Support Strickland, Sackett & Ravitz for County Commissioners

As a resident of Morris County, I’ve always been interested in the Morris County Commissioners’ use of the $365 million dollars in residents’ tax dollars that they are entrusted with. I’ve also been interested in their stances on issues like gun violence and LGBTQ+ issues, to name a few.

I wonder why the current & former Morris County Commissioners never seem to be looking for ways to save the taxpayers' money, lower our county taxes, or at least try to be more efficient with those tax dollars.

For years, the Morris County Commissioners have been ignoring great opportunities to bring down costs, and therefore taxes, for not only the county government, but also for every individual municipality within the county. Why hasn’t the county worked more to share services throughout the towns? In order to do this, it takes leadership. An engaged Commissioner is actively seeking solutions, not passively going along.

If you refer to a previously written email by Morris Township mayor Jeffrey Grayzel, a year ago, he suggested the example of the Morris County Dispatch Center created in 2006 which decreased costs for towns across Morris County. No such shared services have been offered since. Other counties have been much more successful in this endeavor.

Every year the State of New Jersey offers $10 million in shared services grants. Under this program, every county has an opportunity to apply for a grant for a “shared services coordinator,” someone who finds ways that the County can provide direct services to towns or who can help towns with their own shared services agreements. Morris County has never applied for this grant or any of the others shared service grants offered by the state. What a missed opportunity and frankly governmental malpractice.

As to their stances on Gun Violence and LGBTQ+ issues. I was one of the members of Moms Demand Action, a non-partisan Gun Violence Prevention organization, simply requesting a Gun Violence Awareness Proclamation from the county. This has been provided to me for many years from my own township of Hanover. There is no question that we have a gun violence problem in our schools and in our daily lives and we were simply seeking that recognition. Around 120,000 people are killed by gun violence every year.

The Morris County Commissioners instead chose to make a partisan statement saying that gun violence was caused by gangs and mental illness and ignored the facts about the ready availability of guns with no background checks and no curbs on assault weapons. Common-sense gun regulations, as a way to reduce gun violence, was not even mentioned. Why was that? Because at least one Commissioner, when she saw my red Moms shirt, came over to me at a previous meeting and told me that she was a proud member of the NRA and wasn’t voting for our type of resolution.

So in conclusion, we need Morris County leadership that will bring towns together so they can save money together. This year we have an opportunity to elect 3 County Commissioners who are laser-focused on shared services to save taxpayer dollars. Vote for commissioners who will curb overdevelopment, will be transparent, and will prioritize flood mitigation.

Jonathan Sackett, Justin Strickland & Bud Ravitz understand what the County Commission could do for the county residents to save them money and bring residents together on issues that matter to them.

Fern Wolkin, Hanover NJ