The GR€€N T€AM - Follow the Mon€y to Find Out the Truth

[Disclosure: This blog is written from my perspective as both a candidate for a seat on Gloucester Township Council and as a concerned citizen of Gloucester Township with questions and concerns about reckless spending and business as usual in Gloucester Township.]

Have you seen the latest political advertisement from Team–Mayer?

Mr. Mayer loves to tout his green initiatives as if he single-handedly discovered the answer to all our future energy needs that no one else had ever thought of. Maybe someone should inform him that it is now known that oil and natural gas are quite abundant in the U.S. and there is more than enough to power our economy for over a hundred years and beyond. That gives us the time to develop and perfect real solutions to our future energy needs instead of foisting on the public a half-thought out answer that can’t stand on its own feet without being subsidized by billions of taxpayer dollars. That argument aside, what is it that Mr. Mayer, or should I say Team-Mayer as if Dan Hutchison, Frank Schmidt, or Michelle Winters had anything at all to do with it, is touting as such a success?

Here’s what we are being told about Team-Mayer’s Green initiatives:

“It’s a commitment to protecting our environment AND saving tax dollars.”

1.      “Protecting our environment” – An astute blogger on the Gloucester Township Patch has raised a question about this campaign flyer in the Speak Out section of the Boards on the Patch. He has looked at the picture of Team-Mayer posing before an open field and is scratching his head because he thinks it looks like the farm site where the Gloucester Premium Outlets are to be constructed. I went out of my way to drive by there yesterday and I have to say I agree with him. Bob, the blogger mentioned, thinks it’s ironic that Team–Mayer would pose in an open field, whether it is the outlet site or not, and tout their forward-thinking Green philosophy while pushing the “Greatest Economic Development Gloucester Township Has Ever Seen” (that is before the Hit Doctor was the greatest economic development that never was), a development plan that will pave over 55 acres of prime farmland and green acreage to erect a shopping mall in the land of shopping malls and tell the animals that inhabit that area to get lost.

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, with a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot." (Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi)

So, while we’re discussing GREEN, let’s throw in the solar panels on our schools that are saving us $6 million dollars…oh wait, that’s been downgraded to $4 million dollars, worth of savings. Anyway, remember Michelle Gentek? She was our former councilwoman who maintained our lifeline to the U.N.’s Agenda 21 and Sustainable Jersey that awarded Sustainable Gloucester Township a Silver Certificate for our advancements in sustainability. I wonder what Michelle thinks about cutting down trees at our schools to erect monstrous-looking solar fields surrounded by fences? And here there were so many of us that thought trees were good for us and the environment.

"They took all the trees and put them in a tree museum; And they charged all the people a dollar and a half to see 'em." (Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi)

That brings us to the second boast of Team-Mayer’s latest campaign propaganda:

2.      “Going Green is more than just a campaign slogan to Mayor Dave Mayer…” (right there is where Mr. Mayer’s egomaniacal side comes out and he pushes aside his team and takes all the credit himself.)

Seriously? You bet it’s more than a campaign slogan; I’d say it’s a perfect opportunity for Mr. Mayer to reward his political family and friends. One needs to ask who is getting rich off the placement of all these solar panels in town. Who is Blue Sky Power and why is it that Gloucester Township seems to have paid Blue Sky 10-times what other locales have paid for consultation work on setting up a solar plan? Does it seem strange to anyone else that Mr. Mayer and Blue Sky operative, Ben Parvey, have so many common connections?

For more incriminating evidence about the shady deals that GT worked out with Blue Sky as well as Blue Sky’s kick-backs to Democrats in the form of political donations, go here: SPECIAL REPORT: Township Energy Consultant’s Bills Raise Questions and here: SPECIAL REPORT: Township Didn’t Follow Law in Awarding Contracts to Energy Consultants.

Now, about the savings…

…the $300,000 that Mr. Mayer saved us by instituting Single Stream Recycling

…and the $6 million dollars, now reduced to $4 million, that Mr. Mayer is saving us by cutting down trees and having solar fields erected to forever mar the landscape

…and the money we will save by parking vehicles we already have and leasing new electric vehicles that “will save taxpayers in fuel and maintenance costs while reducing carbon emissions in our community.”  BTW, mysteriously no savings have been posted for this part of the GREEN plan...I wonder why? And as for reducing carbon emissions, it’s a good thing because we’re cutting trees down and, in case somebody forgot to mention it, that’s nature’s way of dealing with carbon emissions, otherwise known as Sustainability. Oh the inhumanity of it all!

…and, finally, Mr. Mayer, almost single-handedly, developed the state’s first Energy Master Plan (with the help of a nearly ½ million dollar payment to Blue Sky) for a municipal government and won a $10,000 state grant to further the township’s green initiatives. Spend $500,000, win $10,000; sounds like a brilliant master plan to me.

Can I interject an opinion here? Please, Mr. Mayer, no more! Uncle, uncle, don’t cut anymore trees down, please.

$aving Tax Dollars

Here’s the thing about tax dollar savings: I asked a friend who is skilled in the area of accounting and finances if there was any way to substantiate the $300K and $4-Million dollars in savings that we keep hearing about. He explained to me that he had been after the same information and was somewhat frustrated at his inability to make all the connections. For one, he said that initial statements about savings are usually based on estimates that are made up front but that any organization worth its salt follows up with metrics collected as the plan proceeds to document and substantiate the actual savings. That’s the part we seem to be missing according to my friend.

So, if you want to go GR€€N, and that’s green like money, then go Team-Mayer; but if you want to clean house and sever all the money connections in town…

VOTE Gloucester Township FIRST - Brown, DiBartolo, Kline and Pauli on November 5th, 2013