Taxes

Community Concerns

Haddonfield is a very expensive town to live in, due mostly to the relatively small amount of funding our top-ranked school district receives from the state.

But we pay a lot of money to the county as well—more than $20 million a year. Of every $3 we pay in property taxes, about $1 goes to the county. How much of that comes back to Haddonfield?

The pandemic has resulted in lost revenue to states, cities, and towns across the country, including Haddonfield. What effect has that it had on Borough operations and on vital programs and services?

Opportunities and Solutions

The Board of Commissioners’ most important job is to ensure that the Borough delivers the programs and services our residents and business owners want and need—at a cost the taxpayers can afford and are willing to pay. And to ensure that we get value for money.

We must look for more opportunities to share costs with the county and other municipalities. We must look for more opportunities to secure grants—and enlist the help of local business owners and residents who have expertise in that area. We must look for opportunities to conserve energy and generate energy. (Rather than allow a cell phone tower to be erected at the Public Works facility, perhaps we should explore the potential for a solar energy installation at that location.)

Haddonfield will receive $1.1 million from the federal government’s new stimulus program. Rather than spend it in predictable ways, we should earmark some of that money for innovative programs and services suggested by business owners and residents (our greatest resource), taking advantage of what we have experienced and learned during the pandemic to move our community forward in new and exciting ways.

Stormwater

Community Concerns

You’ve seen the floods and possibly experienced the water damage they’ve brought with them. Over the last two years, Haddonfield has seen unprecedented rainfall that our antiquated stormwater systems have not been able to handle. There is a plan in place to address this issue, but it is merely reactive—it needs to be proactive.

Opportunities and Solutions

I have already taken steps to learn about and understand the situation. I discussed it in detail recently, during a Zoom meeting with Remington and Vernick engineers.

We must identify the most important stormwater choke-points in town and determine what we can fix over the next ten years, to prevent residents’ homes from flooding. We must include areas like Concord, where we lost two homes, that are not on the current plan.

Downtown Businesses

Community Concerns

Simple observation makes it clear: our businesses are not getting the support they need from the Borough. I chat with business owners frequently. They are not happy. They feel that support for the downtown has been sub-par for a number of years. That’s why many of them have given up on the Borough’s uninspired approach to promotion, and banded together to create engaging events and activities on their own.

Right from the beginning of the pandemic, local business owners approached the town time and again with innovative ideas they believed would help them stay in business, serve their customers safely, and keep Haddonfield’s downtown vibrant. At a time when they most needed to hear the word “Yes,” they were consistently told “No,” or had unreasonable barriers placed in their way. Worse still: some business that made the changes required by COVID then found Borough employees on their doorsteps, demanding more.

Opportunities and Solutions

Towns such as Princeton, Cape May, Lambertville, and New Hope took open-minded and creative approaches to keeping their businesses open, operating, and safe. Several restaurants in Cape May reported their best year ever, because the town worked hand-in-hand with them.

As a commissioner, I want my default answer to be “Yes!” I’ll listen to business owners problems and concerns, welcome their ideas, and if there are hurdles, I’ll work with them to figure out ways to overcome them, rather than say, reflexively, “You can’t do that.”

As a board member for the Partnership for Haddonfield, I’m asking questions, offering suggestions, and working positively to make things better in Downtown Haddonfield. Much better.

Transparency

Community Concerns

Candidates for public office often promise to act transparently, then conveniently forget about it after the election. Transparency is at the core of my leadership approach.

When important documents are missing from the Borough website, the public may wonder whether the Commissioners have something to hide. Here’s one example: Although about 50 Commissioner Work Session agendas were published for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020, the minutes of half of those sessions are missing in action.  That is both shocking and unacceptable. What’s the reason for the delay?

Opportunities and Solutions

I hereby promise to act transparently as a commissioner, and to insist on transparency throughout our municipal government. I will hold my fellow commissioners’ feet to the fire, and will hold Borough employees accountable.

The Bancroft Property

Community Concerns

Bancroft has been an issue for Haddonfield for over a decade. It’s become a story of lost opportunity and neglected resources.

We need to achieve a happy medium. The town has spent money on, and residents have been paying taxes toward, holding the Bancroft Property for many years now. We need tax revenue coming in to pay toward that goal but we also need to use the land as appropriately as we can.

Opportunities and Solutions

I think the best solution to solve the issue of the Bancroft Property would be to combine four things:

1. Transfer all of the land and property that the Board of Education needs to them in a land swap as quickly as possible.
2. Preserve some open space down by the river that residents could have use of in perpetuity.
3. Provide some appropriately priced age-restricted housing. This would give our senior citizens, many of whom have lived in Haddonfield for much of their lives, the ability to retire and remain actively involved in the community they love so dearly.
4. Require the development to be future-looking with respect to exterior appearance, design for livability, and energy efficiency (stormwater and solar, for example).