Doug Singleterry

Background:

I'm currently a councilman in North Plainfield, where I initiated a municipal ban on 'pay to play', a practice of awarding no-bid contracts in exchange for campaign contributions.

I am also a member of the Economic Development Committee (EDC) and the Youth Services Commission. Working with the EDC, we've proposed and secured passage of initiatives expanding tax incentives for structural improvements made on homes and businesses. We also recently updated and rewrote the municipal sign ordinance.

I'm also proud to serve as a board member of the Tri-County Red Cross, which provides disaster relief services to 22 municipalities.

During the day I'm employed as an attorney.

Goals:

I am running for Somerset County Freeholder to restore public trust in county government.

My running mate (Cecilia Birge) and I are running on a platform of fiscal responsibility and reform that includes 1) ending 'pay to play' on the county level, since 2003 over 20 million dollars worth of no-bid contracts have been awarded in exchange for campaign contributions; 2) place the county park sytem under the direct management of the county, and not the county Park Commission whose members are unelected and unaccountable to the public; and 3) stabilize taxes through shared service agreements and ethics reform.

Issues:

1) Ending 'pay to play', since 2003 more then 20 million dollars worth of no-bid contracts have been awarded in exchange for campaign contributions;
2) Dissolving the Park Commission and placing the Park System under the direct management of the county-last year a series of scandals and financial abuses involving the Park Commission were discovered
3) Stabilizing property taxes-the fourth highest in the country

Grassroots Support:

Volunteers and grassroots will play an important role in our campaign. I have already teamed up with and won the endorsement of Somerset for Democracy. We are working to coordinate our freeholder campaign with the local and congressional races in Somerset County.

DFA Values:

My platform goes hand in hand with DFA's values of fiscal responsibility and social progress. 'Pay to play' is essentially a corruption tax. Ending pay to play and awarding contracts based on merit will help restore faith in the political process and control spending.

Placing the county park system under the management of the county will restore public accountability and end the financial abuses that have taken place.

My running mate and I just recently criticized the county for plans to spend up to 50,000 on beach balls and mood pencils containing the names of elected officials and public offices. This is both fiscally irresponsible and unethical since these items basically serve as campaign promotions via taxpayer expense.