Step toward defunding police

[Susan Goetz]

Throughout my 6 year tenure on the TC I learned that little can be gained by responding to anonymous critics on this forum. Nevertheless, I am going to give this one more attempt at civil dialogue.

Let me say, first, that if any of you reading this wish to discuss further with me, please reach out to me directly (sgoetz01@gmail.com) I will send you my phone number and we can chat openly and directly.

Here's the truth - It came to the Mayor's and the Police Chief's attention the Chief Varga was not able to continue as the OEM Coordinator because he did not meet certain residency requirements in the law establishing the position of OEM Coordinator. Neither does his Deputy OEM Coordinator meet the requirements.

Chief Varga met with the Township Administrator and it was the Chief himself who apparently recommended me for the position. That recommendation was then presented to the Mayor and with his approval I was asked to accept the position.

To be clear, this is a voluntary position and comes without salary or stipend.

My qualifications, besides a willingness to accept a voluntary position include the following:

- As TC member for 6 year-end serving as Mayor and Deputy Mayor during that period of time, I had held the duties as liaison to the Police, Fire , First Aid and Public Works and have total respect for their skills, training and work ethic.

- During that same tenure I worked closely with the Police through our two most recent emergencies of Hurricane Irene flooding and SuperStorm Sandy power outages.

-Prior to retirement, I have been trained and OSHA certified as a Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) professional. Although not carrying current certification, I am seasoned and well versed in its application.

-I have a science background with an undergraduate Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science degree.

-I have been a resident of Cranbury for nearly 40 years, own a home here and have no intention of leaving.

Again, my appointment came on the suggestion of the Police Chief and was reviewed by the Township Attorney and I will be working closely with the current OEM Deputy Coordinator.

All responsibility to respond to emergencies in our community continues to rest with the Police and the Fire Department. The role of the OEM Coordinator is to assist them in meeting their objectives of public safety through facilitating coordination with County and State OEM.

Finally, any suggestion that this is somehow a political appointment is laughable and I must say a bit insulting to both me and to those who recommended me for this position.

Again, if anyone would like clarification of anything I have said here, please reach out to me directly. I welcome the open dialogue. Thank you - Susan Goetz

[Matt Scott-pq17]

This is Mayor Matt Scott.

In response to this discussion, I would like to make it clear that appointing a Local OEM Coordinator who is a resident of Cranbury is a requirement. The incoming Cranbury Police Chief is not a resident of Cranbury.

Our Local Office of Emergency Management consists of the Local OEM Coordinator, a deputy OEM Coordinator (who has been a member of the police force and will continue to be), the Township Administrator, and the Mayor. The Local OEM Coordinator's role is to coordinate activities between police, EMS, fire, public works and town management. It's a role about coordination and communication.

Outgoing Police Chief Varga was appointed to this position while he was a resident of Cranbury. The state does not require that the appointee be the chief of police or a member of the police department, but does require that he or she be a resident of the town. As Mayor, I am required to appoint a replacement.

I was given a list of names to consider by Chief Varga and our Township Administrator for Local OEM Coordinator, all whom have the background, time and commitment to fulfill the duties of the role. Our township attorney has reviewed the state guidelines and approved the appointment of former mayor and township committee member Susan Goetz.

The OEM Coordinator position is an unpaid appointment, having nothing to do with police budgeting.

If anyone has further questions on this or any other matter then please contact me directly at: mscott@cranbury-nj.com.

I am much more comfortable discussing issues outside of an anonymous forum.

[anon-4272]

An earlier poster posted the qualifications.

It clearly states that the OEM coordinator have a minimum of two years of experience (not classes or certification) in Planning, development and administration of emergency management services such as those Provided by Police, Fire and EMS. How is environmental training meeting this? It might be helpful to better understand this.

I agree Susan was a wonderful member of the TC, is respected by the volunteer first responders, and a valuable member of our community. But, I do not see how how the qualifications are met that are spelled out.

Susan- You mention working with first responders during Irene as it was on your TC tenure. What role did you play? The TC during Irene was Win, Dan, Jay, Glenn and Dave.

https://www.cranburytownship.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif4296/f/minutes/tc_minutes091211.pdf

[Susan Goetz]

Apologies - I misspoke on Irene. My efforts were in fact not in Cranbury. For the other issues, please email me if you wish to discuss

[anon-661o]

As TC member for 6 year-end serving as Mayor and Deputy Mayor during that period of time, I had held the duties as liaison to the Police, Fire , First Aid and Public Works and have total respect for their skills, training and work ethic.
1-Were other former township committee members considered? Or was only Mrs Goetz the head of the Democratic Party in Cranbury. We have committee members currently and former on the township committee who are life long residents and have more time served on the Township Committee. Mayor Scott and Deputy Mayor Ferrante?

- During that same tenure I worked closely with the Police through our two most recent emergencies of Hurricane Irene flooding and SuperStorm Sandy power outages.
2-Inflated Resume by Mrs Geotz. Irene is a lie and during Sandy Dave Cook was Mayor.

-Prior to retirement, I have been trained and OSHA certified as a Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) professional. Although not carrying current certification, I am seasoned and well versed in its application.
3-Look at the requirements for the role none of these certifications listed qualify Mrs. Geotz

-I have a science background with an undergraduate Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science degree.
4. Science is not one of the requirements for the role Mrs. Geotz. Have you ever been a first responder? Or do you think identifying as a first responder makes you qualified Mrs. Geotz?

-I have been a resident of Cranbury for nearly 40 years, own a home here and have no intention of leaving
5. Time lived in Cranbury is not a requirement for the role and we have many residents of Cranbury who have been here 40, 50 years were they considered Mrs. Geotz and Mayor Scott? You are classifying and profiling people based on how long they have lived in town Mrs. Geotz? Basing your decisions on who can serve based on how long someone has lived in Cranbury which implies age is age discrimination Mrs. Geotz Mayor Scott and Deputy Mayor Ferrante.

Mayor Scott, why did you not appoint a member of the Cranbury Fire Department or First Aid Squad? They are real first responders with experience who handle emergencies every day in Cranbury. Or is this political payback Mayor Scott and Deputy Mayor Ferrante. We all know you hate the Cranbury first aid squad and fire department. Mayor Scott we all heard you say at the George Floyd memorial you want to defund the police and we all saw Deputy Mayor Ferrante cheering for defunding the police.

Something smells in Cranbury and that smell is political patronage and political favors being handed out by the Cranbury democrats lead by Mrs Geotz Mayor Scott and Deputy Mayor Ferrante. This is only the beginning.

[anon-7666]

I may be dense, so I am trying to follow this:


- The Chief, Twp Admin and Atty approved. But there is no explanation of how they approved the qualifications being different.

I personally after much thought think the law is plain STUPID. It makes no sense to force a small town to only choose a resident and it makes no sense to have the state mandated qualifications either if there is agreement that the OEM head is just a conduit. But, the law has to be followed and right now that is a question we don't understand.

- No one has answered the question of how a workplace training dealing with a Brown field site or OSHA law which relates to workplace safety equals two years minimum experience in Policing, Fire response or EMS doing actual day to day planning, administration and development. But, rather a suggestion to deal privately.

- There is information being shared that the OEM lead must be a Twp resident. This point is agreed upon all around. Again, I personally think it is dumb.

- There was a list provided and the Mayor chose the candidate. I asked one TC member earlier this week if there was a list or application and told no. It was a Mayor choice. It does not seem any TC member was made aware of such an important role being vacant or a list of candidates in which an opinion could be offered.

- The explanation on Irene is confusing. It was stated it was on your tenure, and then a it was a misspeak. We all do that so I get it.

But, the misspeak is not that you were not involved at all. Just not here in Cranbury as a TC member it seems. As you said it was another town. So to be clear you worked closely with another Town's Police Department helping in their emergency planning response to Irene as a private citizen?

[anon-661o]

CRANBURY OEMGATE! Mayor Scott, Deputy Mayor Ferrante , Head of Cranbury Democratic Party Susan Goetz

[anon-ro07]

The current police chief has not been a resident of Cranbury for about 6-7 years. Strange how all of a sudden he’s retiring and now they are looking at the qualifications.

[anon-42r2]

Good point. But our code says county resident. Is it town or county now? Which is correct?

https://ecode360.com/6662545?highlight=emergency,emergency%20management&searchId=22965792283565444#6662545

- is the chief a county resident and why did the Mayor make a point about him living in Cranbury when he was appointed if the requirement was not town? If the Chief lived in the county then nothing was out of the ordinary so no one likely knew or cared that he did not live in Cranbury or even cared to explore if the code was right or wrong.

But questions:

- If code says county and law says town, how did the code get it wrong? How long has it been wrong?

- How did those running the town not know it was wrong for so long?

- Why go looking at the particulars now? If it said county in the code why would they not assume it was correct? Someone had to decide to research and find the code was wrong. Why now and when did that start? Why?

- if the Chief did not live in county then why didn’t the Administrator or attorney raise it and let the chief know there was an issue before now?

The administrator has all their home addresses for payroll and is responsible for township operations and staff. Yet, No one caught this?


In my mind I am asking what else is being done that is wrong.

[anon-8p2q]

[anon-829p]

Jay is a mean spirited lying troll.

[anon-41r6]

I was wondering how long before Indivisible came out and tried to change their game plan back to attacking Jay. Jay must be the only one who doesn’t think giving away money and appointing political leaders is a good idea. Lol. All these posts are him. If I were Jay I’d be laughing that I have this power of all of you and am in your heads. I’d start making up crazy far right proposals at the meetings just to mess with you even more. He is the boogeyman to the Dems— everywhere and nowhere lurking in the shadows.

I don’t see how anyone except the indivisible folks including those on the TC care about Dino, Tea party and Rino or anything else when it comes to town government. I’ take a DINo and RINO every day if I know my tax dollars are being spent wisely and there are qualified people serving.

Our TC has never been about not R or D and that is what the socialist Dems today don’t get. You are right the town has changed, but not to the better as you seem to think. The Dems put party above town.

You ousted Glenn who knew more and did more for the town than anyone on there today including Jay and unlike Jay who announced he’s done, Glenn actually still was passionate about helping. How did that work out? When all voters could decide you lost. You could have been 5-0, but party above town lost the town a very good member and the Dems 5-0 control.

TC is doing its work is correct if you are one who is benefiting from the giveaways.

[anon-nrq6]

The Cranbury Trump party is poison! Even moderate Republicans won't have anything to do with it. They will never be elected in this town, county or state. period. What you hear on this site is the Trump remnants of that grand old party!

[anon-41r6]

Uhh. Evelyn won and beat the Dem candidate last year.

[anon-829p]

[stop analyzing every-34nq]

stop with the 'bs'. IF Susan is willing to do the training and everything that goes along with it then everyone should have her back and CONGRATULATE HER. I for one don't know why anyone would want to do anything for this town. i already plan on leaving cranbury in the next 14 months when i retire.