Dear Editor:
I went to the budget meeting two weeks ago and was shocked by the lack of maturity of our past and current elected officials. The meeting was basically a mud slinging fest wrapped around a budget meeting. However, since they closed the meeting without me being able to ask my questions, I ask them here.
1. Over 70 percent of the budget goes to salaries and benefits of city employees. How does this compare to other towns in Jersey? It seems like a huge percentage in a town where there is very little in the way of crime or fires and in a town where the schools are substandard and the number one complaint “parking” is still the number one complaint.
2. How do you justify hiring more police when crime is not going up? From what I can see, most of our police are angry traffic cops. From dealing with the police, I can tell you unless you are a friend of theirs or go to the same gym they treat like you like dirt. They are rude, unsympathetic and seem to know nothing of the saying “protect and serve.”
3. There were at least 12 items concerning the budget that had no answers. Yet I read that it was going to pass anyway; how is that possible?
4. Why is there resistance to laying off city officials; we are in a huge recession? Get with the program, and stop protecting expendable jobs.
Jerry Reits