What You Need to Know Before You Vote

I take my role as Committeeman seriously, and the trust you've placed in me to act in Holmdel's best interests is my sole focus now - and for as long as you allow me to serve you.

That's why I'm committed to providing you the facts before you vote on July 26th. Admittedly, those facts have led me to the conclusion that voting "no" is the right thing to do. At a minimum, it's important to me that you have as much information as possible before you make your decision.

I will honor the will of our voters regardless of the outcome.

Holmdel’s Charter Study Commission spent nearly six months and thousands of your tax dollars in an effort to fundamentally change the town we all love and call home.

Yet, after all that studying, it's a grave concern that the Commissioners and their advocates still can’t answer basic questions regarding their efforts. And, when I and others publish facts and statistics that raise reasonable questions regarding their radical recommendations, they respond by calling us liars and saying we are spreading misinformation. They have even created their own Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” to unfairly smear people who - based on the data - simply disagree with their position.

Sadly, it’s easier to call someone a liar than it is to roll up your sleeves, do the work, and crunch the numbers. Consider the numbers crunched. And no matter how the data is sliced, the conclusion remains the same: 1) Municipalities that have implemented their recommendations look nothing like Holmdel, and 2) Their proposal is simply a bad idea.

MONMOUTH COUNTY FACTS

Let’s look at data for our very own Monmouth County. When you examine our 53 municipalities, you will find that the majority (48, or 91%) of communities do not use the “Council-Manager” form of government recommended by the Charter Study Commission. In fact, only 5 municipalities in all of Monmouth County use this form: 1) Aberdeen, 2) Asbury Park, 3) Howell, 4) Keansburg, and 5) Ocean Township.

These 5 municipalities are great towns with their own distinct flavors and character, but they are nothing like Holmdel. On average, they have 25,096 residents, 9,380 households, and are 16 miles in size. As of 2020, their residents had median incomes of $88,304, mean incomes of $110,030, and median home values of $349,100. The average population density of these 5 communities is 5,345 people per square mile.

Comparatively, in Holmdel, we have 17,400 residents who live in 5,987 households and are spread out over roughly 18 square miles. Holmdel residents have a median income of $140,709, a mean income of $206,816 and a median home value of $711,500 (again, all as of 2020). With our more suburban character, our population density is only 975 people per square mile.

With only these simple U.S. Census Bureau facts in hand, you can already clearly see that the 5 Monmouth County municipalities with Council-Manager governments are nothing like Holmdel.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

We further extend this analysis visually using a powerful, but admittedly complex, graph. This chart plots all 53 Monmouth County municipalities by mean income (X axis), median home value (Y axis), and population density (size of “bubbles”).

• The 5 towns with Council-Manager forms are shown in red.
• Holmdel is shown in yellow.
• All other towns are shown as blue.

Please take your time reviewing it - zoom in, study it, and think about how your Holmdel differs from those 5 “Council Manager” communities shown in red.

Whew!!! That’s an awful lot of information packed into one little chart.

Here are some key takeaways:

• Relative to Holmdel, the 5 municipalities with a “Council-Manager” form of government have lower incomes, lower property values, and higher population densities.
• Despite what Charter Study supporters are saying, no Monmouth County towns like Holmdel have a “Council-Manager” form of government. Not Colts Neck, not Fair Haven, not Little Silver, not Millstone. Not one.
• No affluent Monmouth County communities use a “Council-Manager” form. Not Rumson, not Sea Girt, not Spring Lake, not Allenhurst, not Deal, not Avon by the Sea. Not one.
• Not a single community with home values above $500,000, or mean incomes above $130,000, use the council manager form. Zero. Not one.

I have also provided a second chart below, which shows only Holmdel (in yellow) and the 5 Monmouth County “Council-Manager” municipalities (in red). This chart simply highlights how different Holmdel is from these 5 communities.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

This is the kind of information I wish the Charter Study Commission provided to our residents. Though, after studying the data independently, I'm beginning to see why they didn’t.

As Agent Mulder concluded in the X Files, “Much as you try to bury it, the truth is out there. Greater than your lies, the truth wants to be known.”

I'm going to continue providing you with facts and statistics in the days and weeks ahead simply so you are informed. I hope you find it helpful and that you'll join me in voting NO on July 26th.

For sake of completeness and to preclude Charter Study advocates from complaining that I have not provided town names, here are the names of all 53 Monmouth County municipalities that were analyzed: 1) Aberdeen, 2) Allenhurst, 3) Allentown, 4) Asbury Park, 5) Atlantic Highlands, 6) Avon By The Sea, 7) Belmar, 8) Bradley Beach, 9) Brielle, 10) Colts Neck, 11) Deal, 12) Eatontown, 13) Englishtown, 14) Fair Haven, 15) Farmingdale, 16) Freehold, 17) Freehold Twp, 18) Hazlet, 19) Highlands, 20) Holmdel, 21) Howell, 22) Interlaken, 23) Keansburg, 24) Keyport, 25) Lake Como, 26) Little Silver, 27) Loch Arbour, 28) Long Branch, 29) Manalapan, 30) Manasquan, 31) Marlboro, 32) Matawan, 33) Middletown, 34) Millstone Twp, 35) Monmouth Beach, 36) Neptune City, 37) Neptune Twp, 38) Ocean Twp, 39) Oceanport, 40) Red Bank, 41) Roosevelt, 42) Rumson, 43) Sea Bright, 44) Sea Girt, 45) Shrewsbury, 46) Shrewsbury Twp, 47) Spring Lake, 48) Spring Lake Heights, 49) Tinton Falls, 50) Union Beach, 51) Upper Freehold, 52) Wall, 53) West Long Branch.