Way to go
Township Council watchers the world over (hello, Efrat!) will surely applaud the latest developments on the Township website. Many in the community, including at least one of the candidates who stood for election to the Council last year, have complained about the fact that Teaneck's approach to disseminating information through newer media has been inadequate at best. Now that detailed meeting minutes of recent vintage and archived broadcasts of Council meetings are available through the teanecknjgov.org website, municipal officials have finally made some progress toward addressing that problem. Bravo to whomever we have to thank for that!
At the risk of sounding self-congratulatory, I must say I am quite pleased at how this blog and others have been at the forefront of recent efforts to increase the availability of information and commentary and engage citizens in discussions of local affairs (now if we could only raise the level of civility, too!). It is nice to see more official outlets joining in the effort to increase awareness and educate residents about the latest goings on in town. Together we can reduce, if not eliminate, the ignorance that allows special interests to manipulate voters by playing to their fears and prejudices every time another election season rolls around.
posted by Teaneck Blog @ 7:09 PM
19 Comments:
It's a major step forward, but there's still a long way to go to provide the appropriate breadth of content and information for residents on the township's website.
While minutes are available and recordings of meetings are being posted online, the amount of material not available on the website is significant, much of which can only be obtained in person during business hours at the Municipal Building, sometimes at additional charge at the rate of 75 cents per page.
While the agendas for public Council Meetings list as many as dozens of resolutions, the text of these resolutions is only available in person at Council Meetings or on the Municipal Building bulletin board. Only those residents who attend Council meetings or visit the Municipal Building have access to the source needed to make an informed judgment on the decisions enacted by our Township. That same bulletin board is the sole public repository of the bill list, and its posting on the board is deemed to be the only requirement needed to satisfy legal notice requirements.
While some forms have been added to the website, you still can't get Recreation Department registration materials and program flyers, Police Department applications for the Citizens Police Academy and Zoning maps, among many other materials not available on the website.
Will it take effort to add these items to the website? Of course. But these changes will only make our municipal government more responsive to the needs of its citizens. Allowing residents to access more information online will also reduce the demands on Township staff to answer common questions and repetitive requests, and allow them to focus on other, more critical issues.
It will also allow residents to more effectively monitor the performance of our government. For example, there's simply no reason that the bill lists going back for 3-5 years should not be available for review and download by interested residents seeking to monitor our municipal spending.
This change must come through a decision of the Council that a more thorough website leads to better informed residents. The costs of these added tasks will be easily covered by the savings in time and effort expended by township employees on the most mundane tasks.
Teaneck has made a major step on a journey of a thousand miles.
Alan Sohn
Alan, do you think a new manager and clerk might think that we are behind thetime not already having that info availableon line already........
We need to get the workshop meetings broadcast on TV along with the (already) broadcast regular meetings. We also need the Board of Ed meetings broadcast.
Comparatively speaking, I think you'll find Teaneck's web site to be ahead of the curve as a municipal online information resource. Alan just isn't grading on the curve.
hey all you rudolph bashers out there.. where is the comments about him getting teaneck $200,000 for a real handicap playground, probably because of his bc connections??
Anonymous, 5:35AM -- the Board of Education public meetings have been broadcast for at least the last 6-7 years on Channel 77. Watch tonight!
Thank You rudy and anyone else that helped with this playground.
Did he deliver the $200K in a brown paper bag?
I don't care what the color of the bag was: Teaneck is the richer for it, and rudy deserves our thanks.
In one orifice and out the other: How much are we spending on Birdsall's worthless pay-to-play services?
If we have to sell our Teaneck souls to eat the crumbs from Joe Ferriero's table, it ain't worth it.
I was no fan of birdsall, but they have done a good job at the planning board.
Did he deliver the $200K in a brown paper bag?
Loretta has the copyright on that.
I'd like to know how much we are paying the fire department. Is it true these guys/gals can make over $100,000 a year?!?!? Plus OT and equipment? What hours do they work?
Are their individual salaries available to the public?
This is Teaneck where gym teachers make over 100K for 9 months work plus virtually free medical. In that context, don't pick on our public safety officers.
According to today Bergen Record about Teaneck taxpayers facing a potential 7.6% raise in municipal taxes:
"- Pension contributions hit the budget hardest. The budget allocates $2.8 million for police and firefighter pensions, up $1 million, or 59 percent, from last year, and $290,226 for public employee pensions, up $127,000, or 78 percent.
- 5.3 million for employee health insurance through the state health-care plan, up $433,000, or 9 percent, from 2006."
While many of us in the private sector are forced to ante up more out of pocket each year for medical insurance (as employers siphon more and more of the cost of to their employees), are Teaneck employees doing the same?
Dr. S(zn)euss:
You chose to be a part of the private service world. Don't hate the unions because they are getting a better deal than you are. Unions make up less than 8% of the workforce (down from 40%). Collective bargaining works because that is what it is designed to do. You shouldn't be asking unions to give up benefits, you should be asking why YOU are not getting ENOUGH. And if you aren't, form a union! Don't hate, participate!
Loved the efrat mention!
Dr. S(zn)euss well said, all small businesses have shared the burden of these costs, they do so be able to remain profitable and to continue to offer a product at fair market price. Failure to cut these costs will slowly strangle the company.. unfortunately, governments do not benefit from being "profitable" and can simply levy for the additional money. Teaneck needs to buck these trends, bring in new commerce, shore up these fattened benefits, and try to reduce the residential burden. ..Wonder how much we spend on postage for our tax bills and community events.. we should be able to opt for an email bill.. and save the change..good for teaneck good for trees..
The total line item for postage in 2006 was $79,500. Eliminating all mailings would cut spending by $2 per resident and save a tree or two, in addition to production and printing expenses.
I'm sure some of this could be cut by emailing Teaneck Topics, but there may be legal requirements to send tax bills and the like via the U.S. Postal Service.
Alan Sohn
Morpheus:
A well run union could be good for America. A greedy one is not.
Let's be truthful. While many unions may do good for the people whose dues they collect, they are also the reason that many companies have decided to move plants and jobs oversees. There are factory towns all over the country that are dead because the main employers in town got fed up with rising costs.
Take a drive from Western PA through to Indiana and see how many of those towns are dead because of shortsitedness of both the employers and the unions. And in the end the people who are hurt are the general members of the union.
Obviously we cannot outsource our government workers, but they too have to realize something:
Not unlike a company, if the a company/taxpayers are bleeding red ink, you need a tourniquet to to stop the bleeding. Otherwise the limb will eventually need to be cut off in order to save the rest of the body/company/town.
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