Township Committee Candidates: Leonard Morano

Election day is in less than two weeks, and Barnegat Patch is turning the focus on the candidates for township committee. Below, you'll find our profile on Democrat Leonard Morano, who answered several questions Patch readers wanted to see the candidates address.

You can also look back at our story on Republican and independent , and keep reading in the coming days for profiles of the other candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

• Candidate name: Leonard Morano
• Address: 34 Highland Drive
• Party: Democrat
• Occupation: Retired school maintenance worker
• Previous government experience: First served on the Barnegat Township Committee in 1976; has served many terms since then

The incumbent Democrat in the race for township committee, Len Morano has a long history as an elected official in Barnegat Township. Today, he said, the issues Barnegat faces boil down to taxes. He wants to see township spending trimmed to suit the times – getting rid of unnecessary overtime and switching to part-time positions where possible are both valid options, he said.

He also said he wanted to dispel rumors circulating of his alleged ill health. "I'm very healthy," he said.

Obviously, taxes are issue number one for a lot of people. Can you offer up some specific ideas for cutting taxes, including, but not limited to, cuts you would make in municipal spending?

The focus must be on stabilizing taxes, Morano said, “and to stabilize them, you have to cut costs.”

First on the chopping block would be what he sees as excess overtime granted to township employees, he said.

“Overtime in the tax office, the building department – that’s not a necessity,” said Morano. “We have people out on a Sunday picking up garbage at the dock and the beaches. Why can’t you do that during the week?”

The building department is also overstaffed, he said, and should be reduced to part-time employees only.

He also said that while he can’t talk in detail about the ongoing contract negotiations with the township’s police department, he wants to see some changes in how supervisory shifts work.

“When the sergeant is out sick, an officer in charge that’s a regular patrolman takes over his place, and gets paid the sergeant’s pay – and so does the sergeant,” Morano said. Instead, he’d like to see the superior officer step in and run things in the sergeant’s place to avoid double-paying.

In general, he said, cutting back on salaried positions is the key for bringing down spending in the township.

“There’s a lot of money there,” he said. “It could be trimmed down.”

Did you approve of the 2011 municipal budget? If not, what specifically would you have changed?

 “I voted against the budget because I knew it was going to be a large tax increase,” Morano said. The budget may have brought down municipal spending to a degree, he said, but residents still saw their local taxes increase.

“It was a 40 cent tax increase no matter how you put it,” he said. “I can’t vote for a tax increase.”

Morano said he wanted to see cuts made for a smaller budget. “You have to start skimming,” he said. “You don’t keep taxing and spending.”

One issue that readers have been asking everyone to weigh in on is salaries and benefits for elected officials. Do you, or would you, collect and keep a salary and medical benefits? What are your thoughts on those who say elected officials should not do so?

Morano said he will avail himself of the benefits offered to committee members. The law allows it, he said, and he doesn’t think it represents a major burden to taxpayers.

“It comes out to $1.50 a person in the township to pay for the committee benefits,” he said. And to help defray the cost, he said, “I’d like to give up my salary and pay that toward the cost of benefits.”

Morano said that he does not get retirement benefits from his career with the school district, because he did not work the 25 years required to receive them.

Accessibility and transparency are also important topics for a lot of people. Do you, or would you, make a point to personally respond to calls and emails from residents? What do you think can be done to increase the level of communication between residents and officials, and make township matters more transparent?

Morano said he favors direct communication with residents. When it comes to email and phone queries, he said he feels it helps to have the township administrator receive and relay messages, because it ensures committee members don’t get bogged down with requests or miss messages that might come in when they’re out of the office.

“I’m out talking to the community every day,” Morano said. People seem to have no problem coming to him with questions and concerns, he said. “They know where to find me.”

What else is important to you as a candidate?

“The most important issue is taxes,” Morano said. “We’ve been hit too much, and right now, people can’t afford another tax increase.”

He said he’s fighting to keep his seat because he feels there ought to be an opposition vote a committee that, but for him, is made up of all Republicans

“The reason I have to run is that I believe you have to have checks and balances,” he said. “To have all one party is bad. You have to have somebody there watching what’s going on, otherwise you’re just giving a blank check to the other side.”

With himself and his running mate Mike Howard on the committee, Morano said, there would be enough opposition to block a vote to bond on items, which could go a long way toward stopping what he sees as out-of-control spending.

“That’s a lot of money,” he said.