2011's Mayor Malay Presents 'Year in Review'

Editor's note: The following is a transcipt of the speech presented at the Township Committee's Tuesday reorganization meeting by John Malay, township mayor for 2011. Under Bernards Township's form of government, the mayor is each year appointed by the other members of the Township Committee. Malay this year continues in the role of Township Committeeman.

Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoyed the holidays and are ready to move into 2012.

My year as mayor was an eventful one, but one I enjoyed. I thank you for the privilege of having served you.

As many of you are aware, 2011 was the year the state saw fit to impose a 2 percent cap on municipal spending. As I mentioned last January, this in effect penalizes us for having kept taxes and expenses low over the years. While the state government in Trenton bounced from one fiscal crisis to another this past year, Bernards solidified its standing as — in my opinion and that of our auditors — the most financially sound and best run municipality in New Jersey.

We enter 2012 in a rock solid position. We have ZERO unfunded debt. Zero. As I will tell anyone who listens, the best way to balance a budget is to have no debt service, and we do not. Over the last 20 years Bernards has retired $41 million in debt. It can be done and we have done it.

We have accomplished this through fiscal restraint and a “pay as you go” policy. Our capital expenditures are planned years in advance. We maintain more than adequate cash reserves. Our tax collection rate, bolstered by annual reassessments, is over 99 percent. Our AAA bond rating was recently renewed again by Standard and Poor's.

I thank my colleagues on the dais for adhering to this policy and I thank our municipal staff who are committed to the methods and efficiencies that allow us to do this with no impact on the municipal services we provide to our residents. 
In 2011 our record on taxes remained unmatched by any comparable municipality.  

1. We have the second lowest equalized tax rate in our class and the lowest rate when you factor in state aid — or in our case the lack thereof.
2. Our tax levy is 12.27 percent of your tax bill, compared to [an average of] 28 percent state-wide.
3. Bernards’ 2011 Municipal Services Tax Levy was LOWER than in 2005. We continue to save our taxpayers millions in property taxes over and above the state-wide average.
4. We budgeted LESS in salaries and wages in 2011 than we did in 2010. In fact, Bernards has reduced headcount through attrition by 16 full-time employees since 2008, and we have 20 fewer enrollees in the health plan. We have second lowest police officer/population ratio in Somerset County despite busy interstate corridors, and yet we maintain one of the lowest crime rates.
5. We had no cuts in services, layoffs or furloughs.

 
In 2011 Bernards also led the way on pragmatic environmental initiatives. Last year our Green Team achieved Silver Status with Sustainable Jersey, one of only six municipalities to do so. Our pesticide-free parks and playgrounds set the standard state-wide. On two occasions I went to Trenton and testified before the legislature on how and why we accomplished this. Despite this, the bills in the Senate and Assembly to accomplish this state-wide still languish. They cannot do what we did three years ago. 

On the Affordable Housing front Bernards contributed almost $1.7 million in local projects at the Melissa Riggio Group Home, the Our Home Group Home and the Ridge Oak III Senior Housing facility. None of that was taxpayer money. It all came from our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, paid for with developer fees. We are fully compliant with [state] Round Three Affordable Housing quotas. 
We continue to maintain our infrastructure. We resurfaced roads according to our 15-year Plan and completed major improvements to our parks and playing fields. We supported our volunteer emergency services with capital equipment and vehicles — again, according to plan. We may be the only community in the state that pays cash for fire apparatus and ambulances. The savings in interest payments and bond fees alone amount to millions of dollars.

 Speaking of volunteers, later in this meeting we will be making our annual appointments to our boards, committees and commissions. We have over 270 township resident volunteers. As I said last year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your efforts on our behalf. We could not maintain our quality of life in Bernards without your help. Volunteers contributed to the following successful events: 

• Charter Day
• Our Annual Bike Races
• Twilight Challenge
• Field of Honor
• Bond Burning

No 2011 Report would be complete without discussing the weather-related calamities we experienced. Last winter we had one of the heaviest snowfalls on record. In August we were hit by TS Irene and in October by a freak snowfall that became the single most destructive storm in Bernards history. On all three occasions our township staff, police and volunteer first responders performed tirelessly.

As a result of the latter two events, many homes in the township were without power for up to a week. During Irene we had catastrophic flooding and during the nor-easter we had an historic loss of trees. The electrical utility performance was poor but we worked hard to maintain communications with our residents and get them back on line as soon as possible. Miraculously, we had no loss of life or serious injury. We are aggressively seeking FEMA money to offset the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on these events.

Finally, I would like to thank my family: my wife Jan and my daughter Lauren, for putting up with many evening absences and other commitments during the year.I wish my successor good luck and — more importantly — better weather.
Again, Thank you.