Wefer for Morris County Freeholder

Contact: Dana Wefer's Campaign For Immediate Release
Phone: (973)610-0491
Email: DanaWefer@gmail.com

WEFER SAYS COUNTY “OFFERS EXCUSES AND DENIALS, BUT STILL NO SOLUTIONS�
Calls on freeholders to implement policies to promote geographic diversity on boards

Morristown, October 11, 2006-

Dana Wefer, Morris County candidate for Freeholder, said Wednesday that Morris County officials dodged and avoided all the important points regarding her study of how municipalities are represented on the county’s advisory boards. "The county basically said that Morristown may actually have fewer than 44 representatives because some of those addresses could be in Morris Plains, Hanover, the Township or Parsippany," Wefer said Wednesday. She added, "Yea, well, that's understood and obvious. The point is that none of those 44 actually come from Florham Park, which had zero representatives or Riverdale or Pequannock with had one and two respectively." Wefer’s point, she says, was that the Northeastern part of the county is sorely underrepresented. She points out that no matter how you move those numbers from those 5 towns surrounding the county seat around, none of them are going to end up on the Northeastern part of the county, which has only 11 representatives for 5 towns.
Wefer said that the county knew she never would have had time to analyze full zip codes because of her limited time with the documents and used that as a distraction from what is a fundamental and very real problem. "I really had hoped they would look at these numbers and say ‘Wow, we have failed to make sure that these towns are represented, how can we rectify this?',": Wefer said. She expressed severe disappointment at what she called "smoke and mirrors" to distract from the problem rather than acknowledge it. “It is truly a shame that some politicians prefer to ignore the facts than to identify a problem and correct it. This is not a political issue, this is a good government issue," Wefer emphasized.
Wefer reiterated on Wednesday her proposals to promote more geographic diversity on the county's advisory boards. Those proposals include posting vacancies and composition of the boards on the county's website, sending out an email at the end of the year through the citizen’s alert to tell people about vacancies, disallowing people from serving on more than one advisory board by creating liaison positions instead when necessary, and creating a citizens’ municipal advisory council with representatives from each municipality to advise the freeholders on issues unique to their municipality. Wefer also suggests that the freeholders adopt a minimum number that they want from each municipality.
Wefer is making her second run for Freeholder after an impressive showing last year. She is the sole female candidate in a field of six candidates seeking election to the Freeholder Board this Fall. The two other Democrats are Mine Hill Mayor Rich Leary and Chatham Township Councilman Jack Hartford. The Democrats are widely regarded as having an unprecedented opportunity to win a seat on the Freeholder Board for the first time in over three decades this year.

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