Freeholders: The Unknown Officials
Four men and one woman, all dressed in nice suits, take their places on a light brown, wooden bench. A small crowd has gathered to see them, primarily made up of Girl Scouts and members of a special needs organization.
“Since we have women in uniform here, why don’t we have them lead us?” suggests the man in the middle, Freeholder Mark Caliguire.
The young girls proceed to lead the gathering in the Pledge of Allegiance. Virtually everyone smiles as they shout out the words out of sync. Caliguire then invites the girls up to the front, where he presents each of them with a personalized certificate, recognizing their charitable efforts for chemotherapy patients. The girls gleefully smile for their pictures and then leave almost immediately.
Caliguire then presents the 2015 Disability Advocate Awards to their recipients and an excited group of women take their photos with him as well. They too clear out almost immediately after the pictures have been taken.
Upon their departure, only six people remain, most of them reporters. With a county population of over 330,000, this was the effective turnout on a Tuesday evening to hear the members of the Somerset County freeholder board vote on how taxpayer money would be spent. Less than .000015% of those that they represent.
Freeholders are a very unique group of elected officials who are found only in New Jersey, a tradition and title dating back to the colonial era. The term originally meant that only free, land owning males were eligible to serve on the board. Now, there are simply modest residency and age requirements. Every county in the state has freeholders, although their numbers, manner of election, and responsibilities differ slightly between counties.
In Somerset County, located in central New Jersey, the board has five members who are elected on a county-wide basis; Caliguire (Montgomery), Brian Levine (Franklin Township), Peter Palmer (Bernardsville), Patricia Walsh (Green Brook), and Patrick Scaglione (Bridgewater), all of whom are Republicans. Each member is elected to a three-year term and serves as a legislator for the county. Unlike some counties, Somerset does not have an elected county executive.
“It’s like the mayor and council for the county, instead of the town,” explains Levine. Like a council member, each member of the board is entitled to one vote on a diverse array of decisions.
“We provide a wide range of services. Probably the one that impacts the most people most of the time is roads and bridges,” says Palmer. “Most of the time no one notices unless something goes wrong. Then they notice.”
Many of the decisions that the board makes involve how to best appropriate the taxpayer’s money by managing the county budget. This is a task that Levine, an accountant by trade, and Palmer, a retired actuary, are particularly well trained for.
“We provide a lot of other services for the municipalities at good costs that saves money,” says Levine. “Bigger economies of scale.”
Despite their important roles in government, many people do not seem to know what freeholders do, or in some cases that they even exist. While campaigning for the office in 2014, Levine had to explain to many voters what exactly he was running for.
However, while freeholders may be relatively unknown barring a crisis, the position has served as a springboard for many seeking higher office in New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie and former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman served as freeholders prior to their elections as governor. Many members of the New Jersey general assembly and state senate also served as freeholders earlier in their careers, including Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli and Senate President Steve Sweeney, who is widely seen as a potential gubernatorial candidate himself in 2017.
But it is not only about the money or a potential quest for higher office. Each member of the board is also a liaison to certain sectors of the community, including human services and public works. These services help a lot of people with specific needs through government programs. While people in these programs may not know it, they often have the freeholders to thank for these services.
As Levine says about his role in human services, “For a lot of people, we’re the safety net.”
For an interview with Freeholder Brian Levine, as well as pictures from the Nov. 24 meeting, see: http://hosting.soundslides.com/n5tts
