Deputy Mayor Langert and Committeeman Akerman Address Lions Head Residents

we have a lot going on tonight so let's get started before the actual meeting I think anybody has been reading the Asbury Park Press and the coverage of all communities as far as the budgets going on um Tom's River brick so on and so forth um if you read the one about brick I think that's the standout they have a referendum on their on their ballot to exceed the cap Allowed by law if you vote Yes it means your taxes will go up probably around1 something dollar $180 but if you vote no you don't like it there's taking away the garbage pickup and you have to pay for it on your own and the mayor says either way he's going to be there so this is what you have to contend with um tonight I've invited Deputy Mayor langa to address Lakewood situation right now and I think over the years I found there are three kinds of politicians those that make something happen okay those that watch something happen and the third group that scratches their head and says what happened well in the years that I work with Steve langard he goes in the first category and fabal he makes things happen really see would you like to say a few words please thank you and I've also invited our newest councilman uh Albert aan to say hello so you know a face with a name if you read it in the paper how about if we um how about if we have Albert go first have Albert go first okay sure hi I will be very brief because I know you have a long schedule ahead of you um but I'm very grateful to have this opportunity to introduce myself I never got a chance to thank you personally those of you who voted for me and those of you who haven't voted for me I hope to gain your confidence and hopefully you'll vote for me next time and it's um obviously tonight's um it's more about what Steve has to say with the budget I know he's been working very hard on it the last couple of years I could have told you that from the outside until this year and now I could tell to you from the inside as well so I'll give it up to Steve and thank you again I hope you will reach out to me if you have any issues and I hope to come by more often more frequently in the [Music] future I don't want to I don't want hold against Albert but he was a moral burer too same as [Music] me evening everybody good evening it's wonderful to see you again you know I'm always reminded of one of the first times I ever appeared in public in the political life it was right on this stage in 1999 at a candidates forum and I I didn't really I remember being very Dre you weren't here then but uh the predecessor I there was somebody who was here then I wonder how I I don't see in the audience tonight B Albert was here that night I wanted to say that um you know I appreciate Jean's kind's word kind words as I always do but the truth is that it takes a lot of people to do what we're doing and it takes a lot of hard work and takes a lot of faith and the faith comes from people such as yourselves the voters the taxpayers and the residents of Lakewood what jean said is true the M um there were about 50 I I remember seeing an article not too long ago in the Star Ledger that said about 50 towns had filed with the DCA that they were looking or perhaps going to put a referendum on their ballot allowing their town to ask the residents to V on a c waer of which 14 towns actually in New Jersey 14 towns actually put a referendum on the ballot to wave their cap lakewood's not have to do that and since I've been here since I've been on the committee lakewood's been headed in the other direction so you may sit there and you may say to yourself well why is that why is that possible how were we able to do that here in Lakewood when others couldn't I can't tell you about other towns but I can tell you that under the guidance of then the first year I was on the committee the mayor and our Senator Bob singer and last year was the mayor and this year um as Mayor Miller as many of you probably remember we came here in January right after he came back from Iraq we had one we had one mission in mind and that is doing more with less and that is what we have been focusing on for the past two and a half now three years in town hall if you take a look at Lakewood the size of Lakewood and I don't know how many of you um have been paying attention to the census statistics but we are now the large the largest municipality in Ocean County we have 93,000 people living in lwood and we are the seventh largest municipality in the state if you stop and think about that I think uh 10 years ago in the last census we were somewhere around 18th somewhere around there now we're seventh we're the seventh largest municipality in the state when you compare us to other towns of like size you will find that our that everything we do is on a lesser scale and it's a credit to the people that we have working in town hall it's a credit to the employees who work for us and it's a credit to the committee as a whole for what we've been able to do I don't have to remind you of the reception I received here when I came here to talk about the EMS situation if you remember a lot of you were not happy with me in fact you let me know about it and I asked you and ra Kohl's was here with me and we asked you to please wait and to trust us and to let us do what we felt was right and many of you have to my you know you don't have to and it made me feel good that many of you have shown your appreciation by saying we're happy that you were able to work something out now remember we have the same EMS crew we have the same dedicated service and staff and to their credit to their credit they took a pay cut a big one to their credit at the end of the day they did it and it saved the taxpayers of Lakewood $2 million let's take a look at health insurance costs how many people here can say that their health insurance costs go up every year right well in Lakewood Township our health insurance costs have gone down by $1.2 million over the last two years and that's because two years ago we decided to change networks we took a I took a look at the networks that we had and we recommended changing networks and this year as you know we Consolidated six different plans into one this is comes about through the thinking through the dedication of the employees that we have that are saying the mindset in town hall is our money is not free our money belongs to the taxpayers and we have to always remember that the taxpayers and the residents of Lakewood come first that is why this year in Lakewood there will be no tax height there will be no tax increase for the second year in row there will be no tax increase in Lakewood I can't say anything better than that can I the board of education is reducing their tax levy the township is reducing their tax levy and the fire Commissioners as you may or may not know reduce their tax levy so all three taxing authorities in Lakewood have reduced their tax levy now this year and last year we're hoping you know that this trend is able to continue that we're able to do this for you the taxpayer of Lakewood for the resident of Lakewood this is what you elect us for or hire us to do and this is what we give you in return so Mr President I thank you for your kind words I thank you for coming and you know I know that you have a long meeting here tonight please do feel free to invite us back okay uh we're happy to come at any time I know I'm always happy to come at any time next time if you want the question and answer type period or something or you know just an informal Gathering I'm always here for you as you know this is um you know this is what I believe in and this is where where I hope to go in the future so thank you for having us here tonight and if there are any specific issues or questions that You' like to have you can always reach me through the um through the oh by the way there is one thing I wanted to type we are going I know some of you a lot of you have complained about the about the Lakewoods um web page and if you go on to Lakewood Township and you go to the web page that we have it's not the best that it can be I would like to tell you that um we have hired somebody to redo the redo the web web page and he has promised us that by June sometime in the middle to the end to June that we will be rolling out a brand new Cutting Edge state-of-the-art web page for residents of Lakewood so I'm available you can get my email address through the web page you can ask the president for it he has my telephone number the office one not the cell and he has my my web address so if you have any questions I thank you again good luck with your residents meeting tonight and thank you once again for having me here tonight I think I think Deputy May forgot to mention about the uh the cuts and everything Lakewood is one of the only towns had no fow of layoffs that's correct no and also the fact when you mention EMS they took a 30% reduction in Pay still making them the highest paid on the East Coast EMS service to their credit though they did do it to their credit they did it but they're still the highest P to the credit okay to the credit