Post by admin on Oct 18, 2011 14:50:06 GMT -5
freeholdvoice.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=republican&action=display&thread=3961
I am really starting to love being able to go back and pull up old stories form this site. The above goes back to 2008 when Mike D and George Schnurr were last running. That year they were running on the rental issues and this year we see it again. It is not an easy issue for our town and without question, I do believe that all of our democrat council people are sincere about dealing with the issue of rentals and more importantly, neighborhood preservation. But, that does not mean that everything is peachy and that they have been right on everything.
In the above link, I really took the rare chance to toot my own horn. One year before the establishment of the rental board, the borough republicans had run hard on the issue. One year before that (two years before the rental board was established), on the night of the rental recommendations, I got up at a council meeting and called for a permanent board.
This year I see in the democrat campaign literature that they are running on this issue again. They still do not deserve a pat on the back. A lot has happened since 2008, and some of it not good.
Before I go further, i also have to say that in the past I have flat out said that rental regulation and the rental board has to be even in order to ensure all voice are heard. I believe that then and now for the simple reason I want solutions and I do not see the value in getting the town sued again. ( I think we can tell where I am going here). We had seen this town go after the tenants, only to lose to outside advocates. I had also been reading stories of landlords in other towns banding together, fighting towns and winning. I did not see the value of going down that road again.
The rental board was established. I attended many meetings. During that time the borough landlords did unite with all intent and interest in avoiding a suit, though prepared to get into one if needed on their behalf. They had quite a number of grievances. The rental board did its job, listened, and made several recommendations to the mayor.
At that point, the mayor tossed out the recommendations (for lack of better term) that his own committee made. They mayor took the teeth right out of his own committee! This brought us to a law suit that we will lose. How many law suits is this administration willing to lose and continue costing tax payers money? As it stands, and with what little public info there is, the town has already lost ground in what I believe was called mediation.
The strange irony is, in talking with the landlords many holes were shown to be present in the code enforcement of the rental community. From record keeping to inefficient practices, we are not making the ground we need to. The best friend of this town has been the economy, which has taken a toll on the rental community.
During all of this, some democrats made an accusation at Councilman Newman, saying that he was in bed with the landlords. (who is the partisan?) That is plain nuts! John has simply sought solutions that avoided costly and unnecessary law suits (that the town will lose), solutions that give us the progress we need.
During the past many years, it has been quite strange watching the mayor and democrats in dealing with this issue. The temporary rental recommendation committee was the right thing and did well. Since then, it has been a fluctuation between tough talk and lax behavior.
Like I said earlier in this thread, I do believe they are sincere in combating the slum lords especially, but, the tough talk only gets us so far. Few of us home owners like the rental community. Whether we like the or not, they are here and have to be dealt with the right way. Neighborhoods that I went home shopping in were nice then, but not now because of slumlords. Neighborhood preservation is a very real issue. Not an easy one, but very real. We have certainly talked about it many times on this site.
So again, this year, I have to say, the democrats campaigning on this is quite weak. It is actually quite sad when viewing the history.
I will end this discussion with an accusation that I will back up in the future. When we look at the problems and challenges that this town faces (such as the over crowding, neighborhood preservation, 70 percent of the kids in the schools being economically disadvantaged, lack of economic progress and more,) many of these things can be tied directly into very bad decision that came from within this town. In other words, this town has often created its own mess. Think about it a little bit. More on that later.
I am really starting to love being able to go back and pull up old stories form this site. The above goes back to 2008 when Mike D and George Schnurr were last running. That year they were running on the rental issues and this year we see it again. It is not an easy issue for our town and without question, I do believe that all of our democrat council people are sincere about dealing with the issue of rentals and more importantly, neighborhood preservation. But, that does not mean that everything is peachy and that they have been right on everything.
In the above link, I really took the rare chance to toot my own horn. One year before the establishment of the rental board, the borough republicans had run hard on the issue. One year before that (two years before the rental board was established), on the night of the rental recommendations, I got up at a council meeting and called for a permanent board.
This year I see in the democrat campaign literature that they are running on this issue again. They still do not deserve a pat on the back. A lot has happened since 2008, and some of it not good.
Before I go further, i also have to say that in the past I have flat out said that rental regulation and the rental board has to be even in order to ensure all voice are heard. I believe that then and now for the simple reason I want solutions and I do not see the value in getting the town sued again. ( I think we can tell where I am going here). We had seen this town go after the tenants, only to lose to outside advocates. I had also been reading stories of landlords in other towns banding together, fighting towns and winning. I did not see the value of going down that road again.
The rental board was established. I attended many meetings. During that time the borough landlords did unite with all intent and interest in avoiding a suit, though prepared to get into one if needed on their behalf. They had quite a number of grievances. The rental board did its job, listened, and made several recommendations to the mayor.
At that point, the mayor tossed out the recommendations (for lack of better term) that his own committee made. They mayor took the teeth right out of his own committee! This brought us to a law suit that we will lose. How many law suits is this administration willing to lose and continue costing tax payers money? As it stands, and with what little public info there is, the town has already lost ground in what I believe was called mediation.
The strange irony is, in talking with the landlords many holes were shown to be present in the code enforcement of the rental community. From record keeping to inefficient practices, we are not making the ground we need to. The best friend of this town has been the economy, which has taken a toll on the rental community.
During all of this, some democrats made an accusation at Councilman Newman, saying that he was in bed with the landlords. (who is the partisan?) That is plain nuts! John has simply sought solutions that avoided costly and unnecessary law suits (that the town will lose), solutions that give us the progress we need.
During the past many years, it has been quite strange watching the mayor and democrats in dealing with this issue. The temporary rental recommendation committee was the right thing and did well. Since then, it has been a fluctuation between tough talk and lax behavior.
Like I said earlier in this thread, I do believe they are sincere in combating the slum lords especially, but, the tough talk only gets us so far. Few of us home owners like the rental community. Whether we like the or not, they are here and have to be dealt with the right way. Neighborhoods that I went home shopping in were nice then, but not now because of slumlords. Neighborhood preservation is a very real issue. Not an easy one, but very real. We have certainly talked about it many times on this site.
So again, this year, I have to say, the democrats campaigning on this is quite weak. It is actually quite sad when viewing the history.
I will end this discussion with an accusation that I will back up in the future. When we look at the problems and challenges that this town faces (such as the over crowding, neighborhood preservation, 70 percent of the kids in the schools being economically disadvantaged, lack of economic progress and more,) many of these things can be tied directly into very bad decision that came from within this town. In other words, this town has often created its own mess. Think about it a little bit. More on that later.