Exclusive Interview With Deputy Mayor Steven Langert

hi this is AI Salomon and I'm here with Deputy Mayor Steve Langer who's giving us his gracious time uh this is part two segment I guess I've interviewed his your running mate Hal Halverson and now I'm interviewing Mr langard for who is running for reelection in the township committee seat there are two seats up and he's running with Hal Halverson his running mate and first I want I want to thank you for your time and the first question I really have is in 2010 you were the mayor of Lakewood not an easy task by any means what would you say your greatest accomplishments were during that year well first of all Abby let me thank you for taking the time out to do this I know you have a busy schedule you work you go to school and yet you care enough about Lakewood and its issues to take the time out to devote your time to doing these type of things and you know you're certainly um a vocal voice in town uh We've not we've had our you know differences of opinions uh but I find that you know you're open-minded to hear what other people have to say and you know that's something that I like to think about myself and as far as my major accomplishments in 2010 I have to tell you that there were there are two major two major accomplishments I'd like to touch on when I first got elected I said that I was I was running and I wanted to be I wanted to be known as a mayor or committeeman for all of Lakewood you know as the mayor as a deputy mayor in 20 2009 we formed what was called the uh mayor's Council of adult president Adult Community presidents where we bring in uh presidents of the adult communities to talk to them on an ongoing basis uh I formed a you know a a working group with the reverends and the Latino leaders in town I feel that you know people are Fe people have the feeling in lward it's no longer us against them you know for the most part everyone feels that we're all in it together and in order to make Lakewood the best place that it can be uh we all have to be in it together and I'm I'm very proud of my work on that on that effort you know along with the rest of the committee that we've been able to come to such a point you know you talk about being the mayor the mayor is um leads the committee by no means does a mayor have any extra super you know superpowers over the committee but in the direction that we led to the committee it was the first time ever ever that net spending went down which means that the actual dollars that we spent in 2010 was less than the dollars that we spent in 2009 and that led to a tax decrease you know you talk about not everybody benefiting from that they tax decrease as much as others and some you know being affected in another way because of a reevaluation that a reassessment that we had in town last year but this year in 2011 we're going to see another tax cut and because there's no reassessment this year everyone will be will see a a reduction in their taxes and I think that's tremendously significant when you take it in the overall context of Lakewood being now the seventh largest municipality in New Jersey the largest municipality in Ocean County and when we you take a look at other municipalities that are our size and you and you take a look at what they what they're doing and what we're doing I think that it's a fantastic job what we've been able to do here uh if you take a look at Bricktown and and Jackson just to name two of our neighbors you know Jackson has furlows you know the the services that they provide to people are curtailed because people in their Township cannot go and get Township business done every day of the week they can go four out of five days Bricktown as you know had a referendum this year to to um exceed the 2% cap wa we've done nothing like that in lwood and we've been very fortunate and part of the reason that we've been able to do that is because my message in 2008 was we are going to lower taxes through cutting spending and through my 2 and A2 years on the committee that's exactly what we've done and there's no magic wand there no tricks we've cut spending we've gotten concessions from the unions we've saved now a 1.2 million dollar in health benefit costs directly because of the actions that I've taken on health insurance over the last year and a half we're saving close to $2 million in direct labor cost because of contracts that are I've renegotiated with with unions here in town so it's been hard is it done are we over is it finished no and that's why I'm running for reelection but I believe that when people will look at the record at what we've done and what we've accomplished and where we're going I think the choice is clear that people will you know will um put me back in office I hope to have that honor and I know that how and I hope that people will you know um go with Hal halberton to help me complete the um you know work now what what we're doing let's look at the record for a second um two points and I first question is regarding cutting of the EMS I remember that was a very big issue especially in the liid scoop and another one was recently the the fire budget that you cut uh uh based on the response of the voters what was and really just with the EMS what was the the going behind the works in your thinking when you decided to try and privatize the EMS everything was driven because of the the taxpayer and the residental Lakewood when I wake up in the morning my first thought is I have to remember that I am here to serve the taxpayer and the resident of Lakewood I a taxpayer I'm a resident of Lakewood and I know that that's the bottom line we have to deliver the services that we deliver for the least amount of cost that we can we must be able to stretch our dollar especially in these Economic Times EMS was a was a department that we looked at that could be przed it could be and when we looked at the amount of money that um was costing us it was an option it was it it was an option to do that in order to save money for the township at the end of the day you know to their credit to the credit the U the union workers the uh people um who work for us our EMS employees took a significant pay cut a 30% anyone who has to take a 30% pay cut is significant and I thank them for that and I give them a lot of credit for it we were able on the flip side we still the the dep Department the EMS department is not a zero is not a um self-sufficient Department the township still underwrites that department to a degree but then again that goes to your core Services you know is it important for your town for your town to have that service and at what cost and that's always a delicate that's always a delicate question we want to provide every service that we can can for everybody out there at what cost and in order to in order to do that if you can do that in the right way and delicate balance I think you're in a good position so my next question is is obviously there are a lot of people who have jobs with this the Lakewood Township and how do you balance not laying people off cuz no one wants to get laid off but everyone wants property tax to be cut as much as possible how do you work that balance out again you know the T the property tax question is one that's you know that's bigger than lwood New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation and over 50% of what we pay in property taxes has absolutely nothing to do with the township committee or my office it has to do with either the school board or the county services that that uh that we get there the township is 30% of our budget and out of the 49 million or so dollars 4340 you know million dollar that we collect INX taxes close to $25 million is directly in salaries Township salaries there's not truly not a lot left over so yes you know we do our departments work well the people who work here are dedicated to what they do they understand what we're going through nobody is is nobody's got their head buried in the sand in my opinion and nobody wants to you know everybody wants to be able to do the best that they can do nobody wants to have to take a a Furlow or a layoff and again you know that's we go back to the health insurance benefit reform that we did million too that we saved if we weren't able to save that money we wouldn't be able to keep taxes down to year next question is and one of the things you know for all the criticisms I've offered you during your three-year terms one of the things I really admired was recently when you stood up to the unions the other person I know who's has done that is another person I admire greatly Chris chrisy that being so um do you especially as I would imagine you've talked to the man at least what is your relationship with Chris Christie and how have you worked with him to help have the state of New Jersey basically funding pumping money into Lakewood and believing that Lakewood is something valuable to New Jersey one thing about the that I that I hope I share in comment with the governor you know we say what we mean and we mean what we say the governor has uh he said certain things during his campaign and he's delivered on those things or he's trying to and he's trying to to take it to the next level I've spoken to the governor I've met with him we have a very nice relationship the governor's office and Lieutenant governor's office is trying to help us with our planning plan enforement uh we're looking to go to a planning area one Lakewood quicktown THS River we've we've submitted a joint application to the lieutenant governor's office and you know the governor's got his ear he understands what's going on liid he knows what's going on liid uh and he knows more than uh than most people switching to a different topic the downtown area I think everyone would agree that the downtown area has problems what would you say are the problems if you think there are any and what Solutions might you see well you know the downtown is actually something that I'm very interested in if you remember in my first year on the on the committee I created the downtown Merchants commission it was because of me that there was a downtown Merchants cre uh committee and and all the people who were appointed that to that committee were my appointments so I took the glory and I took the hit for that for that commission uh you know recently you know last year I passed the the uh employment service area and the no solicitation ordinance and it took it took a while to get it to work it took a good six to seven months to get it to work I had many meetings with latino Leaders with they laborers themselves I still have um I still have regular meetings with the players involved but but if you go there today or tomorrow morning at 7:00 in the morning you will see that most of the day laborers are off of Clifton atomy they're off of Second Street they're off of Main Street that's due to the hard credit that I put the hard work that I put in along with the chief the police department the other members of the committee who backed me on this the Latino leaders the day laborers themselves I mean the the downtown the the what we have in the downtown is is a very big source of Pride for me I've always said that I feel like the downtown is our shopping center you know you have somebody can own a mall that can own a strip shopping center they take pride in their strip shopping center I've always believe that the downtown is lakewood's shopping center and we need to do whatever we can to continue to bring it back to that type of Glory Farmers Market uh another controversial subject maybe what is your opinion of a farmers market do you think it would be good for Lakewood bad for Lakewood I don't think that a farmer market has been controversial all um you know there was some there was a farm there was a farmers market that was attempted to be done uh the town there was an application put in for a farmers market we had very we had a few questions on that when it came to the committee we had four questions that I can remember about the farmers market he asked the people who proposed the Farmers Market at that time of what they were planning to do about traffic control we asked them who was going to be responsible for who the responsible party is where the insurance was coming from God forbid somebody should get hurt where it was being done who was going to be the responsible party the cleanup you know if you have a farmers's market is going to be clean up needed who was going how are they going to guarantee clean up and lastly the liability of you know of just the overall Farmers Market you know at the time there was there was talk that there were some merchants in the downtown who were in the in the in the fruit and vegetable um business that they were opposed to to the farmers market and they came to us and asked them to you know to maybe look not so favorably upon it because it would hurt them you know that was an issue that we also considered I don't think anybody has ever been against a farmers market I think that a farmers market is a great idea especially since it bring some value that typical markets don't have for example people with Wick and what have you can participate in them you know it just needs to be done the right way okay I would love to ask you more questions unfortunately time is of the essence so before we go I want to thank you again for your time and is there any last message you would like to leave the people of Lakewood why they should vote for you you know and basically on that line obious I I think that my record over the past two and a half years has shown that I've delivered on what I promised in 2008 when I was running for election I promise that we would cut spending and I promise that we would do the most we can with the that we had and I think that just based on the fact that this is the second year in a row that there's a tax decrease I think that as the year that I was the mayor we spent less money than the year before those and that we've been able to keep every core service in town There's the garbage pickup Remains the Same you know person wants to come into town hall on any day of the week they don't have to worry about that our Township employees have been fow I I think that you know given all that we've been able to accomplish I think that uh is I would hope that the voters would recognize that in honor Me by reelecting me in November of November that you know first in the primary and then in November all right I want to thank you very much for your time mayor deputy mayor