By Susan C. Moeller / Senior Reporter

RUTHERFORD (Oct. 29, 2009) — In Rutherford, borough politics have reached a fever pitch. Squabbling about political signs has led to a threatening letter from the American Civil Liberties Union and an internal affairs investigation into alleged destruction of signs by a ranking member of the police force.

Democrat incumbent Maura Keyes, with her running mate, John Parnofiello, are challenging Republican incumbent John Genovesi and his running mate, Todd Hennessey. Both groups seek seats on a council that is politically divided, with four Republicans and two Democrats, including Keyes and Genovesi. Mayor John Hipp, a Republican, votes only to break ties.

Responses were edited for design purposes.

JOHN GENOVESI, 35, is running for his second term on the borough council. A lifelong Rutherford resident, Genovesi is single and works as a regional sales manager for Bindi, N.A.

What’s the largest problem that needs to solved in Rutherford?

The largest problem without a doubt is the property tax issue. I feel that the objective of the government has been to address the issue between revenues and expenses. There is a serious default in the amount of revenues coming into the town, revenues in the form of taxation.

What happened was that homes were unfairly assessed at the height of the market, so that now residents are appealing their taxes, which is justified. I want to be clear, their tax appeals are justified. But, what’s happening is it’s causing a deficit for the town’s cash income, and we are awarding the appeals because the appeals are justified. But what’s happening is we are having this massive amount of shortfall in taxable income for the town. That, coupled with expenses such as salaries, health care, litigation that was left over from the prior administration, is really hamstringing our ability to be effective in the large cost-cutting numbers.

We’ve done an excellent job, I feel, in cutting expenses that we can control…For instance, I can tell you that as police liaison I’ve urged that police department overtime be limited and they’ve done that.

What needs to be done to fix Rutherford’s budget problems?

Continue to do what I’ve been doing for the past three years, and that is not voting for any new bonding.

New bonding incurs debt and interest. Rutherford needs to stay away from incurring any more debt and interest. For instance, we are having a difficulty fixing our roads because in order to fix our roads, due to our cash situation, we either have to bond and incur new debt or apply for grants. And, we’ve been trying to apply for as many road repair grants as possible.

Second, is to take a very hard look at each individual department and everything associated with that department, from operating expenses down to the type of vehicles they use, from “a” to “z” in every department needs to be reviewed…needs to continue to be reviewed.

What should be done with the former EnCap Golf Holdings, LLC site?

I have always been opposed to EnCap. I have never supported high-density housing. I feel that the individuals that supported EnCap should be held accountable.

There should be a full investigation into every individual that has supported this project. And, the reason being is that you are impacting the lives of taxpayers; you’re dealing with taxpayer funds, and any time you are dealing with taxpayer funds, or the abuse of those taxpayer funds, it should be fully investigated.

Once you’ve done that, the best thing for this community would be to look into low impact ratables for that site. What I mean by that is light industry — perhaps warehousing, perhaps a small amount of retail, if Rutherford could transfer its (Council on Affordable Housing) housing obligations to another community.

TODD HENNESSEY, 45, has lived in Rutherford for almost a decade and is running for office in the borough for the first time. Hennessey, originally from Jersey City, is married with three children. In addition to working for the Port Authority, he owns a small business and has a license to sell real estate.

Largest problem?

Taxes. By far, taxes; it’s just out of control. We need some relief from the state. Our debt is just too high.

We should apply for more grants.

Corzine, he raised the sales tax to seven percent, and it was supposed to be for property relief. So, that one percent should have been sent back to the municipalities.

What me and John are going to do, we are going to petition the assembly and the senate down there to do more to eliminate these property taxes because we can’t just keep raising taxes. People can’t afford to live anymore. I think everybody agrees with us on that.

Budget problems?

We have to look at every department and we have to see if there is any waste.

We need grant money to come in. And, the state, when they mandate stuff, the state should pay for it.

We’ve got to go through the budget. We have to cut the waste that’s there, and we have to see how somehow to bring in more money without raising taxes.

There’s a lot of work that has to be done, and we will do it.

EnCap site?

I think the low-impact is what we need, and I think that we need some kind of--if it’s a supermarket, something that pays taxes that’s not going to cost us anything. And, I like the idea of the windmill and the energy. That was a great idea.”

I would look at every option.

I believe that the citizens of Rutherford should really decide what goes on out there.

We should maybe take a poll or take a vote and ask the people of Rutherford, what do they want? This is their town.

MAURA KEYES is running for her third term on the Rutherford council. Keyes, 54, is married with one daughter and works for the Bank of New York Mellon. In addition to serving on the council, Keyes is also a trustee of the Williams Center board, and is on Southwest Regional Community Development board.

Largest problem?

Communication. Transparency. I think there has been so much power-driven events that have happened in the last 18 months, that it puts an onus on the council. We’ve been putting out fires, addressing things that would never have needed to be addressed…There’s a lack of communication. There are things that happen outside of the governing body that should never have happened. Decisions are made; things are carried out without council approval. What do you call that?

I don’t think it’s just myself being frustrated. I think all the members of the council are frustrated. We don’t get the information that we should. That by far is the biggest problem.

Budget problems?

I guess I don’t want to say truth in advertising, but I do want to say that I think it’s really a mess right now…We had the council adopt amendments to the budget that were rejected from the Local Finance Board.

I think it’s pretty simple, you follow a formula in your budget processing, so you’re either over or under. I guess we were over, and it should have been rejected by the Local Finance Board. You know that kind of thing is just budget processing 101.

I think trying to get grants (will help fix the budget problem). Grants are always something that helps the community. We missed out on…approximately $600,000 or $800,000 in grants this year because of late filings or no filings.

You need to have grants. You need to go out there and solicit for them so that you can bring back the money to your community.

EnCap site?

I think it should be used for as much open space as we can possibly do. I mean the whole purpose of EnCap was to clean up the site…That should still be the main purpose. That area needs to be cleaned up.

I don’t think I’d like to see any housing there.

But anything that would promote open space, you know, much like the area that the Meadowlands Commission is centered upon over there. I think that would be good for the community. I think there’s going to be enough development and traffic and noise with Xanadu that I don’t think this area would be able to sustain any more high density development.

JOHN PARNOFIELLO, 25, is seeking election to the borough council for the first time. Parnofiello, who is single, works as a legislative aid for Bergen County and is the associate producer of a website. He is a lifelong resident of the borough.

Largest problem?

The biggest problem facing Rutherford right now is the lack of a real plan…You know, what exactly does the future hold for Rutherford as it’s structured now? Obviously, as a younger person, probably going to raise a family here one day, these are serious concerns. As an observer right now it just seems like there is so much of a reactive approach toward government right now instead of a proactive (approach). Everyone involved in the town needs to try to find ways to get out of this, whether it be lack of communication, the budget issues, not meeting with departments, or maybe prematurely making decisions on how they feel about certain departments.

Its really just been a reactive approach. We need to have a plan. We need to have a vision for what we want to do over the next few years. Because it’s tough times for everybody right now and you can’t rely on one day everything’s just going to be all right.

Everybody needs to sit down and figure out what can be done to get us through this process right now.

We need a plan, and it involves everyone, it doesn’t matter if you are Democrat or Republican. We need a plan. It’s important.

Budget problems?

One of the proactive ways of trying to help the budget is to be more active with getting businesses downtown, you know filling up the shops.

When people moved to Rutherford, that’s what drew them there. There’s the vibrant downtown and the services and the recreation department and everything. But,

It starts with downtown; it starts with Park Avenue.

We need to have those spaces filled, and Union Avenue, as well, which is also a major issue right now, revitalizing the west end there.

We need to find ways to make Rutherford better as it is and try to spur business as much as we possibly can.

EnCap site?

We need to clear up the landfills. That would be the first priority.

Ideally, as someone involved in recreation programs and things of that nature, it would be great to have another park down there.

Any types of additions to parks, there’s no other space to really utilize, so that would be ideal.

I definitely would not like to have any sort of residential units here. I think that opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of the school systems and busses will have to be utilized. It will be a different town.