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Politics & Government

Letter to the Editor: Fraenkel Responds to Former Mayors' Endorsement of Keffer

The former mayor weighs candidates' strength and weaknesses, and reminds public they are voting for a committee member, not a mayor.

Someone in particular keeps removing any post I write for The Patch, so I asked Adam if he would post this since some of the regular posters asked how I felt about the letter of support from previous Democratic mayors for Mayor Keffer.

While I have not always agreed with Mr. Keffer and have gotten into passionate debate with him, I have also found that he is at least willing to listen to opinions that differ from his own.  This is something that does not happen with Shehady; if you don’t agree you’re the enemy. I believe this is an issue of maturity and is a flaw that he doesn’t show to the public. He’s gone door to door speaking with residents and quite a few have told me that when they’ve expressed an opinion that differs with his, he talks down to them or abruptly leaves rather than attempting to listen to their point of view.

As for the letter of support for both candidates I don’t feel it is fair for either person to take credit things that occurred while holding the title of mayor.  Springfield’s form of government is a township committee, which means that no individual can singularly make any change; its takes a majority. Things that take place, such as the removal of the old police chief or the appointment of the new chief were put in place by the actions of previous committees. It is disingenuous for either candidate to take credit for any of those things.

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What we should look at are things such as how our tax dollars are spent and what services we receive for them. Under the majority, held last year by Shehady, in excess of $100,000 more was spent on a township attorney then in the previous years.  The same attorney who charged Springfield to draft the sewer bill ordinance then got to charge us again when Shehady moved to rescind it; conveniently right after his election loss.  This is also the same attorney who was asked by Shehady, to list the work he had performed as a way of justifying the excessive amount his firm received.  Springfield paid for him to create a list of work that he had performed!! I’d like to know who benefited from this, other than the attorney and his firm.

Last year our PD needed to hire more members due to retirements. We have always hired people who successfully completed the police academy training (on their own dollar) but Shehady was one of three people (all Republicans) who voted to approve the hiring of people who had not gone through the academy.  This would have resulted in the town incurring a cost of $60,000-$70,000 for their academy training, while also being on the township payroll (receiving salary and benefits and not being in town).  Another example of wasteful spending just to get what he wanted.

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Mayor Keffer is much less hands on then Shehady, both in public and behind the scenes. He delegates responsibility and as it relates to the most important departments in our town; PD, FD, and DPW this is essential.  We have department heads in charge of running these departments and those people answer to the township administrator, who in turns answers to the governing body. That is called a chain of command, and someone with military background should be very familiar with the philosophy. However, Shehady continually micro-managed each department and created an environment that was counterproductive. Delegation of responsibility is something a person who desires to control things cannot accept and that is a serious flaw, especially in our form of government. 

We are not voting to elect a mayor, we are voting to elect another township committee person. In all likelihood if the Democrats maintain the majority Mr. Amlen will become mayor and if the Republicans recapture the majority Mr. Krauss looks to be next in line.

If people want a directly elected mayor, then a referendum needs to take place and voted upon. If that is the decision of the majority, then the proper steps need to take place and the township committee form of government will be changed.  But until that happens we must work with what exists now.  I will be voting for Mr. Keffer because I feel we are indirectly voting for next year’s mayor and I prefer Mr. Amlen as next in line.  

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