The meeting of the West Orange Township Council last night was the culmination of the shell game the Council members have been playing for a year. Here's the tree ordinance, there's the tree ordinance, where's the tree ordinance?
First and foremost, for a town the size and complexity of West Orange to not have a protective (operative word here is protective) tree ordinance is egregious. After a year of consideration, debate and enormous input, to put forth the kind of gutless ordinance read last night goes beyond egregious. It is offensive.
Now, lest anyone get the idea that this is just another bungling, inept, municipal government let's set the record straight. The fact that the tree ordinance is so full of holes it makes swiss cheese look solid is not just the usual bad government at work. Indeed, the council members may be incapable of getting out of their own way, but that is not the core reason the tree ordinance has no teeth.
The tree ordinance is not just imperfect, it is impotent by design.
Why would the council members not want a good tree ordinance?
Certainly there is a circuitous trail of campaign funds. These have benefitted every one from Mayor McKeon to every Council member and trace back to a major developer who most assuredly would not benefit from having a strong tree ordinance instituted.
But beyond that there is the issue of abslolute power.
Senator Codey, John McKeon, and the developer for the project slated to bring down 27,000 trees behind the West Essex Highlands are just too close for comfort. The Mayor has been heard to claim (and in public) that he "promised" Wilf, the developer, that this project would come about.
Never mind that it was never properly vetted, that it flies in the green "face" the town pretends it has, that it is totally unacceptable to the towns adjoining the 180 acres of land where the development is to take place, that it has raised safety concerns even among West Orange police and fire officials, that virtually every resident who will be within sound and sight of the blasting that will have to take place first rejects the project....Never mind any of that. The Mayor made his promise, and the Mayor is an honorable man.
And so the developer greases the wheels and pulls the strings. The Mayor dances to the developer's tune. The Council serves as the triage point for the ordinances to be considered with each of the council members having an obligation, not to the town or to the residents, but to the Mayor himself.
Does that sound like too much inter-connectedness?
Welcome to the West Orange puppet show. Now aren't you happy you live here?
First and foremost, for a town the size and complexity of West Orange to not have a protective (operative word here is protective) tree ordinance is egregious. After a year of consideration, debate and enormous input, to put forth the kind of gutless ordinance read last night goes beyond egregious. It is offensive.
Now, lest anyone get the idea that this is just another bungling, inept, municipal government let's set the record straight. The fact that the tree ordinance is so full of holes it makes swiss cheese look solid is not just the usual bad government at work. Indeed, the council members may be incapable of getting out of their own way, but that is not the core reason the tree ordinance has no teeth.
The tree ordinance is not just imperfect, it is impotent by design.
Why would the council members not want a good tree ordinance?
Certainly there is a circuitous trail of campaign funds. These have benefitted every one from Mayor McKeon to every Council member and trace back to a major developer who most assuredly would not benefit from having a strong tree ordinance instituted.
But beyond that there is the issue of abslolute power.
Senator Codey, John McKeon, and the developer for the project slated to bring down 27,000 trees behind the West Essex Highlands are just too close for comfort. The Mayor has been heard to claim (and in public) that he "promised" Wilf, the developer, that this project would come about.
Never mind that it was never properly vetted, that it flies in the green "face" the town pretends it has, that it is totally unacceptable to the towns adjoining the 180 acres of land where the development is to take place, that it has raised safety concerns even among West Orange police and fire officials, that virtually every resident who will be within sound and sight of the blasting that will have to take place first rejects the project....Never mind any of that. The Mayor made his promise, and the Mayor is an honorable man.
And so the developer greases the wheels and pulls the strings. The Mayor dances to the developer's tune. The Council serves as the triage point for the ordinances to be considered with each of the council members having an obligation, not to the town or to the residents, but to the Mayor himself.
Does that sound like too much inter-connectedness?
Welcome to the West Orange puppet show. Now aren't you happy you live here?
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