Editors Note: The following is Scorpo24's proposal for reform of city government and tax structure. As always the comments of the writers are their own. The Advocate merely exists to allow citizens to present their ideas in an intelligent and uncensored way for the betterment of the city. In order to counter the effects of the Doria 5 Year Bonding Plan, the Taxpaying Citizens of Bayonne are demanding that this 5 Year Austerity Plan be implemented. If the Mayor and Council refuse to adhere to these demands, the newly created “Taxpayer Citizen Board” will arrange to file legal actions in both State and Federal Courts, including the Bankruptcy Court. If the Mayor and Council refuse to adhere to these demands the “Taxpayer Citizen Board” will arrange to open an Escrow account into which all Citizen Taxpayers will deposit their current taxes into, in order to force the matter into the Courts. The above procedure is permissible when tenants have an uncooperative Slumlord and ought be equally permissible when the Taxpayer has a corrupt Mayor and Council who have mismanaged the City into a 400 Million Dollar Plus deficit. A person running for Office at time of elections will be required to pledge in writing that he/she will follow this Plan. The essential steps of the Plan are as follows: 1. Taxes are to be reduced Twenty Five (25 %) Percent across the board. 2. A budget is to be formulated that will not exceed the income from the taxes. 3. To effect the NEW Balanced budget, the attached 1 page City Employee Questioner is to be filled out by EVERY City employee, without exception. 4. A Seven (7) person Taxpayer Citizen Board is to be created, with mandated members consisting of those persons continually speaking out at Council meetings, such as Stan Mako, Mike Massone, Mr. Kantor and others that are to be selected by the three above named parties, no City politician or employee will be allowed on his Board. 5. The Taxpayer Citizen Board will have the responsibility of reviewing the “City Employee Questioner” supplied by the City employees, with the Duty to dismiss as many City employees as possible that they find as being non-essential to the operation of the City. They will have the duty to dismiss as many employees as possible, even if it means cutting certain City services. This including the dismissal of ALL Crossing guards (parents or volunteers will perform this service) and the dismissal of all Meter Maids, their function will be performed by the Police Department on their normal patrol, even if it means the poor Officers having to get out of the cars to write tickets. 6. The Taxpayer Citizen Board will create a “Citizen Volunteer Group” to compensate for the loss of minor City services, such as Park clean up (currently performed by the DPW, serious jobs will continue to be performed by the trimmed down DPW) and as crossing guards, and the like, that can be accomplished by the average person without a drain on the City treasury. 7. The Taxpayer Citizen Board will ignore all challenges by any Union and will demand that said Union accept the dismissals of their members as part of the 5 Year Austerity Plan, and alternatively will add said Union or Unions in Court and/or Bankruptcy Court actions as members of those involved in the misuse of Taxpayer funds. 8. This 5 Year Austerity Plan is a suggested base document that concerned Taxpayer and general Citizens may add further suggestions to.

A budget is to be formulated that will not exceed the income from the taxes. <------ Ya see that is the hard part. You will have to elaborate more on this one sentence budget to make this plan even the slightest bit conceivable. I don't get this one, then we eliminate one of the city's biggest revenue generators, this is supposed to make us money? I can keep going but it’s pointless. Finally, by appointing the first three members of this "board" you emulate the "powers" that you claim to be fighting against.

I agree that an austerity plan is needed but the mechanism for implementing same has to be able to withstand the built in fail safes that the system has put in place. Civil service, mandatory arbitration, mandated programs which do not come with funding, automatic sale of diligent tax liens are but a few. The beast will never relinquish power back to the electorate voluntarily. We need to build an organization outside of their influence and power the and only then will they respond and make the cuts. They spend to preserve their power. In other words they spend to ensure that they will get reelected. What we have to do is make them fear us more than they fear the unions. If there is a real desire for freedom then we must unite those of a like mind. A simple exercise would be to organize a voting tree. We each need to identify and communicate at least ten like thinking voters who will vote with us and in turn find ten more voters and so on. There is a potential pool of 32,000 voters. If we could consistently organize and turn out half of them the Council and Mayor would change their ways. Then we could move to change the County and State, large blocks of vote command respect.

A novel idea but.... 1. Who's on the board and what's THEIR political agenda? 2. "Arranging" an escrow account for taxes to be deposited to would be legally sanctioned by who? 3. The "above procedure' may in fact be used for tenent landlord disputes but it in no way, shape or form is applicable to municipal taxation. 4. Who's going to enforce the "Employee Questionaire"? 5. By what authority are the "three above named parties" appoint seven people with the authority to "dismiss as many city employees as possible"? 6. When accidents and other actionable issues arise, who's responsible for the liabilities that will occur? The volunteers you imagine will show up in droves? 7. By what authority will this all powerful board simply "ignore" the unions and their contracts? Who pays for the legal action that your "Group" would have absolutely no answer for? And for the record, valid, ratified contracts aren't "misuses" of public funds. 8. What in the world makes you think people will show up in droves day in and day out to be part of a "Citizen Volunteer Group"? "Citizens" have careers, homes, families, and responsibilities that will come long before volunteering to provide municipal services when they'll still be taxed? No offense but you're selling a pipe dream.

Hi Scorp: It would be highly improbable to have Bayonne declared bankrupt. Could you imagine the embarrassment that it would cause Joe? Could you see the headlines, especially in those sections of the state where the pols don’t like Joe? I see several problems: • At this time it would be impossible to offer a 25% tax reduction. The following item will highlight why. • I’m not that familiar with the budget but my recollection is that less that 45% of the MUNICIPAL budget is paid by our property taxes. The balance is made up from fees, licenses and GRANTS. In addition, about $40mil is coming from the BLRA. All this does not address the BOE budget. • There are always liability issues when dealing with volunteers. • Who would determine which volunteer is ‘fit’ enough for that particular responsibility? • What would be the recourse if volunteers decided not to accept direction? • Major lawsuits could erupt if the administration fails to follow agreements set forth by the various union contracts. Just the same, I suspect that if the City is in a state of emergency changes can be negotiated. Since I don’t have solid information I have to consider this a rumor, someone expressed that years ago the city of Chicago fired union employees regardless of having a contract in full force and effect. • By what authority would the proposed board put into effect any of the suggested changes that can pass legal muster? • What would be the source for legal advice? I suspect that Mike’s idea would work effectively. But it would not happen overnight. But it’s possible that once there was a reasonable outpouring by the citizens it would give the pols pause to reflect.

Mr Massone, Let's be realistic about building an organization. For months on end we've been reading on NJ.com (which seems to have a much larger readership tha the Bayonne Advocate) about the need to march on city hall, to protest, etc. What's come of it? Nothing. A march on city hall is a short, single event, not a long term commitment like the one Scorpo and yourself are describing. Yet, not even a single march or protest has ever occured. Neither will the creation of a lasting "Citizen Volunteer Group" occur. The people this primarily appeals to are too busy living and managing their own lives to make it happen, which ultimately leaves it in the hands of the more affluent people who simply want a change in the administration to benefit their own causes, in other words, politics as usual. Meet the new boss......

Sorry City, I want changes because the slippery slope we're on will crush the taxpayers who could least afford the overburdening expense. Add to that I have no desire to become a politican. Can't speak for others.

Cityedition: Why is it so difficult for you to believe in your fellow citizens? Hope is the one trait that makes us human. I will grant you that it is sometimes difficult to believe that people will act but believe me they will once they are roused. Sometimes its an act of injustice and at other times it is a real or perceived threat to what they treasure most. The trigger is there. The art of politics is to keep the people away from the trigger. You are correct when you say that the ramblings on NJ.Com have produced little in the way of action but I submit to you that the creation of this forum is a step forward. The very fact that resistance is being discussed will cause them to lose sleep. Give it a shot what do you have to lose.

Hey! I got off my fat arse because I got PO'd. Neil provided us with this site because he got PO'd. From time to time Neil attends meetings and speaks because he's PO'd. Yes, it's not a volcano erupting, but people will begin to speak out. As our situation gets worse more will show up and maybe even speak their peace!

Stan and Mr Massone, It's not a matter of not believing in my fellow citizens but it's not 1968 and the Chicago Seven are long gone. Yes, people aren't happy but when was the last time you saw the Council Chambers filled? It was during the bonding debacle last May. With a new, albeit temporary leader in city hall who's actions defy the nonsensical theory that he's Doria's puppet, new leadership (Director Nichols) at the BLRA that's producing positive change in just a few short weeks, and the dismantling of the remnents of Doria's prior influence on the BLRA where's the trigger? Now more than any other time in the last nine years is the time for citizens to stand behind the city leaders rather than storm the gates. It is NOT in the city's best interest for anyone entity to employ a divide and conquor strategy at this point in time, but rather their own. And Stan, I didn't mean to imply that you were trying to become a politician, I agree 100% with your post #4.