Michael Ferrante, two-term Township Committee member and former Mayor of Cranbury, announced on the All About Cranbury Facebook group that this will be his final term. He invited residents to attend the Cranbury Township Committee Meeting on Monday, February 26 to find out how the town government operates and how community members can “engage” in local government.
As a way to help the community understand the roles and responsibilities of community organization, Ferrante gave a presentation during the February 26 committee meeting, titled “De-Mystifying Cranbury Municipal Government.”
The committee meeting, held in the Town Hall, was packed with townspeople in attendance for different reasons. The meeting began at 7 PM with a roll call of members and a rundown of the agenda.
After some announcements and follow-up items, Ferrante began his 20-minute overview of Cranbury’s local governing body.
According to Mayor Eman El-Badawi’s update published on CranburyTownship.org, “TC member, Michael Ferrante led us in a presentation entitled ‘De-Mystifying Local Government,’ where he talked about how our local government runs. In attendance were Boy Scouts and their leaders who utilized this tutorial as part of their civic education.”
When asked why Ferrante felt the “overview” was needed, he says, “Early on in my role as a Committee member, I noticed some quirky things about local government and how it functioned so I created this overview to clarify and simplify the TC and attempted to offer answers to common questions such as ‘Why do we structure the government as we do?’ I wanted to show that anyone could do it and how to engage easily.”
One example of how local government works with the community members can be seen during open forums where members get to ask questions to the committee.
There was an open forum after Ferrante’s presentation.
One individual asked, “Why are our taxes so high in New Jersey?” Ferrante then replied, “Part of it is because [New Jersey] has over 500 municipalities and we have a three tier tax system with state, county and local.”
Ferrante continued, “Actually [Cranbury has] the lowest tax rate in Middlesex County”.
Another person asked if the community’s All About Cranbury page on Facebook influenced the Township Committee with topics or ordinances.
Ferrante said, “We have some community pages up on Facebook and several of the members may read them but they are not official channels to get input on things.” He continued, “Most often we would encourage people to come to this forum to state their comments.”
Mayor El-Bedawi said, “I think we actually try not to respond to those comments [on Facebook] because it creates another layer of communication that we are not in control of and it’s unofficial and becomes a bit of hearsay, so we may watch it but we don’t respond to it.”
Another example of the Township Committee and its supporting commissions working together to accomplish the goals of the town for its community members came about later in the evening with a presentation from the town’s Shade Tree Commission Chairperson, Kathy Easton. According to Mayor El-Bedawi’s meeting minutes, there are new State guidelines that affect the tree removal/replacement ordinance.
As a result, the committee spent time working on an ordinance, which is still pending, for the town that will set guidelines on the removal of trees.
Although it is not clear yet who will be running for office in November to replace Ferrante, he says he hopes that community members will continue to come to Cranbury’s bi-monthly committee meetings to learn more about their town.
“If you’ve ever thought about getting more involved in your local government, it’s a great way to give back to our community,” Ferrante says.
This article was produced as part of MCCC’s Community Reporting “J Lab” certificate program made possible by grant funding from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and The New School: Journalism + Design.
