# Edmund "Tom" Maciejewski for Berkeley Heights Township Council — Full Text

Official campaign website full-text export for Edmund "Tom" Maciejewski, candidate for Berkeley Heights Township Council, general election Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

## About The Candidate

Edmund "Tom" Maciejewski is a Berkeley Heights resident running for Township Council in the Tuesday, November 3, 2026 election. Background: engineering, technology, and finance. Campaign standard: public factual claims carry a source and a date.

### Sourced Public Record
- 2016: Began personally live-streaming Township Council and committee meetings to Facebook so residents could watch their own government work. (Patch, September 2016)
- 2016: Publicly opposed a Council ordinance restricting residents from recording public meetings. (Patch byline, September 20, 2016)
- 2017: Opposed the Council's move to close committee meetings to the public, and wrote and proposed a “Berkeley Heights Sunshine Act.” (Patch byline, January 22, 2017)
- 2017: Participated in the League of Women Voters candidates forum and addressed local redevelopment and tax questions. (TAPinto, October 19, 2017)
- 2023: Published local-government analysis of a Berkeley Heights redevelopment study. (NJ21st byline, June 2023)
- 2026: Publicly pressed for a real audit of township library spending alongside continued support for the library. (2026)

## Positions

### Overdevelopment and Affordable Housing in Berkeley Heights
URL: https://tomfortown.com/positions/stop-overdevelopment/

Where do I stand on development in Berkeley Heights?

Growth has to be tied to what our infrastructure, schools, roads, water, and sewer can actually carry. Berkeley Heights has legal affordable-housing obligations it must meet — the question the Council controls is how we meet them, and that choice decides how much total construction this town absorbs.

What is Berkeley Heights actually required to build?

New Jersey is in the Fourth Round of affordable-housing obligations (2025–2035). A court order entered April 14, 2025 fixed Berkeley Heights’ obligation at a Present Need of 0 and a Prospective Need of 240 affordable-housing credits. Because state law caps bonus credits at 25% of the obligation — at most 60 here — at least 180 real affordable homes must actually exist in town by 2035.

Why does the path we choose matter so much?

If the town met its 180-unit affordable obligation entirely through standard “inclusionary” projects at a 15–20% set-aside, that alone would imply roughly 900 apartments — four to six market-rate units for every affordable one. Delivered through 100% affordable projects instead, the same obligation is closer to 180 total homes. That difference is the ballgame for traffic, school capacity, drainage, and the feel of this town. Since 2020, downtown redevelopment has added or is set to add more than 725 new households near the core of Berkeley Heights (Real Estate NJ, January 23, 2024); the Township’s adopted Fourth Round plan currently totals 804 units.

My plan

- Affordable-only first. Use 100% affordable projects, group homes, and deed-restricted tools before approving inclusionary projects that multiply market-rate construction.

- Keep the committed affordable project moving. The Township has committed to a 100% affordable project on Snyder Avenue. It needs to stay on schedule, with public status reports — drift there becomes market-rate apartments somewhere else.

- Guardrails before the next big site. Nokia Bell Labs is relocating its historic Murray Hill campus by 2028. No redevelopment designation or rezoning of that site before zoning guardrails and public benefit are locked in.

- Plan for Round 5 now. The state recalculates our obligation around 2034 based on the land inventory that exists then. Every acre we pave carelessly today becomes tomorrow’s obligation.

### Taxes, Spending, and PILOT Agreements
URL: https://tomfortown.com/positions/taxes-spending-pilots/

What is a PILOT, and why should Berkeley Heights taxpayers care?

A PILOT (“payment in lieu of taxes”) is a long-term property-tax exemption the Council can grant a developer inside a designated redevelopment area. No developer is ever entitled to one — each requires a Council-approved financial agreement. The annual service charge splits roughly 95% to the township and 5% to the county, with no statutory share to our schools. The wider tax-paying community carries the cost of educating children from those developments.

Where have I stood on this?

This is not a campaign-season conversion. At the League of Women Voters candidates forum in October 2017, I opposed these tax abatements as “essentially giving away the farm” while other candidates supported them (TAPinto). In June 2023 I published an analysis of the 311 Springfield Avenue redevelopment study documenting how PILOT taxes bypass our schools (NJ21st). In 2026 I pressed publicly for a real audit of township library spending while continuing to support the library itself.

My plan

- A PILOT standards ordinance requiring independent financial review, a school-impact analysis, public audits, and roll-call votes before any long-term tax exemption is approved.

- A school-share policy so tax-exempt developments contribute toward educating the students who live in them.

- A quarterly housing and PILOT report putting credits, deadlines, agreements, service charges, and audit status in one plain public document.

- Spending discipline: independent review before major obligations, and public accounting residents can actually follow.

### Roads, Drainage, Flooding, and Sewer Infrastructure
URL: https://tomfortown.com/positions/roads-drainage-infrastructure/

What should local government actually be doing?

The basics. Roads you can drive, drains that keep your basement dry, a sewer plant that works, and maintenance that happens before things fail instead of after. When a town approves major new development, the infrastructure math has to be done first — not discovered later by the residents downhill.

My plan

- Basics before extras. Council attention and budget priority go to roads, drainage, sewer, flooding, and public works before discretionary spending.

- A plain-language quarterly infrastructure report. What is being repaired, what it costs, what is behind schedule, and what the engineering reports actually say.

- Flooding treated as a priority, not a talking point. Drainage projects measured by one standard: does the water stay out of homes?

- Prompt public notice on sewer problems. If the treatment plant has a compliance problem, residents deserve to hear it from their government first, in plain language, immediately.

- Read the reports before the vote. An engineering background means consultant recommendations, valuations, and technical claims get questioned before approval — not rubber-stamped.

### Transparent Local Government and Public Records
URL: https://tomfortown.com/positions/transparent-government/

What is my transparency record?

I started personally live-streaming Township Council and committee meetings to Facebook in 2016, so residents could watch their own government work (Patch, September 2016). When the Council moved to restrict residents from recording public meetings, I fought it publicly (Patch, September 2016). When it moved to close committee meetings to the public, I opposed that too — and wrote and proposed a “Berkeley Heights Sunshine Act” (Patch, January 2017). This website follows the same standard: public claims carry a source and a date.

My plan

- Agendas that say who asked for what. Residents should know who placed an item on the agenda and why.

- No burying major decisions. Long-term tax agreements and major financial commitments get their own discussion and their own roll-call vote — not a slot inside a bundled consent agenda.

- Documents before the vote. The materials the Council votes on should be online, in advance, where residents can read them.

- The reason on the record. Major decisions should come with a stated public reason residents can evaluate — and hold us to.

### Public Safety and Supporting Our Police
URL: https://tomfortown.com/positions/public-safety/

Where do I stand on public safety?

A safe town is the quiet foundation under every other local issue — property values, schools, downtown business, and whether kids can bike to a friend’s house. Berkeley Heights is safe because police officers, firefighters, and EMS volunteers show up and do the work. They should never have to wonder whether their local government stands behind them.

My commitments

- Fully support and fund our police department — staffing, training, and equipment decided by public-safety needs, not politics.

- Back our volunteer fire companies and EMS, whose service saves this town money every single year and deserves recognition and support.

- School safety and traffic enforcement as standing priorities — safe routes, safe crossings, and speed enforcement where families actually walk.

- Emergency preparedness: storms and flooding are our most frequent emergencies; coordination and communication before, during, and after must be routine.

- Respect, publicly and consistently. Gratitude to the people who serve is not a campaign line; it is how a town keeps good people serving.

### Independent Local Leadership
URL: https://tomfortown.com/positions/independent-leadership/

What does “independent” mean here?

I am one candidate, running my own campaign, on my own record. No slate, no package deal, no promises to anyone but the residents of Berkeley Heights. Every issue gets judged on the local facts — the document, the number, the vote — not on party habit or insider pressure.

What if we don't agree on national politics?

Then we are like most neighbors in this town — and it should not matter here. There is no Republican or Democratic way to fix a storm drain, read a PILOT agreement, or publish a meeting record. If you are an independent, or a Democrat who wants fiscal discipline and straight answers locally, this campaign is built for you too: judge the work, check the sources, and hold me to the numbers.

What I ask of voters

- Records before rhetoric. Read the positions and articles here — every public claim should carry a source and a date. If one doesn’t, tell me.

- Ask the next question. The job of a Council member is reading the agreement before the vote and asking what page 11 actually says. That is the job I am applying for.

- A Council member should be easy to inspect. This site exists so you can do exactly that.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Who is Edmund “Tom” Maciejewski?
Edmund "Tom" Maciejewski is a Berkeley Heights resident and a candidate for Berkeley Heights Township Council in the November 3, 2026 election. His background is in engineering, technology, and finance, and he has a long public record of following local government closely. See the About page for the sourced record.

### What office is he running for, and how many seats are open?
He is running for Berkeley Heights Township Council. Two of the six Council seats are on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot. Council members serve staggered three-year terms.

### When is the 2026 Berkeley Heights election?
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Polls in New Jersey are open 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.. Early in-person voting runs Saturday, October 24 through Sunday, November 1, 2026, and any registered voter can vote by mail. Details and official links are on the Vote page.

### How do I register to vote or vote by mail in Berkeley Heights?
The voter-registration deadline for the November 2026 general election is Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Register or check your status at the NJ Division of Elections, request a mail-in ballot through the Union County Clerk, and find your polling place at the NJ polling place search. Always confirm current deadlines with the Union County Clerk.

### What party is he running with?
He is on the Republican line on the ballot. The campaign itself is deliberately local: Berkeley Heights decisions, public records, and practical oversight. Republicans, independents, and Democrats who want a more careful local government are all welcome — judge the work, not the label.

### What are his top priorities for Berkeley Heights?
The public issue areas are responsible growth, fiscal discipline, infrastructure basics, open local government, public safety, and independent local leadership. Detailed positions will be published with source-backed articles as they go public.

### Where does he stand on New Jersey's affordable-housing requirements?
New Jersey is in the Fourth Round of affordable-housing obligations, covering 2025–2035. Berkeley Heights' obligation was fixed by court order in April 2025. The detailed campaign position will be published with the related source-backed article.

### What is a PILOT agreement?
A PILOT ("payment in lieu of taxes") is a long-term property-tax exemption a town council can grant a developer in a redevelopment area. Detailed views on local tax agreements will be published with the related source-backed article.

### How can I volunteer, get a lawn sign, or get campaign updates?
Visit the Get Involved page, email tom@tomfortown.com, or call 908-830-3305.

## Voting Information

- Election Day: Tuesday, November 3, 2026; polls open 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- Voter-registration deadline: Tuesday, October 13, 2026 (https://www.nj.gov/state/elections/voter-registration.shtml)
- Early in-person voting: Saturday, October 24 through Sunday, November 1, 2026
- Vote by mail via the Union County Clerk: https://ucnj.org/county-clerk/elections/
- Polling-place lookup: https://voter.svrs.nj.gov/polling-place-search
- Always confirm current deadlines with the Union County Clerk or the NJ Division of Elections.

## Published Articles

### A Nice Man Is Not a Plan (2026-07-21)
URL: https://tomfortown.com/articles/a-nice-man-is-not-a-plan/

Let me start with something I mean sincerely. I have nothing personal against John Foster. He shows up. He reads the community events at every meeting. He cares about this town. If this were a contest for nicest guy on the dais, he would win it walking away.

But nice is not the job. On June 30, the Council's last meeting before a deadline that will help decide whether 96 more market-rate apartments get built here, the body Foster leads approved a bill list, a block party permit, new police radios, and, tucked inside a bundle of routine consent votes, the designation of a brand-new "Urban Renewal" company as redeveloper of a downtown project. A corporate form that exists, under New Jersey law, for one purpose: to hold a tax break.

Nobody at that table said one word about the deadline. And the man with the gavel, the Council President whose job is to run the meeting and set its priorities, asked nothing.

This Is The Pattern, Not The Exception

I have watched this Council closely for a decade, and I will document the full record over the coming weeks. But the shape of it is already clear. Foster inherited the town's 2016 affordable housing settlement. That predates him, and I will not pretend otherwise. What happened next, though, happened on his watch and with his vote: the Connell campus rezoned in March with no public benefit extracted in return; a downtown redevelopment machine that quietly manufactures the next round of developer tax breaks; and the one project that would actually shrink total construction left to drift toward a missed deadline in silence.

To be fair to him, Foster did sign a March 2024 letter, alongside every other Council member, urging Trenton to soften the state housing law. So he was engaged enough to co-sign a letter. He was not engaged enough to manage what the law was doing three blocks from Town Hall. That is the whole problem in one sentence: going along is not governing.

Going along is not governing. A Council President who never asks the question is not leading.

I Have Been Sounding This Alarm For Ten Years

I am not new to this fight, and I do not ask anyone to take my word for it. The record is public, it has my name on it, and here is a piece of it.

My words, 2023: "The [redevelopment law] has been leveraged to incentivize the construction of apartment buildings along Springfield Avenue... offering developers significantly reduced tax rates. A crucial detail is that these taxes don't contribute towards our local schools. Consequently, the wider tax-paying community shoulders the cost of educating children from these new developments."
Edmund Tom Maciejewski, on the 311 Springfield Avenue redevelopment study, NJ21st, June 2023.

In that same 2023 piece, I described watching Council members prepare to vote yes on a redevelopment study they could not explain, wondering aloud whether they were "merely following the advice of 'experts,' whose financial interests could potentially benefit" from the designation. I wrote that two years before the June 30 meeting I just described. Nothing has changed except the address.

Reported, 2017: At the League of Women Voters candidates forum, TAPinto Berkeley Heights reported that I opposed these "tax abatements," which I described as "essentially giving away the farm." At the same forum, other candidates said they supported the abatements.

And going back further, to my first campaigns: I warned in writing that overbuilding apartments would strain our schools and change the character of this town, I fought two separate Council attempts to restrict residents from recording public meetings, and I wrote and proposed a "Berkeley Heights Sunshine Act" to force more of this government into the open. A decade later, we are living inside the exact tax-and-transparency problem I described.

It Is Not Too Late

None of this is sealed. The downtown tax exemption tied to that June 30 designation has not been voted yet. A real PILOT standards ordinance, adopted now, would govern it. The affordable-only building at 31-41 Snyder Avenue can still be saved, and even enlarged into something that reduces total construction rather than adding to it. The old Nokia Bell Labs site has not been zoned.

Credit where it is due: with Snyder Avenue, this Council has, at last, taken a first real step toward the affordable-only approach I have argued for. A decade late is better than never. The job now is to make sure the first step is not the last.

What it takes is a Council that asks questions before it votes, and a Council President who leads the room instead of reading the events calendar while the important decisions slide by on consent.

Come to Town Hall on Tuesday, July 21, and ask two questions that fit in a three-minute comment slot:

1. Did the Township prove site control of 31-41 Snyder Avenue by the July 1 deadline, and where is the proof?
2. Will the Terrace II financial agreement include a tax break, and will the Council order an independent financial analysis and a school-impact statement before voting on it?

I like John Foster. I just do not think liking someone is a reason to hand him the keys for another four years while the meter runs. Our Council did half the job on housing. I am running to finish it, and over the next several weeks, I will show you the rest of the record, one piece at a time.

Edmund Tom Maciejewski is a candidate for Berkeley Heights Township Council.

Paid for by Edmund Maciejewski for Township Council.

### The Council Report Report: From Flooding to Penguin Day in Berkeley Heights (2026-07-18)
URL: https://tomfortown.com/articles/council-report-report-berkeley-heights/

Nearly three hours of recoverable remarks show what four elected officials choose to say when the agenda gives them the microphone.

Have you ever noticed that a council meeting can travel from a six-figure grant to National Hot Chocolate Day without using a turn signal?

That is the peculiar charm of Council Reports, the recurring portion of a Berkeley Heights Township Council meeting when elected representatives have the floor to tell residents what they have been doing, what they have learned and what the public should know.

At least, that is what the title suggests.

A review of 76 recoverable report turns from 20 official meeting videos found something broader: committee updates and municipal information mixed with event plugs, historical commemorations, holiday greetings, wellness advice, local-business praise, wildlife guidance, personal reflections and a surprisingly full calendar of national days.

Some of it is useful. Some of it is kind. Some of it is genuinely entertaining. The question is whether this particular microphone - during a public government meeting - is being used for the information that only an elected official is positioned to give.

One important caveat comes first. The recoverable video record runs from May 20, 2025 through June 9, 2026. The Township's older official video channel is no longer available, and earlier minutes generally say only that councilmembers gave reports or committee updates. They do not preserve the remarks themselves. This article therefore measures what can be verified, not the entire four-year term. It also evaluates what was said in the report segment, not everything each councilmember may have done outside it.

First, the clock

| Councilmember | Recovered reports | Total speaking time | Average when speaking | Average spread across all 20 report-bearing meetings |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| John Foster | 19 | 55:57 | 2:57 | 2:48 |
| Margaret Illis | 19 | 44:37 | 2:21 | 2:14 |
| Bill Machado | 20 | 38:49 | 1:56 | 1:56 |
| Susan Poage | 18 | 33:02 | 1:50 | 1:39 |
| Combined | 76 | 2:52:26 | 2:16 per turn | 8:37 per meeting |

Nearly three hours is not a scandal. It is, however, long enough to become a feature-length civic production. At the average report-bearing meeting, the four members together used about eight minutes and 37 seconds. That time belongs to the council, the staff in the room, residents in attendance and everyone watching from home.

The more useful question is not simply, "How long did they talk?" It is, "What did residents receive in return?"

What is a council report supposed to be?

There is no magic municipal dictionary that gives every town the same answer. Local governments structure these segments differently. But several official guides point in the same direction.

The City of San Ramon, California, describes council comments as an opportunity for a brief announcement or report on councilmember activities, including liaison assignments. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, says the main function of a council liaison to a board or commission is communication: carrying council purposes to the board and bringing the board's ideas and concerns back to the council.

Two Rivers, Wisconsin, offers a useful structural example. Its agenda does not call the segment simply "Council Reports." It calls it "Council Reports from Boards/Commissions/Committees." The label tells speakers and viewers what belongs there. In several timestamped meetings, the segment lasted only a few minutes - and in one June 2026 meeting, 13 seconds.

A practical local definition could therefore be simple: report on assigned municipal work, identify a decision or problem, explain the next step and tell residents when they should expect another update. Announcements and congratulations can still have a place, but they need not be the main course.

What Berkeley Heights councilmembers used the time for

Across the recovered record, Council Reports functioned less like a compact accountability round and more like a community bulletin board with occasional government status reports pinned between the notices.

That does not mean the four members used the segment identically. They did not.

John Foster: the civic calendar, with historical notes

Foster spoke the longest in total: 55 minutes and 57 seconds, averaging 2 minutes and 57 seconds each time he reported.

His most consistent municipal subject was historic preservation, especially the Littell-Lord property, its festival and the creation of a heritage foundation. Residents did hear real status items, including committee activity, grant news, volunteer recruitment and approval to seek proposals for a restoration phase.

They also received the council's most ambitious tour through the ceremonial calendar. The recovered reports included World Bee Day, National Handshake Day, National Sunglasses Day, National Cookie Day, National Sangria Day, World Snow Day, National Hot Chocolate Day, National Penguin Day, National Drink Wine Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day, National Letter to an Elder Day and "Live Long and Prosper Day," complete with a Mr. Spock reference and a Vulcan salute.

One June report moved from the Littell-Lord festival and World Cup merchandise to a pup parade, a block party, Global Running Day, World Bicycle Day, National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, Global Wellness Day, International Yoga Day, World Softball Day and the summer solstice. Foster jokingly told viewers there would be a quiz later. By then, it would have been reasonable to check whether anyone had brought a No. 2 pencil.

Foster's reports were generous with recognition, history and event detail. They were much less likely to explain a council vote, a budget tradeoff, a delayed project or a measurable result.

Watch John Foster's complete recovered Council Reports - 57:49 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/john-foster-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)

Margaret Illis: the committee notebook

Illis spoke for 44 minutes and 37 seconds in total, averaging 2 minutes and 21 seconds per recovered report.

Of the four, her reports most often resembled what residents might expect from a council liaison. She regularly discussed Complete and Green Streets, pedestrian and e-bike safety, Senior Affairs, transit-hub planning, flooding, stream work, sidewalks, grants and coordination with police, engineers, DPW and outside agencies.

Her October 2025 reports, for example, described the first Complete and Green Streets meeting, an e-bike seminar, a flooding task force, the Green Brook Flood Control Commission and the limits facing the Army Corps of Engineers. In early 2026, she discussed Sherman Avenue, a Springfield Avenue sidewalk design, stream de-snagging, a senior survey and a proposed Complete Streets policy.

There was still plenty of community-calendar material: VetFest, Diwali, Coffee with a Cop, senior luncheons, Mah Jongg, the street fair and praise for several local businesses - including where she found firewood, sandwiches, meeting coffee and allergy-friendly cookies.

Illis provided the most operational reporting in the group. Even so, the updates rarely came with the full accountability package: cost, deadline, responsible official, measurable target and follow-up against a prior promise.

Watch Margaret Illis's complete recovered Council Reports - 46:28 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/margaret-illis-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)

Bill Machado: wildlife, recognition and the neighborhood PSA

Machado delivered the most recovered turns - 20 - but was usually brief. His total was 38 minutes and 49 seconds, or 1 minute and 56 seconds per report.

His recurring beat was public-service information, frequently involving animals. Residents heard about fawns left alone while their mothers forage, rescue dogs, animal-control and spay-neuter costs, a flooded humane society, an injured goose at the wastewater plant, coyotes, bees and a squirrel that knocked out power at his home. He also promoted a free rabies clinic and gave practical coyote-safety guidance.

There are worse things than an elected official telling residents not to pick up a healthy fawn. It is useful information. It is simply not the same thing as an update on a municipal contract, department performance or upcoming council decision.

Machado also used the segment for solemn or personal messages on September 11, the October 7 attack and continuing Israeli and Palestinian suffering, Hispanic heritage, mental health, Pride Month, first responders and community service. Those remarks often had real human value. As council reporting, however, they were more often recognition or reflection than a report on governing work.

Watch Bill Machado's complete recovered Council Reports - 40:55 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/bill-machado-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)

Susan Poage: grants, wellness and a side of Mah Jongg

Poage spoke for 33 minutes and 2 seconds across 18 reports, averaging 1 minute and 50 seconds each time.

Her strongest government material involved grants. She named purposes and, at times, dollar amounts: $127,000 sought for Littell-Lord, $15,000 for a veterans yoga project, $14,710 for Peppertown Park and other applications involving firefighter equipment, pedestrian safety and historic preservation. She also reported a $322,825 state award for road improvements.

Her reports then widened into a Mayor's Wellness bulletin, a grants diary and a community calendar. Residents heard about exam stress, a library calm corner, slime that had to be moved after it stuck to the carpet, drain cleaning, voting, mammograms, no-idling reminders, National Grammar Day, wellness dance parties, library museum passes, streaming services and the growing attendance at Monday-night Mah Jongg.

A single Poage report could move from a six-figure grant to a reminder to "take a peek" at a storm drain, then on to a dance party or Mah Jongg head count. The mix was often lively and sometimes useful. The harder-to-find element was what happened after a grant was won, who was accountable for implementation and what residents should expect by a specific date.

Watch Susan Poage's complete recovered Council Reports - 34:52 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/susan-poage-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)

The Recreation Department test

The recent debate over reorganizing recreation provides a useful test of what residents might reasonably hope to hear during Council Reports.

The Township announced that the June 30 council meeting would include a conference discussion on creating a Recreation Department and possible introduction of an ordinance dissolving the Recreation Commission and establishing the department. A separate Township statement said the proposal would move oversight from the volunteer commission to Township government, create an advisory committee and address legal and fiduciary concerns.

That is a substantial governance proposal. It concerns authority, oversight and the structure of a public service used by families across town.

The June 30 meeting, however, explicitly bypassed Council Reports. The previous report-bearing meeting was June 9. In that round, Foster discussed the Littell-Lord festival, World Cup items, running, bicycling, chocolate ice cream, yoga, softball and the summer solstice. Poage discussed Pride, Mah Jongg, library services and the street fair. Machado spoke about Pride and community diversity. Illis focused on e-bike rules, a senior luncheon and the street fair.

The recreation restructuring was not mentioned in any of those four recovered June 9 reports.

The archive does not establish when each councilmember learned that a formal proposal was coming, so it would be unfair to claim that anyone deliberately withheld it. Silence in a Council Report also does not prove that no work occurred elsewhere. But from a resident's perspective, the record is still worth noticing: the last report round before a major proposed change did not prepare the public for it.

That is precisely the opportunity Council Reports could serve. Not to debate an unposted ordinance in advance, but to say: "A consequential proposal is being developed. Here is the problem it is intended to solve. Watch the next agenda. Here are the questions I will be asking."

The actual problem is not penguins

Penguins are charming. Bees are essential. Libraries are useful. Volunteers deserve thanks. Cultural observances, mental-health messages and community events all matter.

The issue is placement and priority.

A newsletter can announce National Cookie Day. A community calendar can advertise a dance party. Social media can promote a festival, a flag raising or Mah Jongg. A proclamation can honor a cause. Council Reports are one of the few recurring opportunities for elected officials to explain work that residents cannot easily learn from anyone else.

The recovered record shows that Berkeley Heights councilmembers did provide useful government information. It also shows that the segment was dominated by material that could often have been communicated elsewhere, while costs, deadlines, votes, departmental performance and unresolved disputes received far less attention.

The conclusion is not that every minute was wasted. It is that the public repeatedly spent its scarcest civic resource - attention - on a bulletin-board format when the title promised a report.

A stronger Council Report would not have to be longer. It might be shorter. Each member could answer five questions:

1. What municipal or committee work occurred since the last meeting?
2. What decision was made, or what decision is approaching?
3. What will it cost, and where will the money come from?
4. What is the deadline, and who is responsible for the next step?
5. What should residents expect to hear in the next report?

Then, by all means, remind everyone about the cookie walk. Just let the town's business have first billing.

Read and watch for yourself

The point of this review is not to tell residents what to think. It is to make the record easy to examine.

- Read the searchable transcript archive (https://berkeleyheights.news/council-reports.html)
- Watch John Foster - 57:49 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/john-foster-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)
- Watch Margaret Illis - 46:28 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/margaret-illis-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)
- Watch Bill Machado - 40:55 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/bill-machado-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)
- Watch Susan Poage - 34:52 (https://berkeleyheights.news/media/council-reports/susan-poage-council-reports-2025-2026.mp4)
- Download the underlying transcript data (https://berkeleyheights.news/data/council-report-transcripts.json)

Listen for the useful information. Listen for the announcements. Listen for what is said at length - and for what never arrives. The microphone belongs to the elected officials, but the time belongs to the public.

Method and source note

This analysis covers 76 complete, recoverable Council Report turns across 20 surviving official meeting videos. Spoken-time totals exclude compilation title cards and short boundary handles. The source transcript is based on YouTube automatic captions that were lightly cleaned; it is not a certified transcript.

The broader research window runs from July 10, 2022 through July 10, 2026, but recoverable official-video transcript coverage begins May 20, 2025. Earlier minutes generally record only that Council Reports or committee updates occurred. No missing remarks or timestamps were invented.

For comparison and context, this article consulted official council-procedure material from San Ramon, California (https://www.sanramon.ca.gov/our_city/city_council/understanding_council_meetings), Chapel Hill, North Carolina (https://www.chapelhillnc.gov/Town-Government/Mayor-and-Council/Council-Procedures), and meeting pages from Two Rivers, Wisconsin (https://www.two-rivers.org/citycouncil/page/city-council-meeting-267). It also reviewed Berkeley Heights' official Recreation statement (https://www.berkeleyheights.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/1095) and June 30 meeting notice (https://www.berkeleyheights.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/1096).

### A Library Can Be Beloved And Still Need An Audit (2026-07-11)
URL: https://tomfortown.com/articles/library-spending-audit/

On June 26, 2026, I published a Patch article arguing that Berkeley Heights can support a strong public library and still demand a real spending audit.

I love our library. I also read the budget. Both things can be true - and right now the numbers deserve a hard look.

For 2026, Berkeley Heights is funding the library at $1,737,267.48 - the one-third-mill appropriation New Jersey law requires. Set that against the library's own reported usage, 47,888 visits in the most recent state data, and the town is spending roughly $36 to $39 per visit. Using the 2024 operating-expenditure baseline, that figure was about $25 per reported visit. The cost per visit has climbed sharply, and residents have not been shown why.

Here is the number that should stop you. Among the 41 New Jersey municipal libraries serving towns our size, Berkeley Heights ranks 8th or 9th highest in spending per resident, but sits around the middle of the pack for actual visits per capita. We are paying like a top-tier library and getting median traffic. That gap is the whole issue.

Then there is the money that quietly moved. Across two December votes, $300,000 in 2024 and $250,000 in 2025, the Library Board shifted $550,000 out of operating funds and into a capital reserve. New Jersey has an excess-funds law, N.J.S.A. 40:54-15: unrestricted money above the library's audited operating costs is supposed to be identified and, when it qualifies, returned to the town for taxpayer relief. The obvious question is whether that surplus was tested under the law, or parked in a reserve before anyone had to ask.

And the records do not reconcile cleanly. Salaries jumped 18.4% in a single year. Marketing was budgeted at $10,000 but had spent $17,447 by June; postage budgeted at $1,000 had spent $22,832; a recurring line labeled "Reimagining" keeps reappearing. None of that proves wrongdoing. All of it proves the point: a public institution funded by your taxes should not require residents to file records requests to understand where the money goes.

Let me be clear about what this is not. The town cannot simply seize library money - the law protects it, and it should. This is not a call to defund anything. Much of that $1.7 million is legally mandated. The question is only about the spending above the mandate, and whether it is matched to real public use.

What I am asking for is basic accountability: a public dashboard showing cost per visit, per checkout, per active cardholder, and per program, plus a plain answer on that $550,000. If the library can show the spending matches the use, it should publish the proof. If it cannot, the surplus should be tested under the excess-funds law and returned.

A library can be beloved and still need an audit. A trustee can be well-meaning and still owe the public oversight. A dedicated tax can be perfectly legal and still turn into a blank check. Berkeley Heights residents should not have to choose between supporting our library and asking hard questions about its budget. We can do both.

Read the full investigation and source record:

- Original Patch investigation (https://patch.com/new-jersey/newprovidence/berkeley-heights-can-support-its-library-still-demand-real-spending-audit-nodx), published June 26, 2026.
- BerkeleyHeights.news full record (https://berkeleyheights.news/articles/berkeley-heights-library-accountability-spending-audit-2026-06-26.html), including the detailed audit questions and source notes.

Edmund Tom Maciejewski is a candidate for Berkeley Heights Township Council.

Paid for by Edmund Maciejewski for Council.

### Campaign Website Launch (2026-07-03)
URL: https://tomfortown.com/articles/campaign-website-launch/

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Contact: tom@tomfortown.com · 908-830-3305
Paid for by Edmund Maciejewski for Council.