First of all, I’d like to thank Imam Aktan for his thoughtful and inspiring words. I am confident that I speak for all of Chatham Borough in expressing my gratitude for his eloquent call to instill in this Governing Body the requisite qualities and judgment for advancing the well-being of our community and its residents in the coming year.
The Borough Council’s annual Reorganization Meeting is always a good time to reflect on the public virtues that help foster and shape good government, and indeed, good governance. I understand these virtues to include such modes of excellence as:
- the wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues that, in any community defined by a diversity of priorities and viewpoints, can and will arise;
- a commitment to secure the welfare and needs of our diverse community and its residents;
- the desire to ensure that justice and rightness prevail in all of our decisions and actions;
- a determination to work together in harmony, even (or especially) where there is honest disagreement amongst us; and
- the goal of establishing that which is good, proper, and fitting for the community as a whole.
As I see it, such virtues represent a prescription for good, effective and judicious governance, a goal I trust the entire Governing Body will aspire to in the coming year.
Next, I wish to congratulate our returning Council Members Carolyn Dempsey and Jocelyn Mathiasen. I know I speak for the entire Governing Body in saying that we look forward to working with you in 2022 and beyond, on behalf of, and in the interest of, the residents of our wonderful Borough.
You’re about to become very busy – again. But, of course, you already know that. Welcome back!
Before moving forward, I’d like to again thank our scouts for leading us in the pledge of allegiance tonight: Calder Dempsey of BSA Troop 28; Maggie Gryta of GS Troop 96632; and Francesca Gryta of Brownie Troop 97932.
It is a cherished tradition in Chatham Borough to have our local scouts present the flag and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Calder, Maggie, and Francesca, I truly wish we could have had each of you here in person tonight, in these Council Chambers, to perform a full-scale opening ceremony with all its pomp and pageantry. Unfortunately, the return to skyrocketing Covid numbers has prevented that. But we are tremendously grateful for your virtual participation, and for your understanding. Thank you so much.
I’d now like to express my profound gratitude to all of the volunteers who make Chatham Borough the very special community that it is: our Fire Fighters; our Emergency Squad personnel; the members of our various municipal Boards, Commissions, and Advisory Committees; and our library volunteers.
We are grateful beyond words for your dedication and hard work during 2021, very often under trying circumstances due to the ongoing pandemic.
Moreover, the Council and I are immensely thankful for your willingness to step up to the plate yet again in 2022. It is your steadfast and untiring dedication to this community that enables Chatham Borough to provide the vast array of much-needed services that it does. Without you, many of these municipal offerings would either be impossible or would entail a hefty tax burden. In your efforts, you personify the community we aspire to be. You help make this the marvelously responsive and caring Borough that it is. For this reason, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you all.
Last but by no means least, I’d like to thank each and every Chatham Borough employee for their remarkable dedication and effort during 2021, another very challenging year. Your continued and unceasing focus on the needs of the Borough during this unprecedented public health emergency is truly inspiring.
It is said that local government is where the “rubber hits the road” in our nation’s multitiered system of governance. As such, there was little choice for you in 2021 but to continue delivering the Borough’s most basic and essential services, something you understood completely. This applied to everything from access to safe drinking water, a functioning sewage system, regular trash and recycling pickups, and well-maintained municipal streets, to a fully effective police force and dedicated municipal administration. You embraced this task. And despite the challenges presented by yet another year of this global pandemic, you stepped up admirably.
The residents of Chatham Borough owe you a debt of gratitude for your unwavering commitment to this wonderful town. In yet another difficult year, you did not skip a beat. As such, you too personify all that is good and special about Chatham Borough. For this reason, we thank all of you as well.
Introduction
It is the tradition at Reorganization Meetings in Chatham to spend at least a few minutes describing some of our efforts and accomplishments during the previous year, as well as our priorities for the coming one. Accordingly, I will do so now.
You will forgive the partial descent into wonkery here. However, as you will see, this is important stuff.
Budget and Finance
I will begin with budget and finance. The total municipal operating budget for 2021 was $15,622,081.48, of which $9,590,172.00 was funded through property taxes. This amounts to $3,290.26 for the average assed home valued at $800,000 going directly to municipal services, including: police; public works; fire protection; engineering; health; and community services.
Chatham Borough also collects taxes for our schools, the library, Morris County, and open space preservation. The municipal portion of this 2021 collection amounted to just 19% of your tax bill.
In 2021, the Borough approved a budget for capital improvements amounting to $1,424,100. These allocations ensure that our water and sewer infrastructure, our roads, and our public spaces are all maintained adequately and appropriately.
On a strategic level, work continued in 2021 on a necessary calibration of our 10-year financial plan, a task that should be completed in the coming year.
All in all, we remain committed to budgeting practices that minimize taxes and other fees while ensuring the Borough’s long-term fiscal health.
Happily, in 2021 the Borough was once again awarded a solid AAA bond rating.
Technology and Public Communications & Services
We turn now to technology and public communications/services. 2021 saw a continued effort to streamline many of the Borough’s internal and external processes using new technologies that improve communications and cut back on unnecessary paperwork. This overhaul of our communications framework neared completion by year’s end.
Indeed, we’ve now implemented a new system for managing Council and Committee agendas, minutes, and video recordings. The public now has easy online access to all agendas and, for the first time, all supporting documents in advance of Council meetings. Very soon this will be expanded to other commissions and committees and include site plans, architectural drawings, and other application materials for items before the Planning and Zoning Boards.
Using this system, video and audio recordings of meetings are automatically indexed by agenda item so that – even years into the future – residents may easily search an item or issue and watch the video of the related discussion without having to search through the entire video. Thanks to the power of the search engine, even ten years from now a resident will be able to type in a topic and quickly receive a link to all of the videos of meetings where that topic was discussed.
We have moved many of our licensing and permitting processes online, taking advantage of software we already own through our unique partnership with Madison. At present, alarm and pet licenses are fully online. In fact, just today many of you received a notice to renew your pet licenses online, and were able to do so with just a few clicks. Other permitting processes, such as parking, tree removal, road opening, and special events are soon to follow. As we move the remainder of these services online we will make every effort to ensure the systems used are fully streamlined and efficient.
The Borough now has a new website that went live shortly before the holidays, one that is much friendlier for mobile users and will integrate seamlessly with the aforementioned online services. Because we know that not everyone has the time to search for information on our website, we continue to take advantage of social media, email newsletters, and reverse 911 to communicate with residents to a much greater extent than had been the Borough's practice in the past.
Further developing this more “user friendly” public communications and services framework for both Borough Hall and our residents will continue to be a top priority in 2022.
Environmental Matters
In 2021, Chatham Borough recertified as a Sustainable Jersey community at the Silver Level. We first qualified for Bronze certification in 2009, and were then Silver-certified in 2012, 2015, and 2018.
Up until now, there have been two levels of certification: bronze and silver. Bronze signifies that a municipality has made a commitment to sustainability and has succeeded in implementing its first significant steps. Silver certification indicates that a municipality has made substantial progress in a number of categories toward sustainability, and is both a statewide and national leader in this respect.
Certified municipalities are considered front-runners in implementing solutions to key sustainability challenges, including efforts to: reduce waste; cut greenhouse emissions; improve public health; stimulate local economies; increase resiliency; and make progress toward a more equitable society.
Sustainable Jersey certification is a prestigious designation for local governments in NJ. Municipalities that achieve bronze or silver certification are considered by their peers, the state government, and environmental experts to be among NJ’s leaders in sustainability.
The Bronze Award is impressive; the Silver Award even more so. Hence, 2021’s recertification is indeed a proud moment for Chatham Borough.
Next up for our Environmental Commission and Green Team is pursuit of the coveted new “Gold Star” award. This project, which will require several years of very hard work, will entail advanced action in the areas of reducing solid waste and increasing energy efficiency. We all look forward to the effort.
Public Parks
In the coming year, Chatham Borough will continue with its refurbishment of Garden Park, next to the Chatham Middle School. As many of you know, 2020 saw a new walking path put in, funded by a grant from the Morris County Preservation Trust Fund. In turn, 2021 brought with it the resurfacing of three tennis courts and the first stage of a two-stage renovation of the basketball courts. In 2022, we anticipate resurfacing the three remaining tennis courts and completing the final stage in the reconstruction of the two basketball courts. When it comes to sports and recreation, our aim is to keep Chatham Borough healthy, happy and fit – for both children and adults!
Government Structure
On tonight’s agenda is Resolution 22-31, an act that creates a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee. Among other things, the purpose of this new body is to:
- promote an appreciation of the growing diversity in Chatham Borough through educational and community events;
- liaise with the Library, the Senior Center, the Joint Recreation Committee, the Chatham Historical Society, and other organizations to create programs that will provide opportunities to explore and appreciate the increasing diversity now represented within our community; and
- liaise with other community groups representing different cultural, ethnic, religious, and/or social affiliations.
Given the Borough’s expanding diversity over the course of the past decade, we believe this important new committee will help fulfill the promise of a significant prior Council resolution, spearheaded by former Mayor Bruce Harris and Council Member Len Resto, and approved by the Borough Council in 2017, declaring Chatham a “welcoming community”. Given this professed commitment to a simple but noble idea, the current Governing Body feel it is time to more robustly match the rhetoric and intention of that earlier legislative act with substantive deed.
Hence, a new advisory committee is now born, one that will ably be led by Council President Irene Treloar and Council Member Len Resto. The entire Governing Body looks forward to the healthy contribution this new advisory committee will make to our remarkable community.
The Coronavirus Pandemic
Here, I will begin with the exact same sentiment I expressed at our last Reorganization Meeting: 2021 has been one hell of a year. It’s been a rollercoaster ride all right, having begun last January with a ghastly surge; then descending over the summer into a valley of false hope; and finally rising again steadily throughout the autumn months, only to produce at year’s end what amounts to the surge of all surges.
Folks, the Omicron wave is now upon us. In fact, it is more like a blizzard, or even a tsunami.
The numbers say it all. As a reference point, let me remind you of where NJ stood back on June 28th, the nadir of our undulating nightmare: 105 daily positives. At the time, we exulted in the fact that this number had encouragingly descended from a previous high point of 6922 on January 13th.
Now let me share with you the high-water mark for all of 2021: a figure of 28512, reached on New Year’s Eve. Talk about ending the year with a bang! In fact, in the days since, we’ve hit even higher numbers, reaching 29,740 on New Year’s Day.
The current wave will crest, of course. The question is when. For now, public health officials say, we still have some distance to go to get through this Omicron surge. Making matters even less certain, scientists have only known about this variant for a little over a month. While a tremendous amount has been learned about it in an amazingly short time, our understanding should continue to grow as more data pours in and key questions are answered.
In the meantime, against the backdrop of such hitherto unimaginable figures as a seven-day average for newly confirmed positive tests of 23,391, it is now imperative, according to the Borough’s health officer, that each and every one of you do the following:
- if you’re not yet vaccinated, change that: get vaccinated immediately;
- if you haven’t yet received a booster, and are eligible for one, get boosted immediately;
- wear a mask in all indoor public spaces; don two cloth masks if you can; better yet, use either an N95 or a KN95 mask;
- avoid large gatherings with known or suspected unvaccinated people; and finally
- cut down on travel via public transportation.
We’re very much in the midst of a viral storm now. Take heed and stay safe.
Moving Forward In 2022
Of course, what I’ve just described barely scratches the surface of all that we did in 2021 or hope to achieve in 2022. The staff in our various departments are hard at work every day, ensuring that Chatham Borough continues to be one of the most desirable NJ communities in which to live. From the Department of Public Works to Finance & Purchasing to Community Services to our General Administration, we will continue to strive for both improvement and excellence in all municipal matters.
Over the next few weeks, I will be working closely with the Council and our Borough Administrator to develop more specific goals for 2022. These will be detailed, as is our custom, in late March or early April. Please stay tuned.
With that, I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
