Township business is all hush-hush now, no one to tell you what's happening.  I'll bet our citizens didn't know that:

• Less than six months after negotiating a contract with the police unions the township is trying to get givebacks from the unions.  The town appears to be arguing that it can't afford it.  Amazing!  Bad management?  Looks like it to me.
   
• At the end of the year in 2008, faced with a $9 million increase in garbage collection over the next three years, the council approved it because it ran out of time and wouldn't change to a lower cost plan.
   
• By mid-year 2009, a half dozen employees were laid off, [township] could not afford them.  My point is that it was not seen during the budget process.  In May and June 2008, I asked the chief finance officer at a public meeting whether spending down the reserve to such a low level as was done was safe.  He assured me that it was and that the reserve would be built up during the year.

The economic down turn, which was visible all round us in the town and in the state hit home.  Construction fees disappeared as builders halted or delayed construction plans.  This was predictable.  Except that town officials didn't see it.  That's where the unaffordability of the new garbage contract, the need for layoffs and the claimed inability to pay labor contracts came from.

Two other fiascos are worth mentioning:

The senior buses are not running.  No money to do the normal maintenance to keep them going?  Looks like it to me.

While we're at it where are the so-called smart buses that were touted and hyped for the last three years?  They are still not here.  This even while we have been paying for the coordinator for the past 10 months.  With nothing to coordinate, what's she doing?

Pretty serious stuff and not a word of it from any Democrat, including the one running for council.  Not surprising, since he typically says little if anything during the course of a council meeting.