1,300 attend forum on improving government
By Tom Haydon
June 10, 2010
The Star Ledger

Linda Bann Dupree, who served on the Irvington School board, knows the state has to stop the ever-increasing hikes in property taxes. Doris Carly has spent time working with neighbors in Cherry Hill, pushing for reforms in local government, and wants to see more. Yesterday Dupree, Carly and residents from across the state came to New Brunswick to learn how private citizens can tackle government spending and influence public policies. "We've been trying to make things better in our government and we've been frustrated," said Carly, a member of the Cherry Hill Reform Committee, a nonpartisan grassroots group. More than 1,300 people registered for the first summit sponsored by the Citizens' Campaign, a nonprofit group working to train community leaders who approach municipal, county and state governments with proposals to control spending, develop policy and program, and set agendas for political committees.

"This is the kick-off of a three-year Jersey Call to Service to empower 5,000 citizen leaders," said Harry Pozycki, founder of the 10-year-old Citizens' Campaign. Topping the list of speakers during the conference at the Hyatt hotel were former Governors Brendan Byrne and Tom Kean and former secretary of state the Rev. Buster Soaries.

Among the panelists were former gubernatorial candidate and environmental commissioner Christopher Daggett and state Comptroller Matthew Boxer, who discussed stabilizing property taxes and cutting government waste.

In another panel, Assemblyman and state Democratic Party chairman John Wisniewski joined former GOP state chair and Sen. John Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) to field questions about joining local political committees that pick candidates and set political agendas.

Two other panels discussed service on state and municipal advisory committees, as well as "citizen journalism," methods of gathering and spreading information on community issues.

Pozycki, a former Middlesex County freeholder and former chair of the county Democratic Committee, said the goal is for residents to be community leaders.