The

Mayor

- By Manchester Mayor Robert Arace

In the first 30 days of my administration, we started tackling some of the most urgent and important issues that face our township - issues that impact our township budget and ultimately our taxpayers. During the 2022 election, an issue was brought to my attention by several members of our manufactured home communities, and that was the issue of rent control in Manchester Township. Because of high inflationary pressure, some of these communities saw annual increases of over 6% in their monthly rents. Many of the residents in these communities are fixed income seniors, and the increases that they are experiencing are unconscionable. Our residents shouldn’t have to choose between putting food on their tables and paying for significant increases in their monthly home costs. Knowing that this is a highly urgent issue, I made a campaign promise that we would work to pass an ordinance in the first 60 days of my administration.

I am thrilled to say that by working with our Township Council, we were able to draft a township ordinance that will protect our residents in our manufactured home communities – especially our seniors – from greedy landlords looking to cash in during a difficult economic climate. This ordinance was introduced at our last council meeting and I expect it to pass during its second reading at our next council meeting on Feb 27th. I believe this is a massive win for our residents.

One of my most important goals is to reduce the cost of the mayor’s administrative department while enhancing the services provided to the community. One of my first orders of business was to find a strong, experienced Business Administrator to help us solve our most difficult challenges. I am happy to say that we were able to appoint a Business Administrator with an impressive resume of over 30 years of township administrative experience. He is coming in at a salary that is $7,000 lower than our previous business administrator and more importantly, will not be taking any of our township benefits. This is a total cost savings to the township of $37,000 per year. Additionally, one of the first things I did as mayor was cut the cost of the mayor’s confidential aide position and ensure that both the east and west sides of town had access to my office. The previous administration’s confidential aide was a full-time employee making $62,000 per year with an additional cost of $30,000 per year in benefits - this was a total taxpayer cost of $92,000 per year. My solution to this was twofold: first, to reduce the position of confidential aide to two part-time roles. This decision eliminated $30,000 of benefits. Second, to reduce the total salary, but service two important areas of need in town. We now have a confidential aide for economic improvement and a confidential aide as a liaison specifically dedicated to our senior community to better service the needs of our retirees. The combined annual cost of both of these aides is $48,000 – reduced from the previous salary of $62,000 – a $14,000 decrease in total salary. Taking into account that neither of my aides will be taking benefits, this is a $44,000 savings to the taxpayer. Between our new business administrator and the restructuring of the confidential aides, we are saving a total of $81,000 per year for our taxpayers. This is a $324,000 savings over the course of the next four years.

We have a busy year ahead of us, and I promise to keep fighting for the residents of our great town. Thank you for entrusting me with this important position and as always, please reach out to me with any questions.