The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 9

COURIER NEWS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2006 A-9 OTHERVOiCES They Surprise! Voting snafus strike again in Fla. work for you analysis suggests that to is therefore in the interest of both parties, not to mention the country, to be DIONNE How to contact elected federal officials ill v'Ti 1 i I ite, I Jennings carried the county by 53 percent to 47percent. President George W. Bush: The White House, vide verifiable paper trails so real ballots are available in the event of a recount, let them go to Sarasota. If the courts punt, Congress, which has a right to judge the credentials of its members, should get to the bottom of this.

It may be asking the impossible, but Democrats and Republicans should not make this a fight about which party picks up one more seat. Instead, they should conduct a joint inquest into this contest to provide a basis for bipartisan legislation creating national standards for improving our voting systems. The United States Supreme Court has insisted that "having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that of another." Thousands of voters in the 13th District have an interest in demanding that the system live up to those words which came from the decision in a little case in 2000 called Bush v. Gore. E.J.

Dionne's e-mail address is postchataolcotn Washington, D.C. 20500; Phones: White House (202) 456-1111; for faxing WASHINGTON Americans can be grateful that Sarasota County is in Florida and not in Montana or Virginia. There's nothing wrong with Sarasota, a lovely place. But if the voting snafus in the contest for Florida's 13th Congressional District had hung up either of this year's two closest Senate races, we would still not know which party had won control of the Senate. Supporters of new voting technologies have been patting themselves on the back, saying there were no big voting problems this year.

Let them go to Sarasota. Here's the story so far: The official vote count in the battle for you won't believe this Katherine Harris' seat put Republican Vern Buchanan 369 votes ahead of Democrat Christine Jennings out of just votes cast But in Sarasota County, there was an "undervote" of more than 18,000 meaning that those voters supposedly didn't choose to record votes in the Buchanan-Jennings race. simultaneously aggressive and judicious infiguringoutwhatwentwrong in Sarasota, and to use that knowledge to fix the nation's voting system before a major disaster strikes. Sarasota is the canary in the electronic coal mine. On Hiesday, Judge William Gary decided not to move the case along quite as fast as Jennings had requested.

That will prove to be an excellent decision if the delay is part of an effort to collect every bit of information we can on Sarasota's machines. Jennings' lawyers have asked the judge to give her campaign full access to at least eight of the voting machines, including their software a fair request If the taxpayer-supported companies that sell this equipment are not willing to be 100 percent open about how their machines and their Erogramming work, they should not allowed to record and count the people's votes. And if anyone still needs evidence that all electronic systems should pro 5,000 ot Sarasota undervotes were intentional, meaning to 15,000 votes that were actually cast were probably not counted. If you believe that these machines operated properly, then you must also believe that I missed my true vocation as an NBA center. Imagine if 18,000 votes had just disappeared in either of the key Senate races.

Or imagine a presidential election in which the electoral votes of Florida were decisive and the state was hanging in the balance pick a number that comes to mind, 537 votes. And, by the way, in 2000, we could at least see those hanging and dimpled chads. In this case the votes have poof! simply disappeared. Despite the Sarasota problem, the state Elections Canvassing Commission certified Buchanan's "victory." Jennings has gone to court to demand a new election. But there is good news here: This is a problem in just one congressional district.

Control of the House does not depend on how this race comes out. It SPEAKINGOUT The Sarasota undervote in the congressional race amounted to nearly 15percent. Kendall Coffey, Jennings' lawyer, pointed out that in the other four counties in the district, the undervote ranged from 2.2 percent to 5.3per-cent. Put another way, roughly 18,000 of the 21,000 underrates in the contest came from Sarasota County. It's hard to believe that Sarasota's voters had a different view of the race from voters everywhere else in the district, considering that the undervote on the county's absentee ballots, cast on paper, was only 2.5percent.

The upshot: Any reasonable statistical letters to president, (202) 456-2461. E-mail: president white house.gov U.S. Plainfield school board spreads animosity Senators Frank Lautenberg (Democrat): 825A Senate Hart Office Building, Washington, D.C, 20510. Phone: (202) 224-8929. District Office: 1 Gateway Center, 1st Floor, Newark 07102.

Phone: (973) 639-8700. Robert Menendez (Democrat): 502 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone: (202) 224-4744. District Offices: 208 White Horse Pike, Suite 18, Barrington, N.J.

08007. Phone: (856) 757-5353. 1 Gateway Center, 11th Floor, Newark, N.J. 07102. Phone: (973) 645-3030.

U.S. House puter because we do not have one in our classroom, or the one in the classroom is out of order, or the ones in the library are not working. Time is also spent when we have to go to a commercial copy center outside of school because the only photocopy machine available to the teachers is out of order or is out of paper. This is done at our own expense. This is not only frustrating, but also very time-consuming.

Furthermore, there are teachers in the high school who teach two or three different subject matters requiting the preparation of different planning and materials. When the board compares our work in the middle and high schools with the work of the elementary school teachers, they are creating confusion and animosity among teachers in the district The current comparison should be against other Abbott school district high schools. All teachers work hard and dedicate much time to the needs of our children. However, the needs of the students at the elementary level are different from those of the students at the secondary level. I believe that the elementary school teachers understand this and will not fall for the board's attempt to pit elementary teachers against high school teachers.

It is ironic that the board mentions (when teaching two blocks), and 240 minutes the other semester (when teaching three blocks), it is being disingenuous because the Board is not taking into account the amount of time spent by teachers in preparing courses and grading quizzes, tests, notebook journals, etc. It is also not counting the time spent in: Generating andor reproducing materials we need for our classes; Locating equipment and the people responsible for it (ie: AV, televisions, computers, LCD players, projectors, etc.) Contacting the parents by phone or in writing; Attending Parent-Teacher Conferences; Attending Guidance Counselor-Teacher-Student Conferences; Completing forms from the Child Study Team; Attending staff meetings; Writing curriculum mappings; Writing college reference letters for students. We are also assigned various duties for a 40-minute period during each day. No mention is made either of the time spent traveling back and forth between two buildings carrying with us the entire classroom materials load. Time is also spent trying to find someone to let us use his or her com By CARMEN MOUNA-VERGARA I am writing in reference to a letter sent by the Board of Education to the residents of Plainfield.

While reading this letter, which was forwarded to me by a resident, I feel that the board's purpose in writing this letter was solely intended to create more animosity and distrust and to try its best to divide the different factions that comprise the Plainfield Education Association (PEA). The board's letter is filled with phrases such as "the simple truth" and "the true however, it is filled with distortions of the truth and allegations that are far from the facts. I have been employed for 16 years by the Plainfield school district, as a Spanish and ESL teacher. During this time, we have had a new contract every three years. At present, the Plainfield Board of Education has not renewed our last contract, which ended July 1,2005.

One of the things we are trying to negotiate is a raise of 5 percent each year, the average salary increase for most Abbott school districts, which we, as professionals, worthily deserve. When the board informed residents that secondary school teachers teach only 160 minutes one semester were not enough teachers to teach them. As to health insurance benefits, as far as I know, these benefits were fought for and won many years before I came to this school district We cannot lose these benefits; otherwise, we would be going back to the struggles of those that came before us. In regard to organized after-school hour activities, it is true that teachers are paid at a rate of $26 an hour. The Board does not need to use sarcasm when it refers to teachers not doing this extra work "out of the goodness of their This is America, and in America people do not work for nothing.

Just ask the Administration. Teachers perform this extra work because they need all the money they can get to pay for the essentials in life: food, gas, utilities, clothing, medicines, mortgage, car insurance, schools andor colleges for our children. We also perform this extra work because we want to help our students. May I remind you that the teachers have helped create and shape the future of the doctors, dentists, CEOs, journalists, board members, superintendents and leaders of our country? Carmen Molina-Vergara is member of the World Language Department at Plainfield High School "big The board states that "teachers that earn $75,000 a year are routinely pumping up salaries to $1 15,000 (or more) per I have worked on cafeteria duty, Extended Hours After-School Program, and taught Zero-Block (7:30 AM), and I have never made more than $80,000, and I happen to be on the top step of the salary scale. I do not know of any colleague that has ever made the salary the board mentions.

The top salary of a teacher with a masters de-gree with 30 years longevity is $74,204. The Plainfield Board of Education spends a lot of money for outside contractors who, for example, install a software program in our computers that shortly afterwards does not work or to install a software program which is changed to a new one even before the old one has been made available to everyone in the school. We have in our district people better prepared and with more understanding of the needs of our staff, but these people are never consulted, or even given the opportunity to do this kind of work. When the board mentions "extra" money for classes taught during Zero-Block or the After-School Program, it is because these classes were never part of the regular schedule, or there Frank Pallone Jr. 6th Congressional District, including portions of Middlesex and Monmouth counties.

(Democrat, Long Branch): 420 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. Phone: (202) 225-4671. District Office: 6769 Church Kilmer Square, New Brunswick, N.J. 08901.

Phone: (732) 249-8892. E-mail: Frank.Pallonemai l.house.gov Readington officials misguided on airport issue taking, the one that they have been chanting for years: To stop any poten tial expansion of Solberg Airport, by any means, at any cost. To now proclaim to the court that this heavy-handed action had to be taken because Readington needs additional open space, is like saying that Pamela Anderson needs more implants. Ac cording to the papers already filed in this case, Readington open space ex ceeds the state's official recommend ed guidelines by 15.75 times. By DON BALDWIN On Sept.

10, 2006, the Readington Township Committee set sail for Superior Court riding the high tide of a $22 million bond referendum recently approved, albeit with a little help of a six-figure public relations campaign. Their mission: to capture, using condemnation, 624 acres of prime real estate from unwilling owners. From a legal standpoint however, the township officials, who stubbornly plotted this move for many years, may have signed onto the Titanic. The township's legal problems arise from well-established case law that makes it clear that although a government entity can use eminent domain to acquire land for a public purpose, it is obligated to state the true reason up front for exercising this awesome power. In other words, the courts will not permit such taking if they conclude that the stated reason is a pre The township's unprecedented haste to expedite the eminent domain process became all the more obvious when the Committee decided to file a Declaration of Taking just days after their initial filing.

This Declaration means the township can't honor the pledge to voters to pay not more than $22 million to purchase the land through eminent domain or otherwise. Instead, Readington taxpayers will now have to pay whatever sum is required. That raises serious legal questions, not least of which is the meaning of the promise to voters and the propriety of the township obligating itself to pay more than it has appropriated for the purpose. Moreover, the aggressive tactic of filing a Declaration of Taking at the outset of a condemnation case is unusual, since both sides normally await the outcome of the challenge before a deed is seized and money deposited. In other words, the taxpayers have potentially been placed in harm's way with no exit, and the "not to exceed" language of the bond referendum was just another gimmick to gamer votes for the measure, and must now be forgotten.

Also, nowhere in the explanatory statement of the bond was there ever a mention of eminent domain. Then, in the days leading up to the condemnation, Readington's well-funded spin team began churning out the "We've been left with no choice" messages, even though not a single meeting was ever held with property owners after the referendum passed. Furthermore, Readington steadfastly refused all offers of professional mediation, including one from the state's Office of Dispute Settlement, which was offered free of charge. Astonishingly, our Township Committee members, no doubt on the prudent advice of their expensive counsel, are scrambling to distance themselves from the real purpose for this tense for another, unstated reason. And absolutely no one living in our area, who has ever attended a Readington meeting, or even glanced at local newspapers in the past few years, could have avoided the nonstop "jet scare" propaganda with which we have been saturated.

Elected officials have played this issue like a well-tuned violin, especially when seeking re-election. And just like the pirates of old, Readington officials are now flying a different flag on their mast in hopes of deceiving the court into believing their drastic tactics are bora of the purest of public purposes: open space. Unfortunately for Readington, Judge Yolanda Ciccone, with 30 years in the courthouse and 15 of those on the bench, is not that gullible. Indeed, it seems that Readington's forecast of clear-sailing through judicial scrutiny and getting the nod for their blitzkrieg taking was premature to say the least. I think most township residents are thankful for the open space we now have and the efforts or the Committee that helped amass and preserve these lands should be rightly recognized.

But to suggest that we now must re sort to seizing open space by force from unwilling sellers is absurd. Our officials know it and now the judge seems to know it as well. Don Baldwin lives in Readington. Bedminster Republicans need to shape up borders to learn. A government that is here to serve us has to be able to step in when necessary to restore good relations between neighbors, because Education which is responsible for the bulk of local taxes.

And it wouldn't hurt to join with the growing number of communities that are committed to once harmony has been disrupted it finding ways to make taxes more a uitable. A group of ad hoc budget ai isn sell-healing. Someone, maybe our local town fa thers, has to step in from outside to help find peace and common ground. Mike Ferguson. 7th Congressional District, including portions of Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties.

(Republican): 214 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. Phone: (202) 225-5361. District Office: 792 Chimney Rock Road Martinsville, N.J. 08836.

Phone: (908) 757-7835 Rodney P. Frelinghuysen. 11th Congressional District, including portions of Essex, Morris, Sussex, Warren and Somerset counties. (Republican, Harding): 2442 Rayburn House, Office Building, "Washington, D.C. 20515.

Phone: (202)225-5034. District Office: 30 Schuyler Place, Morristown N.J. 07960. Phone: (973) 984-0711. E-mail: rodney.

frelinghuysen mail Rush Holt. 12th Congressional District, including portions of Hun-, terdon, Somerset, Mercer, Middlesex and Monmouth counties. (Democrat, Hopewell): 1630 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. Phone: (202)225-5801.

District Office: 50 Washington Road, Princeton Junction, N.J. 08550. Phone: (609) 750-9365. This may not be a formal jurisdiction al charge for municipal government but it should be the personal mission of anyone who wants to call himself a leader. Lastly we could use a serious look at visory committees would be an idea worth considering.

As a professional planner, I can't ignore zoning. I think we need to get the scenic character protection program off the ground finally. We need to commit to providing the Environmental Commission with a liaison professional to watchdog permitting in Trenton. And we need to initiate long overdue watershed capacity planning. We badly need to establish a conflict resolution capacity here in Bedminster.

As I said to anyone willing to listen during the campaign, we have had too many unresolved and bitter controversies that just never seem to end. IVe said that they result from the failure to use modern approaches to government that are available if one is willing to go outside of the township the form of government itself. The committee form of government is one of many options open to us but it is a form of government most suited to the rural community that was yester day's Bedminster. Today, we have heavilv DODulated oortions of the also need a real commitment to open government. It is just too hard for citizens to keep track of what is going on.

Dealing with government shouldn't be a time-consuming hobby, it should be simple and easy. At a minimum, resolutions and minutes to be adopted by our governing body should be available online. Citizens affected by projects should be given the opportunity to sit on watchdog committees; especially for controversial situations. Bedminster should take a serious look at the various kinds of citizen involvement mechanisms that are in use elsewhere. There needs to be a serious effort at tapping into the enormous reservoir of skills that our township residents have to offer.

And "user-friendly" should be the focus of a serious self-examination during the coming year. An "open government" commission might be a positive step to making sure this stuff gets on the radar and stays there. Grappling with the budget successfully is going to require looking beyond the immediate fiscal jurisdiction of the governing body and considering ideas such as a total tax rate cap limit. Bedminster needs to initiate capital programming that goes beyond incremental piecemeal "favored" project spending and looks into real sustainable planned budgets. We should have mandatory fiscal impact analysis for certain projects along with programmatic and zero based budgeting.

We need to look outside the box and launch a serious budget liaison effort with the Board of was one of my most important personal objectives. So although we couldn't accomplish everything we set out to do, I would like to think that we left some, and hopefully many, people here in this small community with a vision of what good government can be about. If so, we have made a difference. During the campaign, we launched a number of important reform initiatives which require further work and identified initiatives which should come to the fore. I will be contemplating the best ways to do this over the coming weeks.

For those who like their messages short, this is the place to stop reading. But for those who want more meat and intellectual substance, I wish to reel off the kinds of concrete changes that I see as needed. Hopefully these suggestions will spawn serious discussion among your readers regardless of which camp they were in or even in which town they are from. Bedminster badly needs measures that increase transparency and objectivity. A local code of ethics, not necessarily a commission, is foremost, along with an open appointments ordinance.

The same for a ban on pay-to-play, mandatory conflict disclosure and recusal and even clean money campaign financing. Instead of undiscernable reasoning for decisions, we need the kind of rational comprehensive approach that we find in a Consumer Report analysis. We could use a government "transparency commission" to examine and recommend the kinds of measures that might work best for Bedminster. We By DENNIS HUDACSKO Sadly for many, our effort to unseat the strongly entrenched incumbents in Bedminster failed on Election Day. But I thank all of those who lent support of one kind or another to the Independent's campaign.

It was much appreciated. On the positive side, the returning incumbents now face a mandate for change which was recorded by the substantial majority of "anti" votes. The incumbents will, hopefully, return to office recognizing that, although they control the government here, their unflagging defense of the status quo must now change. When I congratulated the present mayor, against who I ran, he noted that "he didn't need a smack in the face to see that changes must be made." I suspect that the mayor, having failed to lead his slate in the balloting, might also consider letting someone eke take the mayoralty during the reorganization this January. Maybe his running mate is ready to show that he is a leader.

Thankfully, the campaign established broad public awareness of the many unresolved problems along with interest and support for the kinds of changes I believe must take place. We were critical, critical of the failures of our opponents rather than of their personalities. And I have heard, from my opponents and their supporters, expressions of respect for the kind of dignity, intelligence and leadership that the Independent campaign promoted. I particularly treasure that. It township whose needs must be better addressed and the still rural areas are facing far more sophisticated dial lenges than ever before.

Is a gathering of five people around a table still the best way to manage what has become a multi-million dollar municipal corporation? Despite the length of my "Dear Santa list, these are just some ot the improvements that we can put to work here in Bedminster. They are certainly not inappropriate for our Speaking Out is a forum in which readers explore topics in more depth than in letters to the editor. If you'd like to write a Speaking Out column, call Editorial Page Editor Keith Ryzewicz at (908) 707-3128. use, they are not even visionary; they are real practical measures in use by communities all over the state They are just long overdue in our community. Dermis Hudacsko lives in Bedminster..