Jackson council needs independent voices
As we ring out the old and ring in the new, in Jackson we should look to ring out the three members of the Township Council who will be up for re-election in May and ring in three new nonpartisan, responsible members.

The candidates should be aware of the powers that the township's administrative code gives them and they should be ready to counterbalance the overwhelming power the current mayor has grabbed.

We need answers to why the "fix-it" 32 percent tax increase in the 2006 budget is still in effect, why payments to our town attorneys are so outrageously high, why we are again involved in a gypsy moth brouhaha, why the action of the mayor in Johnson Park has led to a $15,000 fine from the state Department of Environmental Protection, why $455,000 was spent on basketball courts with lighting when the park closes at dusk.

Most of all we need new council members who will not continually rubber stamp some of the ill-conceived and ill-advised ideas of our current mayor.

Sheldon J. Hofstein

Jackson