Blogfinger enters the HOA spin cycle searching for significant accomplishments.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net. 5/1/24. Re-post now Jan 2025.
All Home Owners Association members received a “Dear Members” letter from President Richard Williams early in 2024. He begins by saying that “2023 was a busy and eventful year for OGHOA.”
He then says, “We addressed controversial issues while keeping everyone up to date on all things Ocean Grove and Neptune.”
But is that enough? Does “addressing controversial issues” mean that anything meaningful was accomplished ?
The first topic he raises is to remind us of the disappointing failure for residential parking permits in the Grove.
He says that in 2024 the OGHOA will “continue to pursue permit parking and other ways to ease the parking crunch in OG.”
At least Bradley Beach is behaving itself despite the open borders to our south. But Asbury Park is an unsolved problem.
Regarding what he says is an “evolving relationship between secular Ocean Grove and the OGCMA,” this is the first time that the Groaners have publicly identified something which Blogfinger has been fussing about for years, namely that there is a community within our town which he now calls “secular” and which we have identified as “residential–ie renters and homeowners” and which has been ignored by the CMA and the HOA. He needs to explain the “evolving relationship.”
He should have mentioned the specific issues of church vs state that continue to heat up in town and which must be addressed.
This subject had already been exploding in 2023, and the press, local and national, have been probing the Grove.
Next we Grovers will be hearing from those who want to talk about divisions in the Methodist Church and by so called “Christian Nationalism” at the CMA.
Neptune United has been stumbling around these matters, but where is the HOA on all this? These issues belong to the CMA, but the town of Ocean Grove will be dragged in. But the HOA has nothing to say about this.
And how about the NU revelations regarding possible bias in home assessments: residential properties vs. the CMA’s ? Where is the HOA on this critical issue?
Also, we now have a legal committee at the HOA, but are they just researchers or would they ever sue on our behalf? Will they be all talk, but no action?
And who is watching how the HOA money is spent? Remember when the HOA President Barbara Burns spent $7,000 on a lawyer to investigate ground rents, but refused to release that legal opinion? They can still release that report, and Blogfinger will post it. Will Williams have the courage to do that or will he protect his predecessors?
It is not enough to merely mention the topics on Williams’ table. Results are needed. Will you join an organization which has failed in so many ways?
The only tangible result of great importance for which he claims success, regarding the OGNED/HPC lawsuit, is that “thanks to you we were able to persuade the Township to table the settlement for further review.”
And finally, we have one party rule at the Neptuner Comedy, and there is a Democrat primary coming up next month. Will the HOA offer voting recommendations for the best candidates to represent We-The-People in Ocean Grove? Does the HOA care that we have taxation without representation in our town?
He concludes his letter with, “Community effort brings out the best in our members as we unite to protect and enhance property values and quality of life in Ocean Grove.”
So how have they done in protecting and enhancing property values and quality of life in Ocean Grove?
Williams has only good to say about his group, but he ignores their failures and their wheel spinning, and here is their greatest failure:
Since 2007, the OGHOA has never said, “No” to the North End Redevelopment Plan which is about to threaten the very life and definition of our town.
ELLIS MARSALIS: “A Child is Born”