Cranbury Forum | Bulletin | Info Sharing
[Click here to bookmark this page: http://cranbury.info]
▪
Cranbury School
▪
Cranbury Township
▪
Cranbury Library
▪
Cranbury.org
▪
Cranburyhistory.org
(Press Ctrl and = keys to increase font size)
Search
Register (optional)
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
[http://cranbury.info]
->
News | Events
Post a reply
Username
Subject
Message body
Emoticons
Font colour:
Default
Dark Red
Red
Orange
Brown
Yellow
Green
Olive
Cyan
Blue
Dark Blue
Indigo
Violet
White
Black
Font size:
Tiny
Small
Normal
Large
Huge
Close Tags
[quote="Guest"]Well said, Jay. Accountability and performance standards must be set and maintained. The deficiencies in the oft-discussed ballfield, from my understanding of comments I've heard, were avoidable had engineering oversight been more keen. Additional billable hours to resolve performance issues would not be acceptable (not sure that this is the case in this instance, but I've certainly seen it in other professional situations). Bidding must occur. Auto-renewals frighten me and rarely lead to increased cost efficiency and performance. And personal and professional ties between hiring officials and professionals also need to be disclosed at minimum, preferably avoided.[/quote]
Options
HTML is
ON
BBCode
is
ON
Smilies are
ON
Disable HTML in this post
Disable BBCode in this post
Disable Smilies in this post
All times are GMT - 4 Hours
Jump to:
Select a forum
Topics
----------------
News | Events
School | Parenting
Blogs by Cranbury Residents
Shopping | Good Deals | Price Talk
Home Sweet Home
House For Sale
Home Sales Pricing Records
Financial | Stocks | Mutual Funds
Cool Bytes & Bits
Garage Sale | ForSale Ads | Things to Trade
Tech Related (PC, Internet, HDTV, etc.)
Interesing and Fun Stuff to Share
What's Your Favorite?
Interests | Hobbies
Cranbury History
Radom Thoughts | Sports | Kitchen Sink
Amazon Deals
Local Business Info
----------------
Local Business Ads (FREE)
Support
----------------
Daily Sponsored Message & Amazon Ads
About Us | Your Privacy | Suggestion | Sponsored
Test Area (Practice your posting skills here)
Topic review
Author
Message
Guest
Posted: Fri, Sep 18 2009, 3:27 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: Professional Services in Cranbury
My observation has been that he is condescending and outright rude when presented with residents' (you know, the folks paying for his services) concerns or questions. I can't comment on how effective he his in providing services. But it does make you wonder in light of his evidently low regard for town residents at planning meetings.
Guest
Posted: Fri, Sep 18 2009, 3:12 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: Professional Services in Cranbury
What specifically are the problems with our planner?
Guest
Posted: Fri, Sep 18 2009, 1:20 am EDT
Post subject: Re: Professional Services in Cranbury
A vote for Dan and Jay... Free
The opportunity to rid our town of the pompous tool we call our town planner... Preiss-less
Andrews
Posted: Thu, Sep 17 2009, 7:31 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: Professional Services in Cranbury
Yesterday I rode the train with Jay Taylor. During the trip we discussed among other things the upcoming election. This was the first time I had met him, but with the post above I want to comment on my view.
Here are my thoughts:
- It is clear that he and Dan Mulligan are truly vested in running. He was able to articulate the issues, but he was focused on solutions. He mentioned that he and Dan are running together because they feel that with Win they can actively control expenses. The post above to me reflects that view to me.
- Long term planning seems to be their central premise. Whether it is fighting COAH, Consolidation or taxes they all affect us long term. Whether it is our revaluation or sewers. It's clear they want to make decisions with a long term view and plan for potential issues that may arise prior to the issue being a major problem. Proactive, not reactive management.
- What impressed me was he said while he has views, he has been wrong on occasion
. Referendum and resident input are critical.
- He and Dan have young children. My personal view is that since they do they are linked to our town long term. So I believe their personal interest is in keeping their promises because they will be putting their money where their mouth is.
Guest
Posted: Thu, Sep 17 2009, 5:38 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: Professional Services in Cranbury
This is great. I support it.
Guest
Posted: Thu, Sep 17 2009, 1:32 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: Professional Services in Cranbury
Well said, Jay.
Accountability and performance standards must be set and maintained. The deficiencies in the oft-discussed ballfield, from my understanding of comments I've heard, were avoidable had engineering oversight been more keen. Additional billable hours to resolve performance issues would not be acceptable (not sure that this is the case in this instance, but I've certainly seen it in other professional situations).
Bidding must occur. Auto-renewals frighten me and rarely lead to increased cost efficiency and performance. And personal and professional ties between hiring officials and professionals also need to be disclosed at minimum, preferably avoided.
Jay T.
Posted: Thu, Sep 17 2009, 12:20 pm EDT
Post subject: Professional Services in Cranbury
On Cranbury Day and walking through town, Dan and I have been able to speak with many residents concerning our professional services contracts in town; how they are reviewed, when are they reviewed and how are they managed.
I was very glad to see these questions being asked because it is something that Dan and I are both concerned about as residents and have been raising before the Township Committee for a while now. Before Dan and I decided to run for office we were questioning amongst ourselves and our friends whether the town was truly reviewing the professional services contracts.
Dan and I sat in the budget meetings and saw the cycle of auto renewing contracts occurring. We openly questioned some of the professional services and at one point I became disturbed to learn that one of the services had not been put to bid in a number of years. In essence this firm had an evergreen contract with our town. The good news is that two contracts the Township Engineer and the Township Attorney are now out to bid. However, there are certain commitments that need to be made to our residents and which Dan and I firmly believe that a town our size needs to be doing:
1) We need to establish service standards with all of our professional services to ensure accountability and to ensure efficiency for our town and residents. As a town we need to guarantee that if a service needs to be delivered it should be done with the least cost and expediency. It is not acceptable for a firm to reply that tax dollars are not being used when residents are paying for town mandated work at their home or business and therefore act as though other residents in town should not care.
2) We must bid contracts out as they expire. It may cause work for our town, but we need to ensure we're paying fair prices for services delivered.
3) We should look at alternatives. Is our spending on services from private providers appropriate? Perhaps efficiencies and lower costs can be gained through shared services with other towns or bringing certain services in house.
4) Encourage resident feedback and open communication. Let us know your experiences with the outside firms the town employs. We need to catalog these concerns and use them when we review proposals for services. We also need to make this part of our service standards.
We feel the current contracts which went to bid were due in large part to Win Cody pushing for this action. If elected we will continue to work with Win Cody and our fellow neighbors in Cranbury to find potential savings to the taxpayers in these areas and others in our municipal government and budget.