TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—The final regular meeting of the year for the mayor and council started Dec. 18 with a special presentation: a bouquet given to Mayor Janet Sobkowicz on the occasion of her retirement from elected service.
Presenting the gift on behalf of the council was Council President Robert Bruno.
“Thank you for all your efforts. It’s been 30 years, I believe,” he started—
“Thirty-seven,” put in her honor.
—“Thirty-seven. It’s tremendous,” Bruno, an Independent councilman, continued.
“The township council thanks you for everything you’ve done. I’ve gotten to know you over the last few years and I know in your heart of hearts you’ve always done what you felt was right for the township,” he said.
Accepting the gift to applause (“They’re beautiful; I’m shocked,” she said) Sobkowicz, who noted she does not go in for showy displays, turned her gratitude to the community.
“I have to say I really enjoyed working here, all the people, all the groups, and I’m not going to go away but it’s been a lot of years and I just like it. I loved it,” she said.
“I’m glad I can do what I did for people and organizations and I think volunteerism here is great. Whenever you need somebody they’ll come out and help you, so we worked together very well. It’s a great place to live. Even with the leaves still in the street. Thank you very much for your kind words. I really appreciate it.”
Mayor built up a body of service over decades
Sobkowicz, a Republican, was a councilwoman for 28 years before being elected mayor in 2009. She was re-elected in 2013.
Leading up to that she served as council liaison to the Planning Board for 20 years and served on the Bergen County Planning Board for another six.
The only woman elected to the council and its mayorship, Sobkowicz recently told Pascack Press she was eager to run for reelection this year but party politics ran against her.
She said any woman who runs for council or mayor here would face a sharply uphill battle, and that this sense stayed with her as she worked to lead the town.
Sobkowicz is continuing with her work as a K-12 supervisor in the Waldwick School District.
A self-described fiscal conservative, and a township resident of nearly 50 years, she said she was pleased to bring forward her experience in budgeting, municipal finance, planning and zoning, and municipal services to face new and difficult challenges.
In election materials and in interviews, she said she worked hard to maintain the residential character of the town, advocated a municipal tax rate among the lowest in the Pascack Valley, supported recreation programs, and led in the building of a new municipal complex and senior center financed principally by grants.
She cited as points of pride planning a new field house at Clark Field with volunteer efforts, supporting emergency service groups, supporting clubs, organizations, and citizens in worthwhile endeavors, presiding over the success of the Fall Festival, and sounding out as a strong independent voice on the council.
She supported the reopening of Pascack Valley Hospital, resolving the cell tower issue leading to improved phone service as a profitable revenue source, and upgrading fields and parks through grant money.
Memorial Field work an ongoing challenge
In spring, Sobkowicz empaneled a citizens committee to report back with proposals to rehabilitate Memorial Field in the wake of the defeat of a 2016 ballot measure that would have borrowed $2.45 million to install lighting and artificial turf there.
Some say the field, which has vexed councils and coaches for decades with drainage, lighting, access, and overuse issues, is unsafe.
That committee is gathering information on natural grass that can withstand the demands of the site’s use but still struggles on the question of artificial turf, which some on the committee say should be off the table given the referendum’s failure at the polls.
Mayor-elect Peter Calamari said Dec. 18 he plans to attend one or two meetings of the field committee before deciding whether it should be disbanded, reworked, or left alone.
Police union complained over facilities and gear
Sobkowicz’s mayoral tenure was tarnished by complaints from some town workers who found her abrasive, including one who presented, on cable television, an inadvertent recording of Sobkowicz deriding the employee and seemingly threatening her pay.
As well, the mayor faced critiques of her spending and hiring priorities.
Perhaps most damaging was an April complaint from the local police union, Police Benevolent Association Local 206, over deteriorating conditions at police headquarters.
Officials also said equipment and facilities at the Department of Municipal Facilities and the Fire Department were deteriorating, and Bruno said he found township employee morale was low.
All this led Bruno to raise a vote of no confidence in Sobkowicz, which passed despite her denials of its merits and her calls that the council move on for the good of the town.
Work to remediate woes at police headquarters is ongoing.
At the time of the PBA complaint, Sobkowicz said the township had opted to invest funds on items that would help officers better perform their duties, including laptops and digital cameras installed in patrol cars and new computers and cameras at headquarters.
“The bigger items we got in the last few years,” Sobkowicz said in published reports. “We focused on those things because they’re necessary for them to do their job.”
A day after the PBA filed its complaint, Sobkowicz withdrew her petition to run for re-election.
At the time, the township’s Republican Committee chairman, August Calamari, denied that her decision stemmed from party machinations.
Looking ahead to how the town is governed
After she steps down, Sobkowicz can continue to be regarded as a transformative figure in local politics.
Toward the end of the Dec. 18 council meeting, Bruno repeated his call for a debate around the form of the township’s government, saying residents can expect to see a petition to that effect in early 2018.
Bruno, who launched an unsuccessful bid for mayor this year, campaigned in part on a call to reexamine the form of government to one that would swing broad discretionary power away from the mayor and locate it with the council.
That could result in the current five-member council having to re-apply for their jobs.
Mayor-elect Calamari has said such a radical parliamentary change is not necessary, and at the Dec. 4 meeting questioned Bruno’s timing in raising the issue.
On Dec. 18, Bruno countered that his timing was consistent with similar calls he made in January, February, March, and April, and at this year’s election debate held at Westwood Regional High School and organized by the League of Women Voters.
— Photo by John Snyder