Mayor Conley to a Large Number of Madison Residents: Take a Hike
Madison, NJ News — Democrat Madison, NJ Mayor Bob Conley announced at the August 14, 2017 Borough Council Meeting that, after going through the perfunctory motions and applying the rhetoric of inclusion, he would proceed to ignore the proposals of those residents who had concerns with Resolution 57-2017, Madison's Welcoming Community Resolution. He proclaimed that the resolution would remain unchanged because it was "clear" to the Mayor that the alternative text would "not meet the achieved goals [sic] that I had set forward when the resolution was put forth."
So there you have it. After much volunteer time and effort by members of our community who opposed the Welcoming Community Resolution, no changes, because why spoil the poignant visuals and virtue signaling of a clearly staged event, which occurred with little or no prior notice to the community?
Over the last six months, many residents have come forward to express concerns with the effect the resolution will have on our community's safety, health and finances. Legitimate concerns have also been raised about the tendency of undocumented persons to overcrowd multi-family dwellings, as well as the increased likelihood that people seeking anonymity, such as the accused criminal who recently dominated Madison news reports (see letters to the editor here and here), will choose to move to Madison. Some of the residents who have raised these serious concerns were clearly upset at the mayor's summary dismissal of their suggestions.
Concerned resident Kathy Dailey made it plain that grandstanding was the order of the day. "From the very beginning, this entire Welcoming Community effort was never really about Madison. The primary goal, what was most important, was to follow Assemblywoman Jasey's lead," Ms. Dailey stated in her public comments to the Council.
Republican Candidate for Borough Council Denis Schreiber's comments were equally hard hitting:
"Mr. Mayor, in all due respect, in your opening comments, I want to congratulate you and the Council, pat yourselves on the back, you've done a great job. You stonewalled us on all our comments, observations, and suggestions for the resolution, now you say it's a wonderful thing and its going to stand as is," remarked Schreiber. He went on to say, "Then you say 'Let's make this a better community, and work together.' Well, you accomplished exactly the opposite. You've driven a huge wedge in the middle of this town."
Can anyone say, "tyranny of the majority?"
That was a lot, but that wasn't all. In response to a post on this website calling out the Mayor and Council for not responding properly to the pending demise of Madison's Bowtie movie theater, Borough Administrator Ray Codey ticked off a list of the things the administration did to try to keep the movie theater in town.
Fair enough, and nice try, but going down a checklist is not leadership. If there was all this activity, why were so many people surprised and suddenly had to jump into action? There may have been activity, but clearly the community was not sufficiently involved.
It sounds like there are some prospects to revive the movie theater, but the demise of Bowtie points to a broader problem that the Democrat controlled Borough Council has ignored for years, and that is the plight of downtown retailers. By some reports, many retailers are reporting a drop in revenue as much as 50%. Yet go back and watch Borough Council meetings for the past three years, and you will hear hardly a word about the plight of our Downtown. The only step taken was to punt the ball and commission an expensive study that essentially borrowed our watch to tell us what time it was.
We need new ideas, new faces on Borough Council, which is why we need to all come out and vote for the Republican ticket of Hendrickson & Schreiber in November.
Please come join us bring change to Madison Borough Council. You can donate to the Madison Republican Committee to support our 2017 Campaign. You can sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or contact either Ron Hendrickson or Denis Schreiber by email to make your views known.
