All politics is local! That’s why we (Wes and Kate) are talking politics in a way that’s too little discussed--a deep dive into the politics of our hometown. Collingswood is a place of natural beauty, compelling history and an engaged, insightful citizenry. Why pay attention to local politics, to the decisions being made about governance in a small place (Collingswood is a town of 14,000 and about 11,000 voters)? Because the local is the global writ large. If you care about education, about ethics in government, about social justice, about economic justice, about gender equality, about environmentalism, look no further! All these issues can be seen close at hand when you follow municipal level decision making.
In this show, we will be talking first about our town’s form of government which is the commission form of government. Collingswood is one of just 30 towns (out of Jersey’s 565) to be incorporated under the Walsh Act as a commission form of government. These Walsh Act municipal governments are made up of a board of three or five commissioners. Towns with a population under 12,000 are designed to have 3 commissioners whereas towns with a population over 12,000 should have a five commissioner board.That Collingswood has not increased its Board of Commissioners to fit it’s population is problematic for real representation and government efficacy. Ossified consolidated power is good for machine politics and bad for participatory democracy!
Collingswood’s Board of Commissioners is one of just a handful in the whole state that serve concurrent four year terms (instead of running on their own in staggered elections). The current Board of Commissioners are up for re-election in May 2021. The current Mayor has been on the Board of Commissioners for 28 years. In 77 years, Collingswood has only had five mayors--all white men. Kate is running for Board of Commission in this election with two running mates, Jen Rossi and Bill Johnson. Jen and Kate together head the Collingswood Educational Advocacy Group. Bill and Kate both serve on the Collingswood Democratic Committee. All three also volunteer in numerous civic groups in town. Support them here.
We will also briefly discuss county government, a truly under scrutinized entity. The Camden County Board of Freeholders is composed of seven members who manage an annual budget of about $400,000,000 (that works out to about $57,000,000 each!). The Freeholders, or County Commissioners, oversee roads, parks, jails, libraries, vocational schools and county police. Their meetings involve making personnel decisions, including the appointment of individuals to decision making boards and committees, and the awarding of many large contracts to professionals such as engineers, architects and solicitors. Because Camden County is controlled by a political machine, those contracts all flow in a predictable direction.
We will be recapping some of the highlights of the last Board of Commissioners meeting. The new police and fire building continues to have overruns which have tacked extra millions onto the project. Sixty five thousand dollars for furniture just this month? Clearly we are not shopping at Ikea! The board of commissioners also dissolved the zoning board at this meeting. Wes says good; one less hoop for people to jump through if they want a pool or a patio. Kate says not great; the Collingswood Mayor wants to streamline redevelopment projects and there should be checks and balances. Fast tracking development is great personally for the mayor who enacts local projects which he then shops around SJ as redevelopment consultant (case in point: Cape May was scheduled to get the same public safety building but their newly elected mayor is putting the kibosh on that pricey plan). Developers and redevelopment consultants do not need help circumventing local zoning and planning boards. There should be public conversations about planned public investments that really weigh a community wide ROI.
Other items we discuss this podcast episode: the retirement of our district Superintendent and the impending replacement of district leadership by our Board of Ed; the recent adoption of Community Energy Aggregation which the Collingswood Democratic Committee lobbied hard for, to make renewable electricity attainable for all town residents; two concerning environmental issues--the County’s plan to connect a microgrid to the Camden City trash incinerator and a planned liquified natural gas terminal that would haul highly volatile fracked gas through our region.
Lots of local stuff to discuss! Give us a listen and don’t forget to join us for episode two!
