The Cost To The Naysayers Is Obvious From Their Rhetoric!

“Lies, damn lies and statistics,” said Mark Twain.

When there is no argument to show why the proposed form of government is bad for Holmdel, they turn to statistics to spook you into thinking that we are nearing the end of the world.

And when they show their statistics and share the sources to make it look legitimate, they fail to show the list of cities used to derive their statistics.

Why is this important?

It would be a significant distortion of facts, to say the least, if Newark, Hoboken, or Jersey City is included in their statistics to compare with Holmdel as their flier indicates.

These cities have the ‘STRONG’ Mayor form! That is NOT our proposed form of government.

Ours is a ‘WEAK’ Mayor form of government. Who are our peers that look ‘LIKE’ Holmdel?

These are the towns with the ‘Weak’ Mayor Council-Manager form of government in New Jersey:

Asbury Park

Byram Township

Cape May

Montclair

Cedar Grove

Keansburg

Newton

Ocean Township

Ridgewood

Sparta

Teaneck

Verona

Aberdeen Township

Brigantine

Evesham Township

Howell Township

Lower Township

South Brunswick. Township

Deptford Township

East Windsor Township

Eastampton Township

Fair Lawn

Franklin Township

Galloway Township

Lawrence Township

Livingston

Maple Shade Township

Medford Township

Moorestown Township

Mount Holly Township

Mount Laurel Township

Mountain Lakes

Pequannock Township

Randolph Township

Ringwood

Roxbury Township

Springfield Township

Willingboro Township

Some of these towns like Upper Montclair, which had the highest household income in New Jersey in 2018, Cedar Grove, which is ranked as the 4th best place to live in Essex County, Mountain Lake, and Sparta are more ‘like’ Holmdel.

Other towns in Monmouth County not like Holmdel but with roughly similar population size with the proposed form of government include Aberdeen, Asbury Park, and Ocean Township.

So, the facts are clear that towns like Holmdel have adopted the proposed form of government though not exclusively. These towns did not shy away from adopting this form of government citing bad statistics from bigger cities, or flawed statistics that included big cities that have a different form of government (‘Strong’ Mayor form).

They relied on the merits of the proposed form of government. They relied on the truth!

Prakash Santhana

Deputy Mayor

Holmdel Township