Politics & Government

Council Members Look to 2012

Members of the East Brunswick Township Council say keeping spending and taxes at a minimum are their goals for the upcoming year.

Township Council members say that even though there are no big projects expected to be on the agenda for 2012, they plan on being just as busy working to keep spending and taxes down for the upcoming year.

For Councilwoman Nancy Pinkin, that could mean finding innovative ways to deliver services to residents at little cost.

 “There are things that we have to look at and say how ‘can we do things without necessarily spending money.’ We have to look at how to do things in a different way,” she said. “We can’t just do business as usual. Even though you have money and have restricted resources, you have to keep up with the needs, the ever growing needs, of the community.”

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Pinkin says the township needs to look harder for ways to share services not just with other municipalities, but with the library and Board of Education.

“I’ve always been for shared services,” she said. “We met with the library and talked to the school about it, and one thing we can do is in IT. Between the library and school, they have much better resources then we do as a township. We need to look at that,.

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Councilwoman Camille Ferraro  agrees, and expects Mayor David Stahl to present a 2012 budget that either maintains spending, or decreases it. She also said cutting debt also should be a priority.

“We want them to get out of this mentality that they always have to take out as much debt as they retire,” she said.

In addition, she wants the township to be more prudent when it comes to fudning new projects, and that $5 million approved in December for a new FCC mandated communication system should toward any new capital projects in 2012.

“They’ve completely destroyed their credibility when they say they can’t afford it. Somehow, it’s kind of difficult to not develop the mentality that they can’t come up with the money if they always do.”

Councilman Michael Hughes said he doesn’t expect any contentious issues for the upcoming year, but plans on getting a fast start on the 2012 spending plan by having regular workshops on those Mondays that the Township Council doesn’t meet. Doing so would allow more public input and make the process more transparent.

“We’re looking to have public input on the budget as early as we can,” he said. “We’re looking to come in very, very conservatively this year. We’re looking to not increase any township budget and to stay as flat as we can.”

Councilwoman Denise Contrino said she looks forward to working with Mayor Stahl in finding ways to decrease spending.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty quiet year,” she said. “My goal is to just continue working with Mayor Stahl. He’s done an excellent job in cutting expenses where it's prudent and I know he’s worked very hard over last three years to streamline township government. He’s made difficult decisions and I think we’re going to see the results of that work in this year’s budget.”

The council will have its first meeting of the year on Monday, Jan. 9, at 8 p.m. in the municipal courtroom.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here