Monroe’s ethical shortcomings

Monroe’s ethics panel met last night to unveil its recommendations for new rules governing conflicts of interest on the planning and zoning boards, and while the recommendations to create new disclosure rules make a lot of sense, there was something lacking.

As I wrote in a column last week, the panel inexplicably was told not to address the issue of pay-to-play (the hiring of professional firms under no-bid contracts who have given campaign contributions). But not to fear, Township Manager Wayne Hamilton announced last night that he will be handling revisions to the township’s notoriously weak rules and that they would be ready for introduction, along with a new disclosure ordinance, in January.

Perhaps we should be thankful — a change is gonna come, as the old song goes — but what shape those changes will take remains an open question.

As our Monroe reporter Stephanie Brown will report in Friday’s paper, Mr. Hamilton said last night that party political committees would be included in the new pay-to-play rules — but only at the local level. He said there are state rules governing contracts (the main subject of pay-to-play rules), but excluding the county political committees from the local ordinance seems destined to make this entire enterprise worthless.

After all, what’s to stop a professional with a contract with the township — say Township Engineer Ernest Feist — from making a fat contribution to the county Democrats and the county from passing it along or making its own contribution in an equivalent amount to the Monroe Democrats? (I’m not implying that Mr. Feist is or has done anything untoward or that his contract is a result of pay-to-play. He’s just an example.)

Nothing. And that’s the point. Concerns about pay-to-play are very real and there are many, myself included, who believe they lead to inflated costs, resulting in growing municipal, county and state budgets — and rising tax bills.

This issue should have been left to the ethics panel, or taken up by the Township Council and not left to the manager.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.