E-Mail From Commentator Bill Heyer On
Richard Schiff's letter printed recently in the Ocean County Observer
Dear "Schiff":
GREAT LETTER!
It's funny, I thought we DID take back
our government, in November, 2003, with the creation of the Dover
Township Council.
The "yolk," was on us, Schiff, we merely
replaced a bad local government, with an even WORSE one!
Last week, the Township Council heard
two hours of public complaints regarding the Michael J. Ritacco "turf
wars" (installing artificial playing surfaces on the three Toms River
High Schools football fields), then voted UNANIMOUSLY to APPROVE the
spending measure.
UNBELIEVABLE! It's like we chased the
Taliban government out of Afghanistan, and it landed - on both feet -
in Dover Township, NJ.
GIVE 'em Hell, Schiff!
Sincerely,
BILL HEYER
Following are exerpts from Rich Schiff's letter on no-bid
contract reform and what the taxpayers can do
To The Editor:
Citizens of Dover Township should know
that the people who represent them do not represent them at all!
They represent interests who control
the purse strings of political contributions that pay for the
elections they win.
The people now face the challenge of
ridding the community of the kind of people who are taking your
precious tax dollars for granted every day when they hand out no-bid
contracts to their political bosses and their political cronies.
The system of pay-to-play that now
colors the entire political scene and stains it, is being fought from
the wrong end. It's a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.
Contributions are not the problem. The
problem is what public officials do for the contributors.
They love that we are watching the dog
and not the tail.
The only reason political cronies make
political contributions or join a political club is so they can be
doubly-rewarded by getting large no-bid contracts or lucrative but
usually useless government jobs.
Take away the incentives!!
Ban no-bid contracts from every level
of government, including school boards.
Eliminate all crony jobs by advertising
all public payroll jobs in the general market place.
Without these changes, the government
in Toms River will continue to fall victim to the disasters that greed
& shortsightedness have brought taxpayers over the last 16 months.
You can take back the government. You
must consider that your future and your children’s future ride on your
vigor, not your lethargy.
