Double-dippers in Mercer County

Politicker NJ has a great story on pension abuse in Mercer County. Seems that Sheriff Kevin Larkin is receiving an $85,000 per year pension- for a job he's still doing, and getting paid $129K a year to do.

That's insane. That's unconscionable. Especially when Mercer County may have to layoff up to 125 people this year*.

And, apparently, the Hamilton Township administrator has been pulling a similar stunt- receiving a public pension and a salary for a public job.

Even if it is legal- and it sure sounds like it is- the wise move is to forgo the pension while you're still drawing from the public funds. Better still, make it illegal to do so.

*Including, possibly, yours truly or her coworkers. Full disclosure: I'm a county employee.

Stop stealing the signs

Open letter to to the Mercer County Sheriff's Election sign thief/thieves:

Everyone has the right of free speech, even if they disagree with you. Stop it. It's petty and pathetic to steal campaign signs.

I know what I'm gonna do next weekend!

Belmar- Revelers in this Jersey shore party town can now legally drink from unregistered beer kegs and give people the finger.

Woo-hoo! Time to get liquored up and be rude!

"I'm not sure anyone even knew that making obscene gestures was illegal," Mayor Ken Pringle said. "Right after we send out our tax bills, I tend to see a few."

Same as every other Central Jersey town, I see.

Here's the real story:

One rule that's no longer on the books related to raising one's middle finger, or the many variants thereof. However objectionable it might be to some people, such a gesture is Constitutionally protected free speech, said Pringle, who is an attorney.
He said the borough was contacted by civil libertarians who questioned the legality of several municipal ordinances.
The ban on "obscene gestures," which never spelled out exactly what was and was not covered, was overly subjective, Pringle agreed. No one can recall anyone being prosecuted for violating it. Another law prohibiting people from loitering in alleyways also was axed.
And a beer keg tagging law, which Belmar enacted last year with great fanfare, withered and died after the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control said a handful of similar local laws enacted around the state requiring beer kegs to have the name, address and phone number of the person renting them was unconstitutional.

Let's just hope the bennies keep some modicum of self-restraint...

East Windsor gets the decision

Late last week, the the state Supreme Court ruled on the Twin Rivers case , upholding the homeowner association's rights to limit political signs and other types of ordinarily protected "free" speech:

In a ruling that could have implications far beyond New Jersey, the State Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of homeowners’ associations to restrict the posting of political signs and other forms of constitutionally protected speech, as long as the restrictions are not “unreasonable or oppressive.”
“We conclude that in balancing plaintiffs’ expressional rights against the association’s private property rights, the association’s policies do not violate the free-speech and right-of-assembly clauses of the New Jersey Constitution,” the court ruled unanimously.
...
Like many big developments around the country, Twin Rivers is run by a homeowners’ board, and some residents there objected to the restrictions on the political signs as well as restrictions on the use of community rooms for meetings and the publication of dissenting views in the homeowners’ association newspaper.
A state judge supported the association’s contention, ruling that people who moved to the development were aware of the rules and had to abide by them. But last year a state appeals court reversed that ruling, finding that residents of Twin Rivers were entitled by the State Constitution to express themselves as they wished.
The Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated the trial court’s decision.
The ruling could affect about 1.3 million New Jersey residents — nearly 40 percent of all private homeowners — and more than 50 million people around the country whose homes are part of an association.

Blue Jersey has got Ed Barocas, ACLU-NJ Legal Director, commenting on the case.

Hamilton looking into solar

Hamilton mayor Glenn Gilmore is considering solar for township buildings:

Gilmore's plan involves soliciting solar power firms to install the solar panels, then sell the generated power to the township for a specified length of time, generally from 10 to 25 years.
"Solar panels could help us significantly reduce our electric costs, while also helping us to be more environmentally responsible," Gilmore said. "We're looking at not only cutting our energy costs, but also at cutting harmful emissions we as a municipality generate."
Gilmore estimated the township could save as much as 10 percent off the township's nearly $1 million per year energy bill by finding a solar provider willing to enter into the "purchase power agreement."

Good luck finding a solar provider willing to do that!

Moving to Robbinsville

A petition with nearly 1500 signatures has been filed to change the name of Washington Township (Mercer County) to Robbinsville Township. The measure will be on the November ballot and if passes, will be a legally binding name change.

(Lewis, who got the petition) Koushel said the identity problem in Washington Township causes confusion in everything from school closings and athletic competitions to attracting new businesses to the community.
Koushel pointed to the fact that in 2003 the school board opted to name the new $50 million high school Robbinsville High School, rather than using the traditional and less-recognizable Washington Township. The decision followed an overwhelming community response supporting the "Robbinsville High School" name.
"We don't owe any allegiance to (the name) Washington Township," said Koushel. "I mean Washington never slept here."
On top of the name identity problem, there is added confusion because most of the township lives in the 08691 ZIP code, which is listed as Trenton.

Changing the name of this town, officially, to Robbinsville township is long overdue. I don't think that automatically fixes the zip code problem, though; West Windsor has been struggling with that one for a long time, too.

The Hightstown story that won't go away

The mayor of Hightstown was continuing his media rounds, on Bill O'Reilly (needless to say, I didn't see him) and a cover story on yesterday's Times of Trenton, to talk about the town's immigration policy. Tomorrow, there will be a press conference in this little Mercer County town with the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey and Hispanic Directors Association of New Jersey where they support mayor Bob Patten.

Patten continues to insist that the response has been mostly positive. I hope he's right.

Immigration debate heats up Central Jersey

A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post ran an article on how some cities are adopting a don't-ask policy on immigration status. Residents can access city services, including calling the police, without fear of immigration status questions or problems. The small central Jersey borough of Hightstown was a frame for this story:

In the aftermath of a series of raids in 2004, the town council in this historic borough of 5,300 -- transformed in recent years by an influx of at least 1,300 Latin Americans -- unanimously approved a sort of immigrant bill of rights.
Joining a growing list of cities enacting a no-questions-asked policy on immigration status, Hightstown now allows its undocumented residents to officially interact with local police and access city services without fear of being reported to federal authorities.
It has opened new lines of communication here, officials say. One illegal immigrant at the complex where the raids were staged called on the police recently to help place a family member in alcohol rehabilitation; others have reported domestic abuse, extortion, theft and other crimes. Some are calling the town's pro-immigrant mayor for advice on City Hall weddings and landlord troubles. Hightstown has
added services aimed at immigrants, including free bilingual computer classes last month. Noting the shift, one Spanish-language newspaper recently dubbed Hightstown the "Paradise Town" of New Jersey.

The backlash was swift.

From the Windsor-Hights Herald, the local paper to Hightstown:

That includes, among dozens of e-mails, one with the headshots of Mayor Bob Patten and the members of the Borough Council, calling them "deranged and dangerous" and asking readers to report their activity to federal immigration officials.
...
"One wonders ... how your elected officials can uphold their oath when they disregard enforcement of immigration laws," reads one e-mail from a writer who said he learned of the story from MSNBC," read one e-mail. (sic) "It seems that you have taken the less responsible path and in so doing have created a safe house for everyone who sneaks into this country for whatever reason, including terrorism."

Intermixed with the notes calling Hightstown a city of criminals which should declare itself an independent country free of US law, however, came emails and calls in support of Hightstown's policies, including from people wishing they had similar policies in their states.

The resolution didn't really change much about how borough police business was handled:

The Borough Council in March 2005 unanimously approved a resolution committing the borough to restoring trust and confidence Latinos have in borough police while taking ICE officials to task for allegedly identifying themselves as police officers during a raid. It specifically states that immigrants should have the "confidence to contact and interact with local police without fear of immigration consequences."
"When we passed that resolution, it did a fabulous job in letting the members of our community know that they would be treated fairly and justly and equally," the mayor said this week. "It created confidence that they can interact with police and interact with our government they can report crime."
Police Chief James Eufemia said this week that the resolution served to educate members of the Hispanic community that their citizenship was never an issue when they needed police. But he acknowledged, "That was their biggest fear."
"As a matter of course, we didn't do that prior to the resolution or after the resolution," he said. Citizenship issues can become part of the process if someone arrested can't produce identification, he explained.

Without such a policy, the illegal population were often successfully targeted as victims by criminals. Crimes went unreported and predators remained free of prosecution. If people know the authorities will help them and not treat them as criminals, they're more likely to report thefts and violent crimes. The police can do their jobs and pursue the truly dangerous.

The face of the town has changed somewhat in the last ten years: there are more Hispanic-themed businesses & restaurants, more places where Spanish is spoken, more classes at the library and local churches for English as a Second Language. None of this is a negative to me; I'm happy and proud to be in a community which cares for its own, no matter where they came from. I'm not alone in that, but it's pretty clear that there are two sides to this story, even in a heavily-Democratic little Central Jersey town.

(cross-posted at Blue Jersey)

Restricted Freedoms in Central NJ?

Twin Rivers, a community in East Windsor governed by homeowners' association, had their day in Our Fair State's Supreme Court today. The association is being sued by a group of residents who feel their rights are being violated by the restrictive rules on free speech issues such as where political signs can be placed, and such trivialities as whether a particular screen door may be used. From Sunday's Star Ledger:

The legal dispute began in 2000 when a group of homeowners sued in state court, claiming they were being deprived of free speech and assembly. They said the association's rules allowed political signs only in obscure and isolated locations not easy to see; people who were not part of the association's board or committees were not given the same access to the community room and had to pay; and access to the community newsletter was not equal.
Initially, a trial court judge rejected their claims and agreed with the Twin Rivers Homeowners Association. The Mercer County judge ruled the dissident residents had agreed to the conditions when they purchased their properties.
However, in February 2006, a unanimous appeals court overturned the decision, ruling the state Constitution should apply. That decision -- the first of its kind in the country -- set the stage for the current showdown.

It's been a hot topic here in the Center of NJ for quite a while. This is a big issue not just for the residents of Twin Rivers, but for the estimated 1.2 million people in Our Fair State who live in homeowners' associations. This case is being watched closely as precedent.

So, one has to wonder, weren't the folks notified before they bought in that there were rules?

For some residents, moving into a community is all they can afford, and others don't know about the rules, the lawyers argued.
Indeed, (Margaret)Bar-Akiva said she had no idea about the rules when she and her husband bought a townhouse in 1984. "This house was available, we bought it. We didn't even know there was a board," said Bar-Akiva.

There's a lesson there about reading the fine print, I'm sure. But one way or another, it sounds like freedoms, particularly speech, are being restricted by the association- the question is, is it legal? Do the contractual homeowners' association rules trump constitutional rights? Owners of homes all over the country will watch to see what the our Supreme Court says on this one.

(cross-posted at Blue Jersey)