Regionalization Priority
If you haven’t the time to read the responses to all the questions Mark Fisher put to the candidates for office in Atlantic Highlands, at least take a look at how each ranks the importance of the areas in which the questions were posed. While one candidate did not answer any of the questions, preferring to say she wants to listen to the people……hasn’t she be listening up until now?????…….and two others give reasons why the ranking isn’t accurately telling the full story, it’s interesting to see where the question of regionalization with Sea Bright stands.
In spite of the fact school regionalization has been THE topic most read and talked about for the past year, in spite of a special election that cost taxpayers money and many now are saying they didn’t even know exactly what it included, Councilwoman Lori Hohenleitner ranks it way down as her eighth priority if elected Mayor. That, in spite of the fact she lists better communication as her first priority!
Councilman Jon Crowley, seeking another term as councilman, also doesn’t think the regionalization question is of much importance to the council. He rates it #10 in priority. Alyson Forbes simply doesn’t give any opinion because she apparently is waiting until she is elected before she listens to the people.
On the other hand, James Murphy, also seeking the mayoral post, thinks regionalization is the most important issue after improving taxes. That, even though he doesn’t sit in on all those executive sessions discussing it, nor take any action on it since his wife is President of the board of education.
Nor does it look like he will be involved if elected Mayor, since his wife just filed to fill the next, last and shortest term on the Atlantic Highlands Board of Education, which will be wiped out by June at the latest. But the mayoral candidate still thinks that for the people of Atlantic Highlands, regionalization with Sea Bright should be one of the top priorities of the new administration. So it sounds like if elected, he will urge the new council to listen to the people who have been talking about it all these many months.
Ellen O’Dwyer also thinks regionalizing education with Sea Bright should be up there in interest and attention, ranking it a Number Two priority. And former teacher in the very system they’re regionalizing, Coach Whitehead, thinks it’s one of his top four priorities, ranking it after better communications, cannabis and tax stability.
It’s a simple question. If residents overwhelmingly voted for regionalization after months of talking, and either thought it included Sea Bright when they voted, or see it as the first step in including Sea Bright in another election soon, wouldn’t that make it a matter of importance to the folks running the town?
If the arguments are, and have proven to be, that bringing Sea Bright into a regionalization system for K-12 education would save bundles of money for taxpayers, wouldn’t that make it a matter of priority for the people who set the tax rates for the residents?
Everybody says the already approved regionalization is “the first step.” Wouldn’t you think a governing body interested in promoting the ideas and programs that are important to their residents would make it a priority?
Does it make you wonder whether some folks running for office are afraid of taking a second step? Or is it that they simply do not want to?
