In Support of the CCC
A letter from outgoing Chair of the CCC, David Campbell
The Civic Conference Committee was founded in Glen Ridge in 1913 and is made up of volunteer residents, including delegates from the many organizations in town. It assists candidates for Mayor, Borough Council and the Board of Education with the political process from getting on the ballot through the election. For ninety-eight years it has made running for (and then running) local government office a relatively civil and efficient endeavor by and among neighbors. Most people would agree that is a good thing. At some point in the last century, however, the Civic Conference Committee became a point of controversy in town and picked up its share of opponents. As a ten-year resident of Glen Ridge and three-year delegate to the CCC, I truly cannot understand why.
The Organization
Every organization in town is eligible to send delegates to the CCC. The Women’s Club, the Ambulance Squad, GRAA, the Historical Society, and others send as many as three delegates at one time. There are available several “at-large” delegate spots as well, and anyone eligible to vote in town is welcome. There is no fee for entry, no application, no minimum qualifications and no initiation ceremony. Meetings are open to the public. Currently, about twenty of your neighbors sit as delegates, contributing one hour of their time per month to CCC meetings. (Officers and others contribute much more.) Current delegates include young parents with children in the school, long-time residents with children who graduated and have moved on, and others who are just interested in knowing what’s going on in town. The CCC’s website includes information about all delegates.
The CCC performs three valuable services:
1. The CCC assists individuals who seek to run for Mayor, Borough Council, and the Board Of Education in completing and filing the petitions and other paperwork necessary to get on the ballot for those offices and in sponsoring candidate events and notices of upcoming elections.
2. Where open seats for those offices are in danger of being left open, the CCC actively recruits individuals to run.
3. Where more than one candidate seeks one of those seats, the CCC interviews each candidate, obtains references and eventually endorses one candidate for each open seat.
In performing these services, the CCC provides indirect but invaluable benefits to our town, easing the way for volunteer candidates unaffiliated with a major political party, and keeping it local, so the issues of concern to Glen Ridge remain paramount.
Supporting Volunteerism
In 2008, on the heels of a seminal Presidential election, it was anticipated that volunteerism in America would be reborn in a way that hadn’t been seen since the 1960’s. But when unemployment reached double digits, and partisan politics continued as usual, that hope went unrealized. Open seats on Glen Ridge committees, town organizations, and Home and School Associations remain open. Interest in town politics waned to the point that we set an embarrassing record for low voter turnout in April’s School Board election and budget vote. Unfortunately, the CCC has had to actively and exhaustively seek out candidates willing to run in the most recent Board of Education and the prior Borough Council elections. At a time when volunteerism is at critically low levels, the CCC’s first two purposes, filling open seats and easing the burden on candidates in navigating the election process is needed more than ever. I think this is obvious to any casual observer and is not the subject of rational dispute.
Minimizing the Impact of the National Political Parties on Glen Ridge
In 1913, former Atlantic City Sheriff Nucky Johnson was thirty years old and rising to the height of his power in the Republican Party in Atlantic City. Forming unlikely alliances with his Democratic counterparts in Jersey City and Newark, he formed an imposing syndicate of New Jersey politicians. That year, the brave citizens of Glen Ridge built a wall to protect themselves from the steamroller that was party politics in New Jersey. That wall was the CCC, and it has stood for ninety-eight years. Whatever their exact motives were, their mission in forming the CCC was to preserve the unique character of our town by ensuring that our elected officials make the needs of Glen Ridge their only priority. So far, mission accomplished.
The two-party system in America, and in New Jersey, is the best the world knows. However, it still has its faults. Democrats and Republicans in the United States, in New Jersey, and in Essex County specifically, have a distinctive process for identifying and selecting candidates. At its most benign, the process in neighboring towns includes attendance at and participation in fundraisers, solicitation of donations to political parties and candidates, assurances to special interest groups and allegiance to state and national party platforms. More often than one might expect, this process actually ends with the most energetic, qualified candidate, who has nothing but the best interests of the locality, winning the party nomination. But more often than one would ever want, it does not. Instead, local office-holders are the people selected by branches of the New Jersey Republican and Democratic parties who hold county- and state-wide interests dear and who may also have their own political aspirations at heart.
In direct contrast to the political parties, the CCC’s mandate is to seek out and endorse candidates for local office based solely on their qualifications and their desire to do what is best for Glen Ridge. The CCC gives the town candidates to vote for (or against) who care about the issues that face Glen Ridge: not Trenton, Newark, or Washington, D.C.
Without overstating the case, I submit that if the CCC disappeared tomorrow, the two state parties would immediately increase their participation in town. Our borough is a valuable political prize: Glen Ridge is affluent, educated, and pays its taxes. We are a positive influence on state-wide education and crime statistics, but we receive almost no financial support from the state. We would be seen as a gold mine for political donations. And the result could be a town run by officeholders who are looking out for the interests of the party bosses that put them there, for Essex County and for the State.
As stated, American democracy is the best government system in the history of the world. Many of us feel passionately about our own preferred political party, Republican or Democratic. I, for one, believe my chosen party does an excellent job running its particular branch of the U.S. Government. But I would no sooner want it running my town than my own home. In the final analysis, because the CCC is in Glen Ridge, the national political parties are not. And I believe that is an infinitely good thing.
The Argument Against
Stated simply, the main argument against the CCC is that it puts too much power in the hands of too few for too long. Having spent three years on the Committee, I know this statement to be untrue in every way. First, the CCC endorses candidates. It does not appoint them. Endorsed candidates can only be elected by voters and no CCC member has greater influence over actual elections than any other citizen. Indeed, recent elections have produced successful candidates who were not endorsed by the CCC.
Second, the current CCC consists of about twenty delegates. But everyone is welcome. We would far prefer a fifty-delegate CCC or, as in its heyday, a 100-delegate CCC. We make active efforts with our three-figure budget to recruit more delegates. It is a topic of discussion at nearly every meeting. The more delegates, the more accurate a representation of the town the CCC would be.
Finally, CCC delegates are the only Glen Ridge volunteers with term limits. No delegate may sit for more than three consecutive years. This cannot be said of Board of Education members, Borough Councilmen, our Prosecutor, our Judge, or the Historic Preservation Commission, all of whom have final decision-making discretion that CCC delegates do not. Out of all these organizations, only the CCC has received a “bad rap.” I hope this is because of the loudly- spoken opinions of an uninformed few, because that problem is easy to solve:
I invite those who support the idea of an independent Glen Ridge to become delegates to the CCC. I also extend a special invitation to those who question the value of the CCC for whatever reason to attend our next meeting, on June 14, 2011 at 8PM at the Women’s Club. It is our final meeting of this term and refreshments will be served. Glen Ridge gives residents a lot to be proud of: from safety, beauty, and good old-fashioned fun to the education of our children. Maybe now, when the CCC is most needed, is a good time to take time to give a little something back, and to get to know the people who play a part in town government at the same time.
