Moorestown has a reputation as a town with great schools, safe streets, and historic charm. But, what those of us who live in Moorestown know is that the true treasure of our town is its people and community. Throughout the course of this campaign, I have had the opportunity to learn in-depth about the many ways Moorestonians are enriching our community every day, and it makes me even more motivated to give back to our community by serving on town council.

From the outset, my running mates and I felt it was important to meet as many people as possible in town. To date, we have knocked on nearly five thousand doors, and met even more of our fellow citizens at our public campaign events, and at events organized by our many community groups. What I have discovered about the people of Moorestown is inspiring. There are those who want to beautify our town, through new public parks or flowers along Main Street, those who seek to cultivate safe spaces for our children to play and grow, and those who work tirelessly to preserve Moorestown’s history and heritage. We have many who organize recreational activities for young children to learn fun, exercise, and sportsmanship, and those children grow into teens who perform charitable works, not because they are required to do community service, but because they want to. Our town council and manager are advised by numerous committees who are comprised of citizens who volunteer their time and talents to better our town. This is to make no mention of the many people who care for elderly neighbors or provide childcare for friends. And, I cannot count the number of people I have met along the way who have simply told me, “I love this town.” Even with this list, I have only scratched the surface of the ways that Moorestown’s spirit of volunteerism presents itself every day.

My own running mates are examples of our wonderful community spirit. Pete Palko has donated endless time and resources to our town, and seeks to contribute his knowledge of engineering and business to our town council. Phil Garwood has been devoted to recreation in Moorestown, serving on our Recreational Advisory Committee for seven years and coaching his daughters’ athletic teams, just to name a few things. They are the kind of people who make Moorestown what it is, and I will be honored to serve with them on town council.

I am incredibly proud to be a part of this community, and I sincerely hope that the voters of Moorestown will give me the chance to serve our town in the best way I know how. In addition to fulfilling the promises I have made on the campaign trail, I will be committed to supporting our volunteers in their perpetual efforts to better our town, and make it the truly special community we are so lucky to live in. Please, vote for my colleagues, Phil Garwood and Pete Palko, and for me on November 6th.

Sincerely,

Victoria Napolitano

One of the best qualities of our town is its parks and recreational facilities. They are in many ways the gateway to the township.  Well -maintained facilities, reflect a positive light for the any town. We need to have a structured spending plan if we are to effectively maintain and improve our existing facilities.

The Open Space fund has gotten attention as a source of funding for projects that stretch the legality and the intention of the voters. I strongly believe we should use the Open Space fund for strictly environmental and natural preservation, maintenance and acquisition. Funding for capital projects unless there is a direct correlation to an environmental situation is not in Open Space Fund’s best interest. My example is the dams at Strawbridge Lake.

If elected, I will, along with Victoria Napolitano, Pete Palko and council members Stacey Jordan and Chris Chiacchio, bring a dynamic team of experience, knowledge and new perspectives to Town Council. I hope the Garwood Napolitano Palko team will earn your vote on Tuesday November 6^th.

Sincerely,

Phil Garwood

On a local level, fortunately we have smaller issues to deal with but local property taxes are something that can make an immediate impact to our personal financial situations if controlled and reduced.  For that reason, our GNP team has talked to and met with thousands of township voters as part of our door to door networking program, during presentations that we performed at numerous committees and organization events, and during numerous open access events where we wanted to provide an opportunity for people to talk to us in person and candidly about what concerns them and enable them to ask our opinions on issues important to their families without a microphone present.  That experience has been tremendous  in enabling our team to better understand which issues are most important to our community and which require immediate attention versus being able to be deferred as secondary concerns.  Without a doubt, reduction of taxes ranked first.  Our team is ready, willing, and capable of acting on each of the issues that have been put before us with the underlying consistent message that our goal is to control and hopefully ultimately reduce our current tax burden.  Critics can take stabs at each one of us individually, or attempt to blame us for other’s past decisions, but as a united team that is on the same page as our two incumbent town council members, we believe we complement each other’s abilities and that we can contribute to making this town a better place to live for all of its occupants, whether they be republican, democratic, renters, home owners, or even phony patch bloggers.  We know the issues, the budget and even minor components of it like what we pay for open space per hundred without needing to ask others.  Our team will be one that uses professionals to support us but not purely rely on their opinions without challenging them hard.

Although I respect each one of our opponents for willing to volunteer which some would characterize as a thankless job, there are philosophic differences between our two teams that clearly separate us from one another.  We have all seen and heard various video interviews this week that we, as a GNP team, elected not to participate in.  Not because we fear anyone or anything that would be asked of us but because it simply didn’t make sense when we have spent the last 8 months getting our message out and talking to folks face to face.  Being party to a circus for a blog service where most of the respondents use alias’s (no offense patch) didn’t seem like a priority versus spending that same time reading thousands of pages of reports on issues that matter, reviewing our municipal budget and holding meetings with each of the current town council members for their thoughts on township issues, meeting with township employees to understand the challenges they face and how we can improve them, meeting with every township professional that we currently employ from auditors to engineers,  knocking on an additional

1000 doors and/or holding open public events that were designed to give back to all Moorestown voters from both parties including those portions of town that have felt outside the loop in years past.  Believe it or not, our team has already been working 7 days a week developing plans to make our town better.  If you really want to know more about GNP’s opinions on some of the patch questions, visit the Moorestown Sun article about meeting the candidates where each one of use responded to basically the same questions or contact us before the election.  If you want a short overview, the democratic candidates want to spend on solar, new lights, new parking, more redesign of town hall, and few dozen other things including using up to $250,000 alone of the liquor money for a township manager.  Our opponents presented ideas for courts which I would agree need to be decided on but failed to understand one of the key reasons a decision has not been made.  The governor has made it clear that townships need to work together and share services, including such things as a court.  If we rush to create a redevelopment model downtown before at least investigating whether courts can be shared in adjacent towns, we risk the state pulling yet more funding in the future.  The reason isn’t just because current council couldn’t figure out the whole puzzle so let’s give them some credit for thinking through the issue on this one as our township manager has been working on this very issue for months.

So what about liquor?  Is it time to tap the keg and start a spend-a-thon?  Not at all if you ask us. GNP wants to lock the liquor money up and invest it if possible while we attempt to settle the $500M of tax appeals at the state level that could require being paid back which is roughly 10% of our total annual budget, not just the township portion but the entire budget including school.  Remember our township income is based on $4.6 billion is ratables being collected.  This is a massive issue that could not only eliminate the entire liquor windfall but create further reductions in ratable income for years to come.  Reductions in ratable income mean tax increases for those that remain.  Which is more important to you because anything that may raise my taxes goes to the top of my list before I talk about more spending? What we have seen in the videos is a continued willingness to spend and one that our township cannot afford, not to mention opinions that are not based on all the information necessary to make a good decision.

With GNP, the township has the ability to elect a cross section of candidates that vary in age, experience and technical ability but that complement and support one another and that will be on the same page as current council members.  Conscientious  building  and moving forward in a positive direction with positive reinforcement is something long overdue.  We don’t need new council members coming in and challenging our current incumbent members on decisions made long ago, which has already been the case with the “lets revisit town hall” message coming from our opponents after $4MM has already been spent.  I would be the first to say I did not agree with demolishing the old town hall and believe that we could have renovated it instead but I am not that far removed that I think we should derail the direction that previous councils have laid out and invested millions in  at this point that were based on professional expert opinions they received at that time.  That is non-productive at this point on that issue. I believe my role as an incoming councilman would be to manage the decisions current council is making, control costs for construction and not allow them to exceed current budgets and if that takes pushing back on a contractor’s unsupported request for a change order, I have spent my entire life doing that and consider myself an expert in that arena that will not require any architect, construction manager or other township professional’s opinion to educate me for me to act.  Once the low bidder puts up their performance bond, there is no way that project will blow apart under my watch.  That being said, not every council member needs to be an experienced professional engineer and/or contractor who  have experience in almost every facet of our municipal capital needs but it may be nice to have one.  The same applies to a technology expert that has a youthful opinion of how technology can be applied to bring our township current and more user friendly in addition to having a councilman who has spent countless years working on township committees, the RAC and “gets it” versus one whose priority is to install solar panels.  Didn’t our president hand out $525 million to a company in solar that went under?

Beyond educating ourselves on the possibility of serving our town, the GNP team has been working hard to build relationships with our elected officials in the event we need to call on them for support all the way from the governor and lieutenant governor on down to our county officials.  The opportunities to spend time with our elected officials  including Senator Allen, Congressman Runyan, Freeholders Bruce Garganio, Leah Arter, Joe Donnelly, Joe Howarth and Mary Ann O’brien have been great opportunities for our team to build valuable relationships that will only benefit Moorestown going forward.  One of the keys to our town receiving benefits is to maintain strong relationships with county, state and in some cases federal government officials so we can call on them when we need them.  Our team has been with our elected officials at dozens of events for a reason.  Each one of them knows what we stand for and has offered their support to us and our town going forward however they can.  I personally believe that having a great relationship with the folks that decide how much school benefits we receive if we can is a positive; and our town’s people should want their council members to be able to contact county and state officials all the way up to Governor Christie if necessary to be heard on issues important to us and have them take the call.

In summary, and like my co-candidates Phil Garwood and Victoria Napolitano, I am extremely proud to be a Moorestown resident and have my family reside in this community and attend our fabulous school system.   I can assure you that I will work hard for our community and make decisions that are both  fiscally conservative but at the same time do not strangle our town’s ability to stand out as a great place to live.  Thank you for all your support in the past and going forward.

Sincerely,

Peter Palko

“We are unbelievably proud to receive an endorsement from such a prominent and respected figure in Burlington County politics,” Garwood stated. “Diane Allen has been a strong advocate in Trenton for the taxpayers of the state of New Jersey, and we plan on mirroring her commitment to reining in taxes and reducing government waste as members of town council.”

“Senator Allen has been a voice of reason in New Jersey for years, placing people before politics and leading the way in common sense solutions,” Napolitano said. “We look forward to working with her over the next three weeks on the campaign trail, and will work closely with her as members of town council to continue to expand our town’s open space programs, preserve our town’s history, and help keep Moorestown’s retail districts open for business.”

“Elections have consequences, and we, like Senator Allen, know that the people of Moorestown do not want to go down the road of more government spending and continued division on town council,” Palko added. “In receiving Senator Allen’s endorsement, our team continues to prove that we are the right choice for voters in Moorestown who want to see a municipal government that is fiscally responsible, that can work together to fix the tough issues facing our town, and who will fight every single day to create a better future for Moorestown.”

As we have spent time knocking on thousands of doors in our town, the three of us have had an opportunity to hear firsthand about the issues that Moorestown voters care about. Not surprisingly, nearly every person places taxes on the top of their list.

Lots of politicians talk about reining in taxes and cutting government waste. Our team actually has a plan to do it. If elected, we will:

• Review the municipal budget for efficiency improvements and cost reductions
• Work to revive our local business districts by encouraging redevelopment of commercial properties that are not currently ratable producers
• Continue to pursue shared services options both in-house (board of education) and outside. Our high-quality services can be an income producer by partnering with surrounding towns that may desire to use them.
• Establish a council liaison to the Moorestown Board of Education to support them with planning and efficient spending (the BOE represents 63 percent of Moorestown’s tax bill)
• Install a long-term capital expenditure plan so our emergency reserves are protected
• Create partnerships with the private sector and our town’s various local organizations in matters of fiscal responsibility (i.e. sponsorships, co-paying for improvements, holding events that entice visitors to Main Street and other retail districts)

We believe town council has an obligation to keep taxes in check while ensuring all government spending is responsible. While our opponents are already proposing hundreds of thousands of dollars in new spending from incoming liquor license funds, we believe in an approach that uses our team’s expertise, combined with Moorestown’s current resources, to create a budget that keeps taxes low, and supports our township without creating more government spending.

We have made our commitment to reining in taxes and cutting government waste a priority in this campaign, and will continue to make it our top priority as members of town council.

“We are humbled and grateful to receive the support of five people who truly understand
what the residents of our county and our town need,” Garwood said. “We are honored
to receive their endorsements and look forward to having them join us on the campaign
trail.”

“We gladly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Freeholder Board in their fight to
defend the taxpayers of Moorestown and Burlington County,” Napolitano added. “The
voters of Moorestown have our promise that as Councilmembers, we will work hard
every day with our county officials to solve problems and keep our town a place that we
can all be proud to call home.”

“All five of our County Freeholders carried Moorestown in their respective elections by
sizeable majorities because the people of our town know that we need leaders who stand
for fiscal conservatism and responsible government,” Palko stated. “With our team’s
Blueprint for the Future, Moorestown residents will have a Town Council that listens to
their concerns, preserves our town’s heritage, and builds a more prosperous tomorrow.”

Read the full text of the Freeholders’ endorsement here.

Peter Palko, Republican Candidate for Council

Victoria Napolitano, Republican Candidate for Council

Phil Garwood, Republican Candidate for Council