Cloud’s, 8 Revere Court.

RSVP: Carole Ann King
908-604-6505
mainelady402@verizon.net
Light Refreshments

The next regular meeting of the Bernards Democratic Committee will be held on Monday evening, August 3, at the township library in Basking Ridge.  The doors will open at 0630.  Coffee, tea, and other light refreshments will be available.  This is a good time to mingle and catch up with your fellow Democrats.

The formal meeting will begin about 0645 and run to about 1.5 hours.  We must be out of the library by 0900.

I do not have a formal agenda at this time.  Likely subjects will be the local campaign and the health care debate in Washington. 

Bill Allen, 07-30-09

Several of us attended the Township Committee meeting last night to present our views on the Highlands issue and its relation to the COAH requirements for affordable housing in Bernards.

The members of the TC seemed in a pretty affable mood. They presented a commendation to Tobin Heath, a member of the Olympic Gold Medal-winning US Women’s National Soccer Team (who circulated the medal and offered to let them try it on), and then joked that she had better check to make sure it was still in the box after they handed it back to her. They also approved a very progressive measure to reduce and eventually eliminate all chemical pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer use in the Township’s parks and recreation areas, presented by Pat Monaco, Director of Public Works.

This approach, called Integrated Pest Management, emphasizes using organic methods wherever possible and using chemical treatment only as a last resort. The program is expected to cost a little more for the first couple of years, but then lower expenses on an ongoing basis, and is ultimately the only healthy, sustainable approach. Indeed, the amount of lawn in New Jersey is a major problem: it costs a lot to maintain, puts large amounts of toxic materials into the environment, consumes an inordinate amount of fresh water, and increases runoff rather than helping to restore aquifers. The change in the town’s approach is largely the work of Joseph Speeney, a financial analyst and senior product manager with AT&T’s wireless unit in Morristown; he lives in the Hills, and is committed to fighting pesticide use in the community for health and environmental reasons.

Finally, at the opportunity for public comment, one after the other of our group stood up to raise the issue of the Highlands, and of the advantages of opting in at this time. Bill Allen presented the letter that he had prepared and we had endorsed, making the arguments presented at our meeting on December 12. In the end, however, it was really clear that the majority on the Committee were not listening. They heard us out, and then Mayor John Carpenter held forth rather pontifically on what he believed were the Committee’s views.

In brief, they remain unconvinced at to the merits of signing on to the Highlands Plan. They continue to believe that more development will be pushed into the “planning” areas at the edges of the Highlands, by displacing it from the “preservation” areas, and that Bernards will be forced to accept some of this development. According to Carpenter, they are caught between the mandates of two state agencies, the Highlands Council and COAH, and they don’t trust either of them to do what’s right for Bernards. However, they are committed to studying the options – and to suing COAH to prevent them from imposing more affordable housing requirements on the town.

There did not seem to be any interest in revisiting the decision they had made not to submit a letter of intent, but to provide a plan that contains what they believe to be a clever way of appearing to meet their COAH obligations without actually building any additional affordable housing, and letting the chips fall where they may.

Committee member John Malay, who had voted in the minority (along with Scott Spitzer) to submit the letter of intent, took a more positive view, and argued that the township would really do a serious and objective study with the $15,000 grant awarded to the town by the Highlands Council. We hope so. We’d also like to believe that the TC really wants to hear the views of residents, that it cares about both its environmental and its social obligations, and will seek to balance these in the best interests not just of the town but of the entire region, of which we are an inextricable part. We’ll see if this happens.

In the end, I’m also not sure we took the best position. We basically bought into the conservative argument that environmental protection means limiting future development, and that this is an excuse to evade our fair share of affordable housing. We remain divided on the affordable housing issue, when we ought to be looking at how we can help solve the affordability problem for people who want to live and work here. We also failed to convince them as to the merits of conforming to the Highlands Plan. What we accomplished was to show that we are paying attention, and can get our point of view heard and most likely reported in the media. But if it’s not a clearly progressive stance, is there really a point?

- Jonathan Cloud, December 24, 2008

Following letter was presented to the Township Committee at its meeting on Tuesday, December 23, 2008.

To: Mayor and Members of Township Committee
Subject: Highlands Plan and COAH Filing

This letter is submitted on behalf of some members of the Democratic Municipal Committee, who believe that Bernards should participate in the Highlands planning process and take the initial steps to “opt in” to the Highlands Regional Master Plan. We understand “opt in” to mean that Bernards will file a notice of intent and will then work with the Council to bring its master plan and ordinances into conformance with the Highlands plan. Our argument follows.

ONE: The Highlands Act of 2004, and the Regional Master Plan that it will produce, represent a victory of those, who believe we must preserve natural resources for the use of future generations, over those, who give first priority to development. The first article in the preamble of the model resolution sent to you by Highlands Council Exec. Dir. Eileen Swan states:

Whereas, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act … finds and declares that protection of the New Jersey Highlands is an issue of State level importance because of its vital link to the future of the State’s drinking water supplies and other key natural resources…

Bernards Township lies within the region covered by the act. As responsible citizens of the region and of the state, we should participate in the planning process and work to meet the objectives of the act.

 TWO: Bernards has an obligation to provide for its fair share of affordable housing. The Council on Affordable Housing [COAH] has determined the Bernards “third round” allocation, and Bernards must file a plan that provides for this quantity. Township professionals have developed a plan, the Planning Board discussed and endorsed it on December 16, and you plan to endorse it by Resolution 080530 that is on your agenda for December 23.

Affordable housing in New Jersey has a long and complex legal history. But it is fair to state that the quantity of housing that must be provided, and the manner in which this will be done, are still unsettled. Towns like Bernards must expect to be challenged by developers to provide more housing. The current recession may delay these challenges, but they will come.

If Bernards opts in and brings its master plan and ordinances into conformance with the Highlands plan, then there will be a strong legal presumption of their validity in legal challenges to our zoning. If Bernards does not opt in, then there will be no presumption of validity. Bernards will then be a tempting target, particularly if most of our neighbors in the planning region do opt in.

When he spoke to you on December 9, Frank Banisch chose his words carefully. But they do support what we say above.

THREE: We recommend that you file the notice of intent spelled out in the model resolution sent to you by the Highlands Council. John Malay said on December 9 that he could see no downside from doing this. We don’t see any either.

The final article in the preamble for the model resolution states:

Whereas, the [name of governing body] believes it is in the best interest of the [name of town] to conform to the Regional Master Plan.

Scott Spitzer suggested that it would be unethical for the Township Committee to endorse this statement if a majority of the members do not believe it. With the facts available now, you have no reason to not believe it. [Some additional pros and cons are in FOUR below.]

If you file the notice of intent and proceed with the work to conform to the Highlands plan, you may discover reasons for not conforming and then opt out. Language in the second resolve provides for this:

 … this Notice of Intent is not binding with respect to lands within the Planning Area.

This applies to Bernards, which is entirely in the Planning Area. If, during the conformance process, you find sufficient reasons for opting out of the process, you may do so. Bernards will then not be included in the Highlands Regional Master Plan.

FOUR: Peter Messina has suggested that the costs for revising our master plan and ordinances for conformance with the Highlands plan will be high. The Highlands Council has an active grants program that will help in some of this work. When known, the net cost to the township for conformance, is one of the factors that should be considered in the decision to complete the work and conform, or not to do this. You don’t know these costs yet.

He also suggested that the Highlands Council will meddle too much in local land use decisions after you conform to the plan. This is speculation. Why would the Council want to do this? If Bernards agrees to work within the regulations of the Highlands plan, and if it has competent staff and land use boards, then there is no justification for micromanagement by the Council. I doubt that it will have the resources to micromanage what happens in each town. You can learn more about their plans for this during the conformance process.

 The Highlands Act holds out the potential for the transfer of development rights from towns in the Preservation Area to towns in the Planning Area. However, it explicitly states that a decision by a town in the Planning Area to accept more development will be voluntary. If, during the conformance process, Bernards is pressured to accept more development then it wants, then it may opt out.

If there is insufficient acceptance of more development in the Planning Area, then there probably will be pressure from the development community to change the law in some way. No one can be sure now what will happen. But a law to require more development will probably be harder on towns that are outside the Highlands Regional Master Plan, than on those that are inside the plan.

FIVE: We recommend that you file the notice of intent to opt in with the Highlands Council, and that you not file the affordable housing plan with COAH at this time. Instead, send a notice to COAH that you have filed the letter of intent with the Highlands Council, and request the one-year extension of time to file with COAH that has been authorized.

Letter written by: Bill Allen, 44 Holmesbrook Rd

Endorsed by:
Jonathan Cloud, 8 Revere Dr
Victoria Zelin, 8 Revere Dr
Caroline Roi, 108 Old Farm Rd
Paul and Jayne Heckles, 15 Tamarisk Ct
Dorothy Schleifer, 112 Manchester Dr

A few of our members went over to the Township Committee meeting this evening at exactly the time scheduled for the public comment period, but were told the Committee was in closed session, and that they would not be allowed to speak because they did not come at the beginning of the meeting, 45 minutes earlier, and sit through patiently waiting their turn. They were going to the Committee simply to let them know that they were planning to come and speak to them next week about the Highlands issue. But before they could get this out, Mayor John Carpenter told them to “come back next week” if they wanted to speak.

Talk about the quality of communication! Instead of just having a civilized conversation, there is a sort of magisterial behavior that reminds one of the court in Alice in Wonderland. When one of our members asked why they could not speak at the time scheduled for public comment, she was told that the Committee could just change the rules whenever it wanted to. No wonder there’s so little room for them to listen to anyone else, to hear anything except each other’s exalted opinions.

Earlier in the evening, the Democratic meeting had heard an hour-long presentation from Elliott Ruga and Mark Zakutansky of the Highlands Coalition about the benefits of opting into the Regional Master Plan. Virtually everything that the Township Committee apparently believes about the Highlands option appears to be false. It’s true that the Highlands Council is trying to coax the towns within the Planning Area to opt into the Plan by deferring their COAH obligation for a year, and potentially relieving them of any obligation whatsoever. But the environmental urgency of protecting the Highlands from further depletion of its aquifers, which supply water to 5.4 million people, is equally real.

If the township is not going to indicate a non-binding “intent to opt-in,” then it must file its COAH plan by December 31. This presumes that it has a COAH plan. If so, we’d like to hear about it. We think the town was simply trying to avoid its fair share by filing a law suit, and has been trying to concoct improbable schemes to “meet” its obligations; when it reality it could use the Highlands Preservation Act as a shield against virtually all further development, and turn its attention instead to remediating the ecosystem on which everyone depends. “Suburbia,” as we know it today, is completely unsustainable. We need to reorganize ourselves and our communities around fundamentally different principles, and the Highlands Plan represents one element of this.

The Township Committee, however, seems driven by very short term and short-sighted thinking. It’s not clear that it has a real vision, or that it is at all interested in engaging its citizens in the processes of self-government. Instead, most of the decisions appear to be made behind the scenes, obscurely recorded, and enacted in a haphazard manner. But since there’s not much for our affluent and inattentive residents to care about, the Committee can do pretty much whatever it wants – it can make up its own rules – as long as it does not arouse public opinion. But if public opinion cares at all about both the environment and fairness – which it does – it is at some point going to take notice of the fact that its government is going in the wrong direction, and insist that it change course.

- Jonathan Cloud, December 17, 2008

Jonathan took my email and posted it on the events page.  I ran into Dorothy and she had attended last weeks Planning Board meeting.  It was her first.  Any more of you out there starting to attend these meetings?