Let’s Help the Environment While we Save the Taxpayers Money.

Westfield’s Mayor should be a frugal steward of the taxpayers’ money.  One way we could and should save taxpayer dollars is through an energy audit of our municipal facilities and operations.  I have advocated doing this for several years, including in 2010 when we were offered a free audit.  But even when it is completely free, our present Mayor refuses to do an energy audit.

For many years New Jersey has offered to pay any municipality wanting to do an energy audit 75% to 100% of the cost of doing so.  Most experts believe that an audit would pay for itself even If the town had to foot the entire bill rather than just 25% of the expense.  I have looked at the results of the energy audits of six towns similar to Westfield, and found this to be true because in each and every one of these towns the recommended actions significantly reduced the towns’ energy costs from the very first year of implementation.

In 2010 we could have done an energy audit for free, but our town’s government still didn’t want to do it.  That year the federal government was offering $10,000 in matching funds to any municipality in New Jersey, like Westfield, which had never before participated in any of the State’s energy savings programs.  That could have provided us with the matching funds for a guaranteed free audit.  Alternatively, that money could have been parlayed into a free $50,000 in energy savings equipment under another of the state’s energy programs.  Westfield’s Mayor applied for neither. Over 95% of the eligible communities accepted the money, leaving Westfield in the bottom 5% of municipalities in the State to have never participated in any of the State sponsored energy saving programs.

As a councilman, I asked several times to have the finance committee look into the energy audit if solely from a financial perspective and was turned down.  I was told the Mayor’s “Green Team” was looking into a variety of programs around energy savings.  Since the “Green Team” or the Mayor has never reported to the Council about the “Green Teams” activities or conclusions and because the “Green Team” doesn’t publish minutes of its meetings, neither the public nor I have any idea why Westfield’s Mayor would not want a completely free energy audit.

I can’t understand why our present mayor would not want to save the environment and at the same time save the taxpayers’ money by conducting a free energy audit.  But his refusal is out of touch with what Westfield’s residents want to see from our town government.