The Hoboken Tax Reform Coalition
Open Letter to Mayor Dawn Zimmer
Dear Mayor,
Politicians are famous for using terms like "Open and Transparent Government" but you never hear much about that after they win. Dawn, you have shown some progress with attempting to be open and transparent and for that you should be congratulated. At least you are attempting to be transparent about some of the issues i.e. the budget workshops.
With that being said, there is a ways to go and I would like to make a recommendation. Utilize the Hoboken website to inform your constituents where you and Hoboken stand on current issues. Make the website be a resource for you to illustrate where you stand and what you are doing to assist Hoboken in becoming a better place to live.
- Taxes; when will they be reduced? Which year?
- Budget; what are you doing to reduce?
- Flooding; when are the pumps going to be installed?
- The pier; when will construction start to repair?
- Open Space; what is the plan?
- Development; where do we stand with the Lackawanna project?
- other: there are many issues to many to list.
Lastly, not everyone has a computer, so this recommendation is only valid for a certain percentage of the Hoboken population. I would recommend writing about the issues and mailing them out quarterly in the form of a newsletter.
Keep the town informed and maybe, just maybe, we can all assist and help this town become a better place to live, work and enjoy.
Sincerely,
David A. Liebler
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by robert randall on -
David - I do not speak for anybody but myself, but I accept that your views are your own and that you are not part of a political ambush. This is the way the process should work. Readers should be aware both of your past affiliations and of your explanation and decide for themselves how to evaluate the information. My objection was to your assertion that the mere fact of pointing out those affiliations together with the conclusions reached by the poster who pointed them out constituted an out of bounds personal attack. Transparency does not apply only to others. The very principles that you espouse for the Mayor require that you openly disclose the fact that you have in the past worked for her political opponents, and for you to dispell the understandable concern that you are doing so once again.
As for the communications strategy that you propose, I agree that the City's website should be better used to keep City residents informed about things like the status of the pumps to supplement things like tonights public meeting and give the information to a wider audience. But information can only be provided as it becomes sufficiently mature. If you are suggesting that up to date status reports be provided on the daily process of running the city I think that is unrealistic.
Further, the website should not, as you suggest, be used to state things like "when taxes will be reduced - what year?" Or what will you cut in a budget process that is still ongoing - your first two suggestions. Doing so would be inappropriately political on the part of the Mayor. It would also be stupid on her part since it would likely backfire on her by resulting in a destructive game of "gotcha" being played by her opponents.
The website should be used to explain the budget process so people understand it, but not promise a result. It should provide information about current taxes when those taxes have been finalized but it should not promise or project. In my opinion,using the website to make campaign-like promises or projections would be inappropriate on the Mayor's part.
Similarly, mailing a monthly newletter would cost significant coin, and would rightly subject the mayor to criticism that she's using public money for political purposes.
You see - this is all much more complicated than you make it sound. Hopefully, the Mayor is giving thought to these issues and will adopt a communication strategy that disseminates information helpful to the public in a manner that neither promotes herself politically on the public dime, nor provides "gotcha" opportunities for those more interested in playing political games than transparency.
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Permalink Reply by SmartyJones on -
David, the issue of the website being revamped was discussed. That clip (part 5) was picked up at no charge to NJ.com and Jersey Journal/Hoboken Now. Funny of the five parts, they choose the one you are interested in here.
The website is on the list of items to upgrade. But obviously they have a lot of important issues and not the resources to tackle them all at once.
In fact as I recall the position you sought along with others was eliminated. Hope you get a few minutes listening to the interview. The clips are split up in smaller pieces all in less than 10 minutes parts or less.
Just about all the questions you cite are brought up in the discussion. There was originally five pages of questions planned not including the off the cuff follow ups.
David A. Liebler said:Thank you for the information. I look forward to reviewing. It is not that I feel the Mayor does not want to answer these questions, but there needs to be a better way for her to transmit this information on a consistent basis to the entire city and not on 'one-off'" interviews that the city never hears about. This would lead to more clear and concise outbound communication from her and city hall. As residents we all the right to this information. Let's face it, there are many serious problems in our city and the mayor has one of the most difficult tasks of her life.....fixing Hoboken.
I suggest to the people that have her ear, to reach out and make suggestions on better ways to communicate to all of Hoboken via the website and other means. Thanks, David
SmartyJones said:David,
The mayor answered many if not most of what you have listed here in an audio interview last month with Mile Square View.
It's listed as the comprehensive interview and comes in five parts. She answered five pages of questions.
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