Montclair At-Large Councilors' Community Meeting: Need for New Municipal Facilities Discussed

MONTCLAIR, NJ - Montclair’s two at-large councilors, Susan Shin Andersen, who also serves as deputy mayor, and Carmel Loughman, hosted a community meeting on September 4 in the fire department headquarters on Pine Street.  It was a unique meeting in that there had been no previous community meeting hosted by at-large councilors in recent memory. Unlike the other councilors, who are elected from different wards, Councilors Shin Andersen and Loughman were elected by all of Montclair’s voters, making them roughly the municipal equivalent of U.S. Senators.  They plan to hold more joint community meetings throughout Montclair in the future. (Constituents’ meetings held by both U.S. Senators of a state in different locales are atypical, but not unheard of.)

Deputy Mayor Shin Andersen and Councilor Loughman held a refresher course for constituents on how Montclair’s government works.  The council is the legislative body that appoints members of boards and commissions, approves contracts, and reviews and adopts the municipal budget.  As a council-manager system, the Montclair municipal government has two positions of leadership, the mayor and the township manager.  The mayor leads the town and the council, but the manager leads the administration and bureaucracy and hires township employees, in addition to preparing the municipal budget.  The township manager has a seat on the council and can take part in the debates on measures but does not have a vote.  (Being a Montclair resident is a preferred qualification for the managerial position but is not required.)  The mayor, as the presiding officer of the council, runs council meetings and has a vote on the council, casting the final vote on a measure in every council-meeting roll call.   In addition to hosting special municipal events, the mayor also appoints library board trustees and Historic Preservation Commission members as well as appointments to other boards and committees.  (The mayor used to appoint school board members and chair the Board of School Estimate, but those powers were taken away when Montclair residents voted to have a school board elected by the people.)  Anyone who has observed national politics in Germany, where the president’s duties are largely ceremonial and the chancellor is the true head of government, would recognize the mayor/manager dynamic in Montclair’s governmental system.

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Norma Tassy, the Director of Administration, Code Enforcement, and Environmental Affairs, educated the residents about the bureaucracy, which she helps Interim Township Manager Michael Lapolla oversee.  Montclair’s bureaucracy includes several departments ranging from the Department of Community Services, which maintains public works, and the Department of Recreation and Cultural affairs, which oversees parks and community events, to the Health Department, which inspects businesses to see if they conform to public-health regulations and also runs the township animal shelter.  Montclair’s public employees include 74 firefighters and 112 police officers.

Councilor Loughman used her time to highlight spending priorities, and she made clear what her priority would be – capital spending on new municipal-government buildings.  The town bought the current municipal building, constructed in 1970, from the Unisys computer company and moved its offices there in 1980 from the old municipal building, constructed in 1913, which currently houses the police department.  Both buildings, Councilor Loughman said, are well beyond their design lives, with the municipal building beset with crumbling exterior brickwork, consistent leaking of rain water from the roof, leaking pipes, and mold issues, among other deficiencies. The police building, despite its status as an historic structure, is in even worse shape, with damage to its limestone façade, crumbling arches, severe water damage, and an out-of-control rat population. Councilor Loughman noted that limitations in the budget and how much taxes can be raised require the township to look at what it is spending money on where and how to cut spending to help offset the necessary spending to replace both buildings.  She hoped to get such a project at least started by the time of the next municipal elections in 2028, noting that the municipal building’s structural integrity was deemed outdated as far back as 2002.  Efforts under the council headed by Mayor Robert Jackson to build a new municipal complex on available land, with the Lackawanna Plaza property considered as a possible site, had failed.  The council under Mayor Sean Spiller had also tried to get construction of a new municipal building started but did not get far.

Manager Lapolla explained the budget process, saying that the directors of departments submit to him their spending plans for the coming year, and the council goes over the requests before formulating a budget and voting on it while a temporary budget is adopted.  Manager Lapolla noted that the township’s budget represents nearly a quarter of the municipal tax bill, the rest of the money foin to the school district and for Essex County.  He added that among the town’s budget limitations are police and fire salaries, dictated largely by unions.  The average tax payment for the years was $21,995.  With tax increases capped, Lapolla said that any plans for new township facilities would have to be pursued taking such salaries, which have increased over time, into account.  Councilor Loughman said that tough choices will have to be made.  Aware of the push by residents to renovate the Clary Anderson Arena, she said that such a project would have to be put aside if the township can only afford rebuilding the municipal and police offices.

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