Be Respectful, Kind and Courteous on this Website (02/08/09 9:57am)

To the sponsor and readers of MyHanoverTownship.com – It is my opinion that many of the postings on this website contain false and misleading information and seem to be written to perpetuate negative political influence. Readers should be warned that statements are not always factual, are not always verified and political accusations are not always true.

One post criticized the mayor for missing a committee meeting. Another writer posted misinformation about a recent township zone ordinance, quite the opposite of what was actually adopted. Others blame the mayor and township committee for everything, including the township budget, library cuts, incomplete ball fields, deer, geese, the loss of revenue, and the state of the economy!

A majority of Hanover residents want reasonable property taxes, but then when the township cuts spending to achieve reasonable taxes, every special interest group (employees, sports parents, library patrons, etc.) expect other things to be cut, anything except their pet interests. These are unprecedented, tough times. Contrary to the messages posted on this website, maybe people should learn to trust the township and those who know and study the budget; they are obviously making many unpopular choices, but I have no doubt their decisions are in the public interest.

The sponsor and writers on this site can either continue to bash the township or make it a model of integrity. (03/22/09 9:57pm) REPLY

Sponsor's Response to Comment Posted in the "Elected Officials" Category:

Thank you for writing to the site.

A letter was sent to the Mayor in early February of 2008 indicating that I had purchased the sponsorship rights for MyHanoverTownship.com.  The letter was about the pending County Committee decision to nominate someone for consideration for the seat vacated by Committeeman Francioli. and my thoughts about who would best represent the residents of Hanover township.  At the end of that letter I expressed an open invitation to the mayor and the rest of the committee to continue to use the site as a means of communicating with the public as they had done on a regular basis for over 4 years.  I told them that I would treat everyone fairly regardless of their political leanings and I meant it then and I mean it now.

As sponsor of the site, I have records of every post that was ever sent into MyHanoverTownship.com from 2005 including those that were published  on the site.  I might as well be perfectly blunt and simply say that when the comments were flying into this site from supporters of the Mayor there were few complaints about the accuracy or intent of the topics.  There were numerous lies printed and propagated and unfortunately no way to correct the record as most rebuttals were simply not published on the site.  I have the information, and could get real specific here but there is no point to it since I have no intention of running this site the way it had been run in the past.  Everyone will be treated fairly on this site and that includes our elected officials.  You have my word on that and if that is not good enough for you or anyone else, then so be it.

If there is anything currently on the site that you believe is untrue simply correct the record by putting in your 2-cents.  It's that simple.

You will see that I have commented in more than one topic area that the Township Committee does have a tough job and does deserve the support of the community but that doesn't mean that they are exempt from criticism from those that might disagree or feel that they were promised something only to find out that the promise will not be kept.  In some cases the broken promises or complaints are carry-over's from prior years before Mr. Fariello was Mayor.  However, The current mayor and some of the other current commitee members have been in office for at least one full term and are therefore still accountable for the current situation.

Anyone that blames the current committee for the current economic downturn is a fool.   However, it is appropriate to question how Hanover's is dealing with the current tax revenue shortfall.  We can't afford to have the level of services Hanover is used to without a viable and diverse tax base.  Companies come and go and too many years some simply took the legacy tax base for granted and pretended that it would never go away.  Reasonable development of existing and abandoned sites were stymied at every junction in the name of open-space with the end result being needless delays or in some cases the developer simply giving up altogether. 

For some this restrictive approach was referred as BALANCE development but what it really meant was no development.  So instead what we now have is UNBALANCE.  You can argue how we got here and the economic downturn is certainly a big part of that, but you can't ignore the fact that all those years of turning away potential tax revenue has not made this crisis more difficult to deal with.  Recent comments made by the Mayor about the potential development of a  Retirement Village on the Lucent site as a good thing proves this point.  To think that only a year ago we would have been focused on the fact that one low income unit will have to be built for every four retirement units, and that each low income unit will potentially and disproportionately add to the school budget - how quickly things change.

The people have every right to be frustrated and even if they are wrong in your eyes, they still have the right to express themselves.  So in closing, I want to reiterate to you (whoever you are), to the Mayor and to all the other committee members and future candidates for public office, that you are welcome to participate in the dialog that takes place on this site.

Tom Sutcliffe - Sponsor