Mayor's Message

Mayor Pamela M. Brightbill
Organization Day Remarks
January 4, 2009

2009 begins with challenges not faced in many years. The current economic crisis has us facing difficult times that will require us to review the ways and means of doing just about everything we do. 

Fortunately, Middletown is positioned to lead the way in these challenging times. It is not by chance that we were again named one of Money Magazines top 100 places to live.

You may have heard me mention our “Middletown Team” in the past. I am encouraged and proud when I see the 3 parts of our TEAM - Residents, Elected Officials and Township Employees - working for the common goal of making Middletown the great place it is.  The more we all work together, the greater we will be. In trying times, this will be even more important and I ask all 3 integral parts of this team to remind themselves daily that we are all on the same side.

Our Administrator, Tony Mercantante, is leading a great group of township employees and encouraging them to think “outside the box”. They are finding ways to do things more efficiently and reviewing programs and services.

Our outstanding Police Department is second to none. Our 11 company Fire Department is still the worlds largest all volunteer department. Our 5 squads of EMS volunteers respond to a staggering amount of calls each year. These men and woman who risk their lives to save ours can never be thanked enough. They are a most important part of what makes Middletown the great place it is.

While many of you here today are our friends and families, a large number of you are here to be appointed or re-appointed to one of our many volunteer boards and commissions. We are fortunate that so many of you are willing to give your time and ideas to the boards you serve on. In many cases you are our eyes and ears in the community and many of the events you coordinate fill a real need for our residents. I have enjoyed working with many of you in the past and look forward to an even more productive 2009.

We have made great strides in communication and openness in government. Our ever evolving website is constantly expanding to make more information available to the public. The township’s public access TV channel has new information added almost daily.

While it is easy to talk about new ideas or programs to be implemented, with this difficult economic climate, it is important to make serious note of costs associated with every new idea. I look forward to cost/benefit discussions at upcoming budget meetings. It is important to me that the public has access to our introduced Ordinances and acted upon Resolutions without an added cost to the tax payer. While we are waiting for some of that technology from our PARIS grant, they are available as always at the Clerk’s office.

I believe we can make it easier for residents to contact Township Committee members. I have ideas of ways to update the Government link on our website so that we can be contacted individually or as a whole. I would like each of us to have a direct voicemail line through the township and hope my fellow Township Committee members will agree. I have checked that this can be done easily and quickly through our MIS Department.

We have also made great strides in our efforts to create Ethical Government practices here in Middletown. We have one of the toughest Pay to Play Ordinances around and have removed the option of health benefits for elected officials or appointed professionals.  I would like to propose we enact a Developer Disclosure Ordinance which would require developers with applications before our Planning or Zoning boards to disclose political contributions within a year of their filing. This would help us continue to be a leader in open/ethical government.

During these challenging times, dealing with mandates beyond our control make things even tougher.

While we are thankful we were able to postpone the County ordered Re-Valuation a year, we are dealing it with it now while the future of the market is still so uncertain. I continue to be committed to working with the Assessor and the Re-Valuation firm to be sure the outcome is as fair and equitable as possible with current market conditions.

We complied with the State’s mandate to submit an adopted “Fair Share Plan” for affordable housing to COAH by December 31, 2008. I will continue to fight this mandate that will not only cost the residents of Middletown and the state billions of tax dollars but change the character and landscape that makes Middletown the special place it is.

In an effort to plan and review for the future of Middletown, we have two Resolutions on today’s agenda creating new Advisory Committees.

One is the Recreation Master Plan Steering Committee. Along with township professionals and two Township Committee members, three residents are being named to begin the process of reviewing and planning the Recreation Master Plan completed last year. They will plan for the next decades of our Parks, Recreation, Cultural Arts and Open Space programs and facilities.

The other is the Strategic Planning Advisory Committee. Committeeman Byrnes and I will sit on that Committee along with township professionals and three residents to be appointed today. We will be working with the Administrator and CFO to create objectives for various departments and track the success in meeting those objectives.

While this committee will make this process a more formal one, Middletown has always planned for the future and examined situations to see what makes sense for Middletown.

One great example of this planning will be seen shortly when Ted Maloney, our current Assistant Director of DPW, will be named our township engineer. Mr. Maloney was hired 2 years ago for the public works position with the expectation that his engineering degree could then be used for small in house engineering projects. The hope, being realized here today, was that he could do increasingly more of that work. Mr. Maloney has been an enormous asset to Middletown and will now be the town’s first point of contact for engineering problems or concerns and will attend our Township Committee meetings. We believe we will see a savings in engineering in the first year.

In these tough economic times, I feel it is more important than ever to support our Middletown business community. I’d like to be sure that our business owners know that Middletown is committed to creating a thriving business community and a strong local economy. With that said, I would like to propose a “BUY MIDDLETOWN” campaign. I have spoken to several business owners and will be putting together a group to work on this initiative. It’s up to us all to keep our storefronts open and encourage everyone to “BUY MIDDLETOWN” before going elsewhere.

Continuing work on our 2009 budget will not be easy. As we evaluate and examine programs and services, we will be making decisions on what is essential and what we may have to do without. Upcoming budget meetings will give the public another outlet to let us know what is important to them. That, is very important to me.

While the economic climate cannot be ignored, I know we can get through these times by working together. We have so many great things going for us here in Middletown, I know we can keep the quality of life we all have come to love and expect.

In closing, I’d like to thank the residents of Middletown for electing me to serve as a Township Committee member for 3 more years, and my fellow committee members for electing me to be your Mayor for 2009. It is truly an honor.

God Bless Middletown, and God Bless America.