To the Editor:
An open letter to the taxpayers of Bayonne, property owners and renters alike:
Outrage! Where is the outrage? Look at our city!
Taxes have never been higher. Water and sewer have never been higher. All types of fees have never been higher. These fees will only continue to rise due to the gross mismanagement by our mayor, City Council, and commissioners.
Major deficits at all levels in City Hall. Bloated city payrolls, filthy streets. Unkempt and abandoned properties. Stores empty and unrentable for years on what used to be a premier shopping district. Our children forced to leave the city they grew up in to raise their children. The Doria reign and now the Smith administration are responsible for this failure.
With these excessive raises in taxes and water fees, the value of your home decreases. For most people, their homes are their investment in the future, their retirement. Don’t let the irresponsibility of theses so-called city managers chip away at your future while they sit in City Hall and continuously build up their retirement pensions and benefits packages at your expense. I have seen these practices before where they destroy everything, grab their pensions and benefits, and move out of town, leaving the citizens with even more expense to try to clean up the mess.
Don’t sit on your hands and watch the destruction of your future. Go to the meetings. Voice your outrage. We the people together as a group can make the difference. We can secure our futures in Bayonne once again. Do nothing and things will only worsen. Let’s make the change together. Attend the meetings. Let Mayor Smith, the City Council, and the commissioners know you are not pleased with their failure to serve you as they have sworn to do. The people of Bayonne must form a union to stop these city officials from continuing their irresponsible mismanagement of our city. There must be consequences or it will never end.
Attend the council meetings. Call the Mayor’s office. Write letters. Voice your outrage.
ANTHONY PROTOCOLLO