As an unopposed candidate for mayor, Michael Gonnelli knew his victory was assured on Tuesday.
For months, he argued to voters that he would be able to overhaul municipal government only if his political allies controlled the Town Council. For that to happen, Gonnelli told voters, he needed at least two candidates on his Independent slate to win election.
Voters responded by giving Gonnelli’s ticket a full victory in all three wards.
Gonnelli will have to shed the role of outside critic and transition into the role of mayor.
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With Gonnelli as mayor and Gary Jeffas already serving as 1st Ward Town Councilman (he was not up for reelection this year), the Independents will have a 6-to-1 majority over the lone Democrat on the governing body, 3rd Ward Councilman John Shinnick.
Next year, the Independents will also be able to select a new 2nd Ward councilperson to replace Gonnelli.
The Gonnelli ticket ran as the antidote to former Mayor Dennis Elwell and his nine years in power. Throughout the campaign, they vowed to reduce town spending, cut the number of professional service contracts, reorganize the Tax Collector’s Office, and share more information with the public. Come January, when the new mayor and Town Councilmen are sworn in, voters will expect Team Gonnelli to deliver on its promises.
The mayor-elect and his allies know much is expected of them.
‘No more excuses’
“It’s easy to criticize. But we can’t make any excuses anymore,” Bueckner said Tuesday. “We’re the guys that are going to have control of Secaucus. The ball’s in our court. Now we get our shot. And if we don’t deliver, then I would expect [voters] to get rid of us and give somebody else a shot.”
Among Gonnelli’s top priorities come January, he said, will be top-to-bottom reviews of each municipal department – including the Secaucus Police Department and the Volunteer Fire Department, of which Gonnelli is a member – for ways to cut spending.
“It’s not going to be popular, but it has to be done,” Gonnelli said. “Over the years there were a lot of people hired for political reasons and for votes. But we really need to get down to business and start running the town more efficiently. We need to have a budget that people can live with. I’m going to have to make some decisions that people aren’t going to like.”
At present, Gonnelli said he is not considering layoffs to cut spending.
Tough choices
Property tax relief is another one of the Independents’ priorities. Specifically, they’d like to use money generated from the hotel tax and ratables in Secaucus to alleviate property tax rates for local homeowners.
After seven years of no tax increases, Secaucus residents received a tax increase last year and were hit with another one again this year.
But suggesting tax relief in the midst of a national and statewide recession may be a tall order. Also, next year the new mayor will have little control over municipal health care expenses and union obligations, two major expenditures that led to tax increases in the past.
Gonnelli’s council will also have to come up with a way to make the year-old Recreation Center financially self-sufficient, another tall order.
When first planned, the Secaucus Recreation Center was expected to cost about $4.5 million to build and was supposed to be supported financially through paid memberships from town residents. The project ended up costing $12 million, largely paid through bonds. Operating expenses for its first year were about $1 million. The center took in about $558,000 in membership dues and other revenues over the same period and will need more than 2,500 members to break even. Taxpayers are currently covering most of the operating expenses there and are paying interest on the bond notes.
For the center to be financially self-sufficient, expenses will have to be cut and membership will need to be increased. Gonnelli has in the past acknowledged that membership may need to be opened up to people who work in Secaucus but who live elsewhere.
Such a move would not be popular with taxpayers who want to keep center membership limited to Secaucus residents.
“I’m not against the rec center. I was against the way the rec center was financed,” Gonnelli commented. “We’re going to have to come up with a solution to balance the costs with the money that’s coming in there. And that’s another area where some tough decisions are going to have to be made. And honestly I’m not sure it can be self-sufficient.”
“We may not be able to turn this thing around in a year, but it’s not going to take too much longer [than that] for people to know what kind of financial position we’re in,” Bueckner said. “And if we’re in a bad financial position, we’re going to go out and tell the people and say, ‘This is the problem. Here’s what we have to do: Do you want us to cut this, cut that, or give you a tax increase?’ ”
Popular mayor, unpopular decisions
As a volunteer firefighter who rose to the rank of deputy chief, and as the former superintendent of the Department of Public Works (DPW), Gonnelli was highly regarded by many residents. His three years as 2nd Ward town councilman – where he cast himself as an advocate of open government and conservative spending – largely added to his popularity.
Next year, however, Gonnelli will have to shed the role of outside critic and transition in to the role of mayor, a transition he said he can make.
“It’s going to be tough for me,” Gonnelli acknowledged, because “the unpopular decisions will have to be made early and often. I don’t care if I’m a one-term mayor. I’m going to make the decisions I think are best for the Town of Secaucus, and that make the most sense for residents and taxpayers…I’m going to hold town employees accountable. And in four years I know I’m also going to be held accountable in the same way. And that’s all that I ask.”
Gonnelli added that he plans to give up the landscaping business he has run since retiring from the DPW and plans to be a full-time mayor.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.