To the editor:
The annual exercise in democracy, where we choose leaders to manage our communities, is fast approaching. Hopeful leaders will offer standard rhetoric in line with residents’ perspective views: hold the line on taxes, improve infrastructure, or maybe be more friendly to seniors and families.
Westwood’s mayor is seeking an opportunity to rise in the political food chain, enabling the community to find a new leader. The question is whether that “leader” will be another noun—or a verb?
Election rhetoric is rarely specific. Mostly feel good proposals, usually attached to glad handing personable individuals. Unfortunately leadership pitches without basic skillsets usually gets you seat-warming leaders. Individuals who’ll eventually answer problems by offering fallback rhetoric, we’re laypeople and rely on our professionals.
Management leadership by its proposition suggests creativity and change. It seeks to improve value. Municipal operations require active review to be effective, otherwise an organization drifts inefficiently. That’s been the story of Westwood these past 12 years, by almost any measure.
When absentee leadership is encountered, the negative impact can be easily overlooked, often hidden with incidental distractions.
In Westwood’s case it shows in the growth of its base per capita tax cost, exceeding that of surrounding communities. (Emerson $1,252, Hillsdale $952, River Vale $1,169, Washington Township $1,042, and Westwood $1,379. This excludes school and county taxes.) Its growth was slowed only by the council, once the mayor settled into simply playing mayor.
Westwood’s budget grew, exceeding the consumer price index of the tri-state area by 11%. Its budget has exceeded the cumulative 2% state cap by 10%, and inflation by 8%. Its debt service budget line has grown by $1 million. Its sanitary and storm water sewer infrastructure has been ignored. And the list of oversights is barely scratched.
Over the next eight weeks, as voters listen to candidates seeking their votes, maybe ask them what they hope to accomplish. Then ask how. If they say “by asking questions,” recognize sitting in a seat asking questions when you don’t bring appropriate experiences to affirm an answer is like hiring a gymnast to engage a lab technician to fix your sewer line. Elections do have consequences.
Thomas Wanner
Westwood
The writer is a former Republican Westwood mayor