Town's newsletter back in contention over costs

EAST BRUNSWICK - Two council members have come out against the administration's desire to keep publishing the township's newsletter.

The East Brunswick Quarterly was introduced a few years back, according to MayorWilliam Neary, as a way to provide residents with more information about what's going on in East Brunswick. Neary said the newsletter would soon be selfsupporting through the sale of advertisements.

However, the township is putting at least $25,000 a year into the newsletter, according to Councilman David Stahl, who has reviewed the numerous line items under which the newsletter is funded. It was enough to prompt him and council President Catherine Diem to recently say they oppose continued publishing.

T

he two found themselves in the minority,

however, as the council refrained from cutting the newsletter out of this year's budget.

Just what the East Brunswick Quarterly is has come into question at times. While Neary and Business Administrator JamesWhite say it is a newsletter- similar to ones used in other towns - it is in newspaper form and size. In fact, inside its pages it refers to itself as "East Brunswick's official newspaper."

Stahl and Diem think the publication should be stopped.

"I have argued the East Brunswick Quarterly is a luxury that, quite frankly, we should cut out so we have enough for basic expenses," Stahl told the Sentinel. "The $25,000 is better used to reduce taxes or for other programs."

Neary has argued that the Quarterly is needed to better inform residents of what is going on in East Brunswick.

Critics counter that the township already receives coverage from at least two newspapers, televises its council meetings, and uses its Web site and EBTV to put out information.

Stahl said the residents who approached him regarding the newsletter helped form his opinion that it's time to cease publication.

"They say this is not an expenditure we need," he said.

He charged that the quarterly looked foolish by printing the mayor's state of the township in the new issue, even though the speech was given at the beginning of the year.

"If we could afford it, and do it in a timely manner, there is some validity to this," he said.

While the newsletter claims to strive for better-informed citizens and a transparent government, it has come under fire from some residents as being nothing more than a cheerleader for the Neary administration and some Democratic council members. When he was council president, Stahl had a column in the newsletter.

Stahl said the accounting for the newsletter is not transparent. In fact, it is strewn across a number of line items that you would never guess are used to finance the newsletter, he said. For example, he said that when an article is written about the senior center, the center's line item is used to account for the funding.

"I want that money used for the seniors," he said.

"We have alternative methods to get information out," he said. "I don't think this is warranted at this time."