m⋅paign [kam-peyn] –noun
1. Military. military operations for a specific objective.
2. a systematic course of aggressive activities for some specific purpose: a sales campaign.
3. the competition by rival political candidates and organizations for public office.
prom⋅ise [prom-is] –noun
1. a declaration that something will or will not be done, given, etc., by one: unkept political promises.
2. an express assurance on which expectation is to be based: promises that an enemy will not win.
3. something that has the effect of an express assurance; indication of what may be expected.
4. indication of future excellence or achievement: a writer who shows promise.
5. something that is promised.
Two very powerful words are joined together each election to give us plenty of “aggressive activities” and “competition” “declarations” that something “will or will not be done.” Now, speaking frankly, I don’t know anyone that actually believes in campaign promises – but I thought it would be fun to see just how far (and how quickly) afield the new members of the Salem Township Board have wandered away from their “campaign promises.”
Let’s just take a look at one member of the board today –
Paul J. Uherek
Mr. Uherek's campaign literature stated the following:
|
Promise Made |
Promise Kept? |
|
Cap Discretionary Spending |
No |
|
No Township Tax |
Yes, for now |
|
Bring Transparency and Accountability to Salem |
No |
|
Establish a Financial Advisory Board for residents |
No |
|
Stop Backroom Deals and Nepotism |
No |
|
Videocast township board meetings |
No |
|
Create a Property Owners Initiative for creating a trust fun (sic) with Salem’s excess landfill revenue |
No |
|
Balance Spending so ALL township services are covered efficiently and effectively |
Can’t tell |
Let’s take an in-depth look my “yes” and “no” answers. As some answers are subjective it’s only fair to give my perspective a whirl around the block and see how it takes the curves.
Now, let me see, at the least “Cap Discretionary Spending” would mean living within your means, right? Like everyone in America, living within your means is something every family must do, or take steps to achieve, unless one is entitled to a Bailout. The same holds true for government right? Well, right now the Salem Township Board is borrowing from reserves to pay every day expenses. And guess what? The reserves (in other words, our savings) that Treasurer Uherek proclaimed he brilliantly “rebalanced” as soon as he got into office are a combination of investments bought at a premium, which are now being sold at a penalty to pay for day to day living expenses, and a variety of mortgage products, you know, the things that are in the news every day as causing the entire economic fiasco that we all are in now, thanks to our politicians. I guess the newspaper that Mr. Uherek reads at the board table isn’t the financial times.
Campaign Promise #1: Cap Discretionary Spending.
So is my “Promise Not Kept” rating on this fair? Let me ask you a question: would you take your money, invest it long-term, paying a premium to get into a bond or fund, then pay a penalty a few months later because you were spending more than you were making? Be your own judge.
Note: this writer has a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act request) into the Salem Township board to determine how much we’ve paid of our money into bank fees and penalties. I’ll let you know what I find out.
Campaign Promise #2: No Township Tax.
Since the township has not collected a local tax in more years than I can remember (let’s just say more than 20 years), a Promise Kept is not that great a feat. However, considering that all the township’s money is tied up in long-term investments, and we’re borrowing from reserves, that’s a very qualified “kept” that is being awarded.
Campaign Promise #3: Bring Transparency and Accountability to Salem.
It’s another subjective “Promise Not Kept” here. Let’s take a look at the way in which Mr. Uherek participated in the change of attorney firms.
1. A Special Meeting was called for November 24, 2009, two days before Thanksgiving (anyone for a Christmas Eve Health Care Vote? Oh, sorry, wrong special meeting).
2. The agenda and supporting materials was published on the internet the Friday before the meeting, or three days before, including the weekend.
3. The agenda had an item “Select New Attorney Firm” and included resumes of a few attorney firms, which was pretty strange since three members of the board didn’t know anything about this. Why didn’t they know? Because the board had never put out a Request for Proposal. So how did firms here about the position? Supervisor Heyl and Treasurer Uherek emailed and called these firms. Oh. Right. Transparancy, Accountability. Yeah.
4. But Mr. Uherek had a solution – he made a motion to waive the township bid policy. Problem solved! No accountability or transparency necessary!
5. Uherek, Heyl, Wallazy and Van Fossen quickly crammed a vote down the public’s craw for the only real contender on the list (Johnson and Rosati), as the others were obviously chosen by looking up the names of attorney firms that had sued the township or stopped the township from being sued.
6. So if you can count to “six” (6) you can be well assured that this was one goes into the “Promise Not Kept Column” with confidence.
Campaign Promise #4: Establish a Financial Advisory Board for residents.
Well that’s not objective at all, it hasn't happened. Another Promise Not Kept.
Campaign Promise #5: Stop Backroom Deals and Nepotism.
See Campaign Promise #2 above. As far as nepotism, it seems that Mr. Paul Uherek is following the edicts of his father Mr. Robert Uherek, Sr right down to voting to give his father $27,500. But that’s another story, which you’ll find out all about here very soon. So another Promise Not Kept.
That’s an easy “Promise Not Kept.” Campaign Promise #6: Videocast township board meetings.
Campaign Promise #7: Create a Property Owners Initiative for creating a trust fun (sic) with Salem’s excess landfill revenue
I don’t really know what that means. If it means what I might think it does, based on some other campaign promises of Mr. Uherek, it’s not legal. Either way, it’s a Promise Not Kept.
Campaign Promise #8: Balance Spending so ALL township services are covered efficiently and effectively
Okay, that’s a direct and precise quote from Mr. Uherek’s campaign literature. I don’t know what “balance spending” means in the context of “so ALL [emphasis in orginal] township services are covered efficiently and effectively. I guess his campaign manager, who he paid $10K to, told him it sounded good. She’s right, it does, I love it – I’m going to repeat this sentence until I fall asleep. So that’s a Promise that doesn’t mean anything – sorta like if I promised LQG is one of a family of theories called canonical quantum gravity. The LQG theory includes also matter and forces, but the theory does not address the problem of the unification of all physical forces, as do some other quantum gravity theories such as string theory.
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