JIM JORGENSEN FOR COUNCIL

Need to steer Wayne into the future

My comments about the upcoming general election are from the perspective of a concerned taxpaying neighbor. Perhaps I have been naive about the concept of what political figures are supposed to do in their efforts to get elected. My feeling is that if someone has talent, experience, or applicable knowledge base that allows them to help their community, they should try, if they have time to execute such good intentions, as they may be. Good intentions aside, I find myself disquietingly fascinated in my observation of the fund raising efforts of politicians in general. Nothing I've seen was illegal or unethical, as the mores of today's New Jersey election laws imply; it just seems like a bit much.

In late August I was asked to run for a suddenly open democratic council-at-large slot. I considered doing so because I have a firm belief that there is an underlying tone of poor moral, internally and externally, regarding the township, which someone with faith and a healthy respect for their fellow man might improve.Don't misunderstand, the tone I address is an existential tone, begun with the murmurs of a dissatisfied workforce, of service providers deserving more respect than that which I have seen demonstrated or heard talk of.

My view is derived from having been a town employee for nearly five years, in a position that allowed interaction with all town services. I befriended almost everyone, in one fashion or another. I noticed simple respectful things that could really make a difference in a person's daily life were not often found, and in a place like Wayne, those small impacts of inconsideration were like bitter little rocks thrown into a nearly steady pond, creating ripples of negativity that eventually found their way to the shores of tax payers all over town, in one form or another. So I was in a quandary, try to identify myself as a possible representative that will work to improve the moral of which I write, and offer up a person with an open door dialog policy, or not.

Wayne should be the number one town in New Jersey. Our current leaders are fairly decent folk, but they do seem to be narrow in their perspective. If they have vision, if they can see the value of diversity and opportunity in the same creative way that someone like me does, they have tempered that desire, and don't appear to embrace change, to the point of limiting the Town's ability to grow new business and hold current business in place, or create an atmosphere of equality, one that Wayne should have. There's a need for different points of view in the driver seats.

Someone else has to steer this town, or we may watch it fade into the fates of places like Detroit, and it won't take a Sandy to blow away the property values we have if taxes are not dispersed amongst business and residence alike. We must future proof, for the decades to come, not just the expected term of seated officials. The proposed master plan was imbalanced, because this town is not a field of dreams, that if we simply build it they will come. If they come, it will be for the cheapest possible housing that can be afforded, creating a need for greater police, fire and school costs. But why would contemporaries come here, as there are places with more pedestrian friendly environments than ours.

So I said yes, because I'd like to work towards that better Wayne, to a day when the folks that work for the town can lift their heads proud of their leaders, and genuinely smile at passersby, and we can all know when we wake up that we live in the best town in New Jersey. I'll try my best, for the people, not the politics, and friends I have made here in town should know that I really do have that kind of faith, the kind that says when I throw a rock into the big pond that is Wayne, expect to see positive ripples.

Jim Jorgensen

Wayne