A real hearing on housing:

Assembly committee shows how it's done

Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 5:43 AM
www.nj.com


Anyone curious about what good government looks like should have dropped in on the Assembly committee hearing on the new housing bill last week. Advocates, clergy, builders and mayors all had a chance to sit before the committee chaired by Assemblyman Jerry Green, air their concerns and take questions.

It was a striking contrast to the Senate committee chaired by Ray Lesniak — which not only declined to hear testimony on the bill, but failed to make new amendments public in a timely fashion. And voted to move the bill out of committee, anyway.

The bill would abolish the Council on Affordable Housing and put in its place a different system for making low-cost housing available throughout the state. But the bill is too important to rush through, especially when so many details are still being corrected and clarified.

Green gets it. He and his committee — vice chair Mila Jasey, Linda Greenstein, Fred Scalera, Celeste Riley, Charlotte Vandervalk and Michael Patrick Carroll — took the time to listen to testimony and asked for copies of statements. The committee was no pushover: Green did everyone a favor by running a tight ship and keeping testimony focused on the details of the bill and possible solutions. No grandstanding allowed.

Senators, take note.



Source: www.nj.com