Holmdel Voters To Decide On 3 Public Questions
At the August 10, 2021 meeting, the Holmdel Township Committee passed three ordinances calling for three public questions to be decided by voters in the November election.
Public Question #1 – Increasing Annual rate for Open Space Trust fund
In 1998, Holmdel residents approved an Open Space Trust Fund. The funding of the Trust for the past 20 years or so is a dedicated tax levy equal to 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed value or about $175 per home. Over the years, almost $15.9 million has been collected and $15.7 million has been expended with most of the expenditures for debt servicing for land acquisition, lawn and field maintenance, recreational improvements and structural needs. Notable properties acquired have been the DePalma Farms, Two Brooks, F&F Nurseries, Callan Farm and HMF.
The public question seeks to raise the annual assessment form the current $0.025 per $100 in equalized valuation to $0.035 per $100 in equalized valuation, an increase of around $70 per average home. The main reasons are to allow future acquisition of open space (recreational improvements like trails and bikeways, playgrounds, athletic fields and to be ADA compliance, historic preservation (Harding House) and/or farmland preservation.
Mayor Buontempo and the Township Committee support this increase because not only will it help to keep the bucolic nature of Holmdel but will provide relief from affordable housing requirements. The presentation by Township Administrator Cherron Rountree on this is available on the Holmdel Township website.
Public Question #2 – Increasing Benefits for Volunteer Fire Responders
Members of the Holmdel’s Fire Department and First Aid Squad are all volunteers. Since 2002 when it was first authorized, Holmdel Township maintains an Emergency Services Volunteer Length of Service Award program (“LOSAP”) in order to reward the volunteer members for their loyal and devoted services to Holmdel residents.
This program currently provides for a fixed annual contribution of $1,150 per person into a tax-deferred income account for qualifying volunteer first responders. The public question seeks to increase the annual contribution to the maximum allowable by law to $1,580 per volunteer.
See also the link for a centraljersey.com article when this ordinance was first introduced:
Public Question #3 – Establishing a Charter Study Commission
Holmdel Township is governed by a form of government that is more than 100 years old called Township Committee, originally under the Township Act of 1899 and has since been revised. The Township Committee consists of five members who are elected for a 3-year term on a staggered basis. In some towns in New Jersey and Monmouth County, the Mayor is directly elected by voters. In Holmdel, the Township Committee, as part of its annual reorganization at the beginning of the year, selects one of its members to be Mayor and another as Deputy Mayor. While the Mayor is only one of five votes on all matters before the Township Committee, he or she is the presiding official of the meetings and sets the agenda.
In 1950, the New Jersey Legislature enacted the Optional Municipal Charter Law (more commonly known as the “Faulkner Act”) to update and provide a more modern framework for local government. The Faulkner Act identifies four voluntary forms of government, each with varying options for political structure and separation of power and allows for.
Among various options allowed under the Falkner Act, a governing body may pass an ordinance for a public question to be decided by voters on whether a charter study commission should be elected to study the current form of government and consider a new charter or improvements to the current charter.
According to the ordinance passed at the meeting, “the Township Committee believes that Holmdel voters would benefit from a public question on whether to explore alternative forms of municipal government, including options that provide for the direct election of the Mayor, rather than the current system that denies voters that opportunity.”
The charter study commission is only a temporary “committee” and has up to nine months to complete its study and to make recommendations if any. Any recommendations by the Charter Study Commission will then be decided by Holmdel voters again as a public question.
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