The Independent has a good write-up on the event in this weeks addition so I wont get into much of the details of what was said or how the proceedings went, you can read it for your self.
What I do want to highlight however are a few questions and their answers that were asked of the candidates seeking office in Middletown.
The first questioned ask by the moderator that night was "How would you control property taxes in Middletown?"
Steve Massell was the first to answer, his answer was all over the place and not very focused. It seemed as if he had never thought of the question before. He gave the standard Middletown Republican answer of blaming Trenton for it's unfunded mandates, seek combined service agreements with other towns and working on the townships "Green Initiative" to trim the cost of energy. He gave no examples of how he would control budget costs.
You can listen to his answer here:
Patrick Short answered the question very concisely and to the point. He talked about how important it is to have a budget in place by the end of January as opposed to July or August as in previous years, having a budget in place would ensure that savings were accomplished throughout the year, not just squeezed in during the last 4-6 months of the calendar year.
He stated that Middletown needed to be run as a business and like a business, a strategic plan for the township was needed and a finance committee should be implemented to help steer the formation of the budget.
He went on to say that overtime needed to be managed better, sick time should be capped - either use it or lose it, and a policy of 1 job - 1 pension should be put into place.
You can listen to his answer here:
The obvious debate winner on this question was Patrick Short. He had a clear and well thought out plan and was able to articulate in terms that people could understand, unlike his opponent.
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