After much deliberations, many neighborhood meetings and a rising concern among residents regarding issues of speeding and pedestrian safety on Scotland Road, I put together the following plan, under consultation with village administration and staff as well as the South Orange Transportation Advisory Committee. 

This plan encompasses a number of short and long-term goals that will make a significant impact on the safety of the road. This is the first formal action the Board has taken to address these concerns, and I thank the five trustees (It passed 5-1) who voted for it. Read the full plan below:

On Friday, I joined Reshma Saujani and Winnie Wong to talk about how social media is innovating disaster response and recovery at the Centre for Social Innovation in New York City. 

The panel was a great discussion of how the government responded (or didn't in some cases) to Hurricane Sandy and other disasters, and how community groups and activists were able to fill in the gaps and organize hugely valuable relief efforts outside of the traditional government response structure. We discussed how these different groups can partner better, and how technology and social media empower us to spread the message of what's happening in a different part of the country or world, as well as help be a platform to connect those who need resources to those who have them. 

Some of the best live-tweets from the event:

Thank you for the informative & inspiring panel tonight, @girlswhocode @occupysandy & @alextorpey! #SMW13 #SandyUnites #SMW13

— NYC Food Truck Assoc (@nycfoodtruck) February 23, 2013

@chrisgee: .@alextorpey: I've gotten policy ideas from what other towns are doing by reading about it on social media. #smwsmsandy #smwnyc

— Chris Gee (@chrisgee) February 23, 2013

In the past, people never had #gov reach out & reply to them. Now #SocialMedia can engage & inform #public.@alextorpey #smwSMsandy #SMW13

— Wen Dombrowski MD (@HealthcareWen) February 23, 2013

.@alextorpey: "We had a crowdsourced Google map of power outages that was better than what the utilities had!"#smwsmsandy #smwnyc

— Chris Gee (@chrisgee) February 22, 2013

"Utilities are in grey space as "quasi-govt" entities.@alextorpey has legislated 4 > accountability; other mayors followed. #smwSMsandy

— Jerry Weinstein (@tummler10) February 22, 2013

On Wednesday, the Executive Director and Assistant Executive Director of East Orange Water Commission were indicted by the Attorney General on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct, a pattern of official misconduct, unlawful release of a toxic pollutant, tampering with public records or information and violating the state drinking water and pollution laws. Please read my letter to the community regarding water safety, the evolution of these events and what we're doing moving forward below:

The Village released the following statement on Friday regarding disaster assistance:

South Orange passes resolution advocating for three basic gun safety measures. 

Happy New Year!

I'm excited for 2013... I think this year will bring many challenges, but many opportunities as well. And although I am beginning the planning for 2013's State Of The Village address (which will be much more in depth), I wanted to recap some of the great things from 2012 that we accomplished in South Orange. And make no mistake... these kinds of achievements take a team working together. No one can go at it alone, and we saw the amazing teamwork, not just among village staff but our entire community this year so many times (Most notably in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy). Here are some notables:

• The second lowest tax increase in over a decade. (The first lowest being the 2011 budget). Read more about the budget and the exciting new transparency tools building upon last year's precedent setting release of the budget in downloadable spreadsheet.

• The creation of a downtown management corporation called the South Orange Village Center Alliance, which is a turbocharged version of Main Street, with more access to grants and funding sources, that will help local merchants invest back into our downtown and continue to grow it to continue to help make our village a more attractive arts/culture/food destination for Northern New Jersey. Check out their new website.
• The approval (finally!) of plans to build on the former Beifus Site, now known as South Orange Commons. This site will house 57 rental apartments as well as premium retail space - and 100 parking spaces for residents and shoppers. What will be a long awaited and beautiful addition to our downtown.

• The selection of Jonathan Rose as a conditional redeveloper for the Valley and Third Street redevelopment project, which will bring in over 200 rental apartments and a 600-700 car parking garage where only surface parking exists now, as well as retail opportunities. Read more.
• The (grant-funded) installation of three Electric Vehicle chargers in our downtown - another great sustainable initiative. 
• The movement away from outdated technology backbones: Moving our archaic and downtime-prone email system to Google's cloud-based Google Apps, and the switch to a new, streamlined, powerful emergency notification system (EverBridge), the beginning of a complete overhaul and redesign of the southorange.org website into something that will be more user-friendly and include ramped up interactive tools, as well as continued investment in backup power at critical public safety buildings, nearing completion of a village-wide fiber optic network, and multiple upgrades to our public safety communication systems. Several of these initiatives were funded by an OEM grant I found last year, and we hope to find more grants to help continue these upgrades throughout 2013.
• We faced an incredibly destructive storm, leaving over 80% of people in town without power, some for up to two weeks. Although the Village responded swiftly and professionally, and took advantage of new resources like Twitter and the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) to help respond, there is much work to be done in advocating to the state for better preparedness from utility companies. Read more about that initaitive and how you can be involved in helping hold utility companies accountable.
  

• Dozens of new businesses opened in South Orange this year, from Pandang's highly acclaimed Thai food, to Love & Yogurt's Frozen Yogurt, to the Indulgence Day Spa, Portougese BBQ, nicknack store "Stuff," or one of many new eateries on Irvington Ave, such as Lalibela. South Orange's downtown is expanding and if you're interested in helping out with that, head over to the Village Center Alliance's website.
• We are re-structuring the Village's debt, with special thanks to Trustee Howard Levison and Administrator Barry Lewis for being strong fiscal watchdogs for the VIllage, as these changes in our debt structure will literally save the Village millions of dollars over the coming years. This is sustainable and responsible budget planning. Now if only Congress could do the same...
• Continued negotiation with New Jersey Transit over the train schedules and a number of issues, which at this point, have not been concluded in our favor (yet). But working with our state Assembly members John McKeon and Mila Jasey as well as our Senate Representative Governor Richard Codey and County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, we have been able to successfully keep pressure on NJ Transit, and are hopeful for a resolution in South Orange's favor and further investment in the commuter experience for South Orange (and Livingston and West Orange) residents. Have to thank Trustee Mark Rosner for being extremely proactive with this initiative.
• We successfully halted, at least for now, a bill that would give private universities complete exemption from local zoning laws. Working with the league of municipalities and other local officials, I was able to help represent South Orange residents' interests and keep the pressure on the legislature and show them the negative consequences these changes would have to our communities. Our advocacy resulted in this Star Ledger editorial about this issue here.
• We have created a historic preservation commission, re-established the Public Information and Marketing Committee and are continuing to see our Community Emergency Response Team grow. More and more residents are getting to be part of the governance process and be active in town, and this will only continue as we find more ways for residents to be active.
• The Village, along with the Citizens Public Safety Committee (especially the CPSC Chair, Sheena Collum) was able to raise nearly $30,000 for the all-volunteer and donation funded South Orange Rescue Squad with a hugely successful fundraiser/golf outing - in fact the most successful in the Rescue Squad's history. (You can still donate to the Rescue Squad).

• The FBI's Uniform Crime Report shows a marked decreased in crime in South Orange from 2010 to 2011, and we have no one but the dedicated men and women of the SOPD to thank for their vigilance in keeping our streets safe.

• A personal passion of mine, we have continued to lead the way on Open Government issues. We have gained praise from organizations like the NJ ACLU and the NJ Foundation for Open Government, for things such as increased use of social media and video communication, putting the budget online in a downloadable, editable spreadsheet, adding a second public comment period to Board meetings, as well as exploring a number of initiatives to be proactive about Open Public Records Act requests, contract information and transparency in a number of other processes. South Orange has, and will continue to, lead the way in transparent Government 2.0 in New Jersey.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what has happened in town this year. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 2013 State Of The Village address, tentatively scheduled for Late February/early March, which will give more of a look towards what will happen in 2013 and going forward. Many of these projects mentioned are ongoing, and we are excited for a year of downtown growth, further long-term budget stabilization and more ways to get our community involved in our government and community.

And please note my office hours have changed, and are now every Monday from 5-7pm in Village Hall. Please contact me if you'd like to schedule a time slot, or feel free to drop by!

I wish everyone a safe and happy new year, and hope to meet so many more of you throughout 2013 as we all work together for South Orange's future!

Alex

ps don't forget to make sure you and your family are signed up for emergency notifications from the Village: http://southorange.org/alerts

This is a copy of an email I sent to about 400 New Jersey mayors/clerks (whose contact information were available online). This letter and this initiative are not communications or official action on behalf of the Village.

Dear fellow mayors and municipal colleagues,

My name is Alex Torpey and I’m the Mayor and Emergency Management Coordinator for the Township of South Orange Village.  I’m emailing you today because, like many of you, I'm frustrated. And like many of you, I want to see decisive actions and results from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities working with our utility companies in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. But we need to do this together.

All of our communities have been dealing with the challenges and destruction from Hurricane Sandy - some of us are still recovering and rebuilding and will be continuing to do so for the foreseeable future. Our first responders, relief workers, community members and utility workers have all stepped up to the plate in incredible ways across our state. Many local governments have already begun looking at what went well and what needs improvement. It's time for the utility companies to do the same.

Last year after the storms, we tried to lend a hand to improve communication processes and information management and we haven't seen the progress our residents deserve. Again this year, myself and many other mayors felt equally in the dark with the lack of consistent, accurate information from our utilities about the progress of restoration, impacting not only residents' quality of life, work and families but how we deploy our emergency resources and devise our recovery plans.

I'm not an electrical engineer and I don't know how long it should take to restore a power grid, but I am a mayor and an emergency management professional and I do know the critical importance of the proper flow of accurate information, especially during an emergency.

In South Orange, I brought a resolution to my governing body asking for the BPU and Legislature to conduct an investigation into how public utilities manage information, communicate, prepare, and respond to extreme power outages, and compel all public utility companies, through legislative action, to adopt the recommendations resulting from this investigation. Since then, several other towns have adopted sister resolutions. But we need more.

Instead of worrying about staying on top of our utility companies during the next storm, we should be able to spend more time out in our communities helping our hardest hit residents and working with our volunteers and staff on the ground to keep our communities safe and lend a hand to those who need it most.

In closing:

1. Please join me in sharing a petition I've created online at www.njutilitypreparedness.com for anyone to sign, supporting the push to get state-wide legislative fixes.
2. Consider downloading this sample resolution that we passed in South Orange (and has been passed in several other towns including Maplewood, Red Bank and New Milford, many more currently considering) and bringing it to your governing body for passage.
3. I know many of you have passed resolutions or made other statements already in your own towns. Please feel free to send that information to Contact@njutilitypreparedness.com - I’d be happy to post it on the www.njutilitypreparedness.com website and share it in our upcoming press releases.

I have had the chance to coordinate with many of you over the past several weeks and respect and appreciate all of your dedication to our communities - I believe our joint passage of these statements will carry much more weight than just one or two of us alone. Additionally, I have been in contact with the League, and they have been very helpful in offering their support to facilitate the kinds of discussions between us, the BPU and the utility companies that will help bring about meaningful change, as well as advocating for those communities facing the most severe of challenges right now.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me by email, my personal cell or on Facebook or Twitter. I look forward to working with you on this and many other issues in the future. And if there is any assistance South Orange can lend to those of you whose communities were the hardest hit and facing challenges to rebuild, we are happy to assist in whatever ways we can.

Wishing you, your families, and your communities all the best.

Alex Torpey
Mayor/OEM Coordinator, South Orange