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Green Party of New Jersey
Updated
May 09, 2008
Letters to the Editor of the
Princeton Packet
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Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Cook, Gorman offer alternative to voters
To the editor:
This year, for the first time, an alternative exists in Princeton Township
for liberal and moderate voters. Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman share our
community's values and beliefs and, as Green Party candidates for
Princeton Township Committee, will not be beholden to Mayor Phyllis
Marchand and her local political organization.
Years of financial mismanagement, stalled projects, wasteful indulgences
and lack of creative leadership under Mayor Marchand and her
administration make it necessary to change the direction of our local
government.
Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman believe deeply in the need for fair and
affordable housing for seniors, a concern that has been all but abandoned
by the present Democratic administration. Seniors who have lived in
Princeton for decades, raised their children and paid their fair share of
taxes have been forced to leave our community when they can no longer
maintain their single-family homes.
Emily and Jeff have pledged to fight the single-minded attitude that has
forced so many of our valued citizens to leave Princeton. Emily and Jeff
will work to end the pointless public spending with which Mayor Marchand's
administration is obsessed. Against the interest and needs of the
community, the mayor and the Democratic party pushed through the
construction of a wasteful, extravagant and unnecessary municipal palace,
which, through gross mismanagement, sits empty, infected by fungus and is
completely non-habitable.
Mayor Marchand defends this record by noting that the township hired
"project managers" to oversee the construction and secure the
building against mold and fungus. Sadly, after nearly 18 years in office,
neither the mayor nor her Democratic colleagues on Township Committee
understand that it is the job of elected officials to oversee public
works, not to place this responsibility in the hands of hired consultants.
For nearly two years, the mayor and her colleagues championed a policy of
deer management that involved little more than organized slaughter of
animals herded into remote parts of the township. More than $100,000 was
spent on this venture, which divided the community, failed to reduce
significantly the size of the deer herd and diverted local government from
more pressing and
urgent business, such as overseeing the now-failed municipal complex or
rebuilding the township's battered roads.
Such disasters represent the failure of the mayor and her Democratic party
colleagues to attend to the people's business. Mayor Marchand has served
honorably and in good faith for many years, but she and her administration
have demonstrated that they are no longer able to protect this community,
see to its needs, plan for its future and give us imaginative and creative
leadership.
I endorse Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman for Princeton Township Committee.
They represent the new voice of Princeton, one that will be free of the
restrictions of a local political machine and which will pursue the vision
of social and financial soundness that we all want in our local
government.
Bruce I. Afran
Princeton Township
Friday, October 26, 2001
Bad cable service warrants change
To the editor:
Many citizens have noted that the current Mayor Phyllis Marchand has
focused on killing deer and building the Township Taj Mahal municipal
building to the exclusion of other important priorities in town.
A good example of this is the failure of Township Committee under Ms.
Marchand's leadership to do anything about the problem of subpar cable
service in town. The Township Committee has jurisdiction over RCN cable,
but has done nothing to solve the problem of lack of channel selection,
cost, lack of picture quality and total inability to respond to service
and other customer requests.
In short, RCN has taken Princeton for a ride. After promising to
completely rebuild the Princeton system by 2003, the company reneged on
this promise this year. Many citizens in town have complained about RCN's
abysmal service, including business leaders who can't run their business
with the antiquated system and poor service RCN provides. RCN's service is
so bad that the
company is now subject to a rare state of New Jersey rate inquiry which
was triggered by too many outages, too few channels and pictures that are
snowy. For the first time in a decade, the state ordered a company -- RCN
-- to spend money to upgrade and modernize its network.
All these problems have been known in Princeton for years and Ms.
Marchand's Township Committee simply dropped the ball. We need leaders who
will put the interests of homeowners and consumers ahead of the interests
of the cable companies. That is why I am supporting Emily Cook and Jeff
Gorman for Township Committee.
Arnold A. Lazarus
Princeton
Stop killing deer; vote for Green Party
To the editor:
In his most recent letter, Tom Poole of Princeton Township's Wildlife
Committee projects that motorists will save $100,000 on auto damage
repairs because the township spent $125,000 to kill some deer.
In and of itself, this doesn't make much sense. It makes even less sense
when you consider that Princeton taxpayers will foot the entire bill for
the killing, but many of the motorists who benefit will be just passing
through, late at night. Many of those who sustain damage could avoid it if
they had
the common sense to slow down and stay alert when passing through the deer
crossing areas.
According to the Township Committee, their deer-killing plan has to be
continued year in, year out, until some time in the far distant future
when a permanent solution, such as immunocontraception, can be developed.
In light of the recent successful test results of immunocontraception, it
is time to push for this solution now with as much enthusiasm as Mr. Poole
has pushed for the killing.
To do this, we need a change of leadership. On Nov. 6, vote for Emily Cook
and Jeff Gorman for Princeton Township Committee.
Janet Hastings
Princeton
Green Party vote good for township
To the editor:
Nov. 6 will be a significant election in Princeton Township. After years
of accumulated problem debris and ever-escalating taxes, we have the
opportunity to elect fresh leadership to Township Committee.
Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman are energized and genuinely committed to
confront the challenges that have piled up: pot-holed roads, deteriorating
school facilities, utterly inadequate senior housing, humane and
harmonious deer-people environment sharing, municipal garbage collection.
And looming over all, that fiscal and architectural monstrosity, the new
(unfinished after four years and millions of dollars) municipal building.
While our taxes continue to go up and up and ever-up.
We need an infusion of intelligent and conscientious
"out-of-the-box" thinking. Jeff and Emily offer just that.
Emily's background in social work and Jeff's as computer company owner
provide both stability and community orientation. Their energy and grasp
of the issues will enable them to truly
represent us in overcoming the problems we have inherited. Your vote for
these Green Party candidates on Nov. 6 will benefit you personally and the
whole of Princeton Township.
Margot Pack
Princeton Township
Fresh ideas needed on committee
To the editor:
Nov. 6 is a crucial day for Princeton Township voters. It is a day when
citizens can make important changes in the makeup of their local
government by electing representatives who will truly serve the people's
interests -- not party line interests.
For too many years, the party in power has been one particular party and
with age it has become immune to many of the cares and concerns of the
individual taxpayer. It has tended to become egotistical and in many ways
arrogant in its attitude toward public concerns.
This not to say that the party in power is totally immune from the
public's cares but that it has not involved the public in its
decision-making process to the extent it should have for many years. (One
example is the fiasco of the extravagant municipal building.)
It is about time to vote for fresh ideas not tired parties that have lost
their verve and are devoid of new and innovative ideas.
Two candidates, Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman of the Green Party, represent
new and creative thinkers who can help correct some of the decision
defaults that has been occurring in the Princeton Township Committee for
these many years.
Use your vote wisely. Don't continue to repeat past errors which is
inflating our local taxes and reducing services. Democrats, Republicans
and Independents, Nov. 6 is your chance to bring about a real and positive
change in your participation in the running of our local government. Vote
for Cook and Gorman for Princeton Township Committee.
Steve M. Slaby
Princeton
Reject tyranny, vote Green Party
To the editor:
Every American responds to the tragic events of Sept. 11 in his or her own
way. I, for one, am even more committed than ever to our democracy, our
diversity and our rights as Americans, including the right of free
expression against public policies that I oppose. In spite of the constant
intimidation,
insults and slander recently directed at me on these pages and elsewhere
by the incumbent mayor's surrogates, I urge Princeton Township voters to
reject the arrogant tyranny of one-party government and to vote for Emily
Cook and Jeff Gorman for Township Committee on Nov. 6. During my 11 years
as a Princeton Township resident, the incumbent administration has been
responsible for the following:
- The gross mismanagement of the new township municipal building,
which,
among other problems, has been invaded by irremediable mold and which
will
incur huge cost overruns in the millions of dollars. Aside from
Princeton
Township officials, who among us asked for this building in the first
place?
According to the incumbent regime, insurance companies are anxiously
waiting
to bail it out for its total incompetence. None of it will cost us a
dime.
Sure thing!
- A failed campaign against Princeton's wildlife that has reached
monomaniacal proportions beyond reason. While the new township
building was
literally rotting from mold, the incumbent mayor was wasting valuable
time,
energy and resources lobbying the New Jersey Legislature in order to
push for
her favorite means of killing deer. The result of the ill-conceived
White
Buffalo project is more deer than I have ever seen before, a
phenomenon
called compensatory rebound.
- Instead of lobbying the state for more deer killing, the mayor
should have
been demanding that the state stop the endless caravan of speeding
18-wheelers that continue to menace us each day and night on Route
206. Aside
from the serious threat to our safety, the noise is totally disruptive
to the
peace and tranquillity of our neighborhoods.
- Traffic chaos that has been completely ignored for all of the years
that I
have lived here, including the total mess that exists between the
Fleet Bank
and the municipal complex.
- A Princeton Township municipal tax rate that has increased by a
staggering
60 percent in the past 10 years and 30 percent in the past five years.
Have
the quality and quantity of our municipal services increased
accordingly
during that time? Municipal trash collection in return for such high
taxes is
rejected time and time again.
- Disgusting, shameful incidents of harassment and intimidation
against
law-abiding taxpayers by municipal employees under the control of the
incumbent mayor, including 1984-style helicopter surveillance and
raids on
homes that have been designated in typical Nixon style as politically
unfriendly to the incumbent administration, including my own.
For the sake of our precious democracy, the voters of Princeton
Township must
act on Nov. 6 to stop the prevailing tyranny within our own community. On
Nov. 6, vote for Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman for Princeton Township
Committee.
Frank Wiener
Princeton
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Time for a change on Township Committee
To the editor:
As a former elected member of Princeton Township Committee, I am in a
unique
position to evaluate the candidacy of Phyllis Marchand, with whom I served
for three years. The facts are very clear: it is not in the interest of
township citizens to return Ms. Marchand to office. To do so would put her
in
power for an unprecedented 18 years -- an amount of time worthy of a
Bourbon
dynasty. In her 15-year tenure, she has ignored the issues that citizens
of
this community care deeply about. In my opinion, based on personal
observation, Ms. Marchand simply does not do the work.
Rather than address the key issues facing this community -- lowering
taxes,
providing housing for the elderly, preserving open space, relieving
traffic
congestion and stopping truck traffic -- Ms. Marchand's priorities have
revolved around lengthy meeting on the minutiae of the Township Building
and
the deer program. While on Township Committee, I attempted to get the
mayor
to focus on these more pressing issues and she declined. All the deer
killed,
at taxpayer expense, has not improved the traffic accident situation one
iota. The Taj Mahal township building has taken over eight years to build,
is
over budget -- costing the taxpayers millions -- and is now shuttered due
to
mold, which poses both health and environmental problems. Now we learn
that
the total time to build the building will likely be 10 years. The Empire
State building took 13 months to build.
When I was first elected in 1994 the first call that I received the next
day
was from Phyllis Marchand demanding that I attend a meeting that week to
review architectural plans for the new building. I declined, citing the
fact
that I opposed the building and was not yet in office. In my personal
observation, Ms. Marchand has been involved in every detail of the
municipal
building for over eight years; the fact that it is way over budget and has
taken so much time to build suggests that she has not done her homework.
The
majority of registered voters in town are Democrats but many Democrats are
voting against Ms. Marchand this fall because she has abandoned the
bedrock
principles of the party. Those principles are pro-environment, pro-gun
control and pro-civil liberties.
Ms. Marchand rejects all these stalwart Democratic positions. She voted to
bring dangerous high-powered military weapons into the community, showing
her
disregard for gun control. She advocated helicopters flying overhead and
peering into people's private yards to determine if they are violating an
ordinance that she championed criminalizing the feeding of deer, even by
children. This ordinance is so blatantly unconstitutional and anti-civil
liberties that summonses issued against Princeton citizens were summarily
dismissed. Finally, her disregard for the environment is evident by her
willingness to yield to real estate developers rather than protect open
space. On Township Committee, I sat through numerous meetings where the
mayor
sided with the developers who, according to documents on file with the
state
Election Law Enforcement Commission, are the top funders of gubernatorial
candidate Jim McGreevey and other Democrats around the state.
If voters want to change the direction of Princeton Township for the
better,
they should vote for Emily Cook and Jeff Gorman for Princeton Township
Committee on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Cook and Gorman are two young, dynamic
leaders
who offer vision and commitment to this community.
Carl J. Mayer
Princeton
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