Committee on a Green Future

Mayors’ Committee on a Green Future
Statement of Mayor Meryl Frank
July 18, 2006

Welcome to Highland Park, NJ’s first green community.  Please let me take one moment to tell you why we are here and where we see ourselves going.  When we talk about green communities we are talking about, thinking about our work as mayors and our communities in an entirely new way…. not just as managers of a governing system, but as stewards of our community, making decisions today that will help create financially and environmentally healthy communities now and for the future.

We are a group of mayors that sees that the world is changing and that we need to be a part of it.  We understand that high taxes are strangling our communities.... so naturally we look for relief.  We understand our place in the local, the state, and even the world economy and we see that the decisions that we make today will make our communities stronger and smarter and able to thrive deep into this new century.

We are a group of mayors that understand that sustainability is no longer a luxury, but it has become a necessity, and not only because of the price of oil, and not only because it is becoming popular to care about clean air and water and conserving energy and natural resources, but because it is good public policy straight and simple... and that is our job... working to make sure that our communities are healthy and thriving.

Look, let’s not kid each other, mayors care about saving money, first and foremost.  We care about cutting costs and easing property taxes first... and we believe that this effort will make incredible strides to help other mayors understand that savings... green saving exist, in the long run, yes… but also in the short run.  My own municipal savings are estimated to be approximately $14,000 per year.

We mayors spent the morning talking about experience with green savings, green redevelopment plans, green master plans, hybrid cars, environmentally preferable purchasing, geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels, rain gardens which clean the water runoff before it returns to the river and tree plantings that measurably improve the local climate, and more (see a partial list of HP green initiatives attached).

The fact of the matter is that there is no federal direction when it comes to green initiatives, no real comprehensive effort to support green initiatives or to use alternative methods.  So, we NJ mayors are attempting to fill that void.  We are going to invent it ourselves at the local level and the state level, with the help of an incredibly supportive NJSLOM, NJDEP, NJBPU (with the most aggressive energy saving policies in the nation) and the Office of Clean Energy, with the help of NJDCA and NJDOT, and support from the Center for Green Building at Rutgers University, the league will be funding the development of a green training course for municipal officials on green building and a segment within the training for planning and zoning board officials, we will band together, across municipalities, across party lines and county lines, and create something new and innovative and unique in the United States and to our own home communities. 

We are creating a coalition really, it is a coalition that will save money, tax dollars, assure clean air and water, improve the working and living environments for our residents and employees... and all the while making our own small contribution to easing our dependence on foreign oil and the greenhouse gases.... we all, every one of us will be better mayors, will leave our communities cleaner, healthier and more able to complete in the future... and while we're doing it, we just might he helping to save our planet too.

With those simple and lofty goals in mind… let’s go take a look at the green community at work

###