Ringwood Republican Cronyism Strikes Again
Four years ago, the Ringwood Republicans were voted out of office because people had enough of their running the town for the benefit of their friends and family while ignoring the rest of the residents. Developers ran rampant, clear-cutting acres of beautiful sections of town; projects were left unfinished, becoming expensive problems for the Borough; and hiring was done on a “who do we know” basis rather than looking for the best person for the job. Case in point, Ringwood had an Emergency Services head living in Texas while collecting a salary. Unfortunately, many people forgot that past at the last election and now they’re back. In their first 100 days they’ve already begun reminding residents of the bad judgment and secretive nature of past Republican administrations and are, once again, running Ringwood like their own “Mom and Pop” candy store. At the beginning of the year, Mayor Davison vowed that keeping property taxes down would be a priority for his administration but instead, he and his cronies on the council immediately began creating jobs, or increasing salaries, for friends of the “new” administration.

The first thing they did was hire the attorney for the Republican Club as Borough Attorney at a 35% increase over the former Borough Attorney, a top-notch lawyer whose firm was one of the top firms in New Jersey in government, land use and environmental law. They rescinded the Pay-to-Play ordinance, perhaps preparing for hirings to come? They gave pay increases of nearly 4% to the top two police commanders totaling more than $8,000 and lifted a hiring freeze that will allow for more higher-paid officers. Claiming to be saving money by not re-hiring the Borough Manager, a man with years of experience and education in public administration, they instead created a brand new position of Deputy Borough Administrator at a salary of $60,000, that’s right, $60,000. Having two people in the top spots doubles the amount of health benefit costs, and increases other benefits paid out as well. Is there a borough car in his future, too? The worst part is that they gave this custom-made job to former Republican Municipal Leader Scott Heck. Heck’s prior work experience was stated, in the official announcement, as “operating a locally based lawn-care service.” $60,000 for a person without any experience running any government agency, let alone the management of a town this size? There already is a Superintendent of Public Works making close to $100,000. Do we really another person to supervise public works or do we just need better management? If we need better management, maybe they should actually have hired a serious, experienced, manager instead of hiring a Deputy Manager without any. And they created this job without any public discussion, and filled it without any interview process. It’s a disgraceful use of taxpayer money and they should be ashamed of themselves.

How many other borough employees make $60,000 a year? How many other people did they interview? Is it possible there was no-one else in New Jersey with better qualifications to help manage Ringwood than a novice who ran (and apparently still runs) a small, local business? Mayor Davison stated that probably nobody “at this table” (referring to the sitting council) has more knowledge of this community than Scott Heck does. Is that how they hire for a high level management job…the most Ringwood-savvy person in a group of 9 Republicans gets the job? How many courses in budgeting, environmental and land use issues, community development, staff and municipal management, or grant writing has he taken? Apparently, to their way of thinking, just living in a community and “knowing” it is all the qualification one needs to be a Borough Manager, Deputy or otherwise. Using their logic, Councilwoman Schaefer, who has been a school secretary for years and “knows” Ringwood, could be a teacher, principal or even the Superintendent. At the end of the April 17 council meeting, all the council people gave their overwhelming endorsement of Mr. Heck, patting themselves on the back for being so “brave” to hire him. Deputy Mayor Anderson, Councilwoman Schaefer and Councilman Marsala, all veterans of the last council, said how much better everything is running now than it had the past few years. Well, for the last two years, after an alliance with Mayor Atlas, Anderson, Marsala and Schaefer were with the majority in charge. They can’t be the ones to drill a hole in the dam and then praise themselves for sticking an expensive finger in the hole to fix the problem.

Serious problems call for careful, deliberate thought and discussion. Creating a new, high level management position is a decision that should be made by the entire council, in a public forum. Ringwood is not Mayberry and they shouldn’t run it that way.