Legal But Opaque: A Case Study Mapping the Political Economy of Union County Governance
Harbor Consultants, based in Cranford, has been operating on two fronts in Union County… municipal contractor and political donor. Both sides of that story raise fair questions about how business gets done. Harbor’s work shows up across Union County. Kenilworth The firm served as Borough Engineer, certifying contractor payments such as $90,410.93 for road improvements in 2023 and $60,479.53 for...
Scutari, OPRA, and the Missing Answers in Union County’s Budgets
After we published questions on the Union County Budget last week (Executive Summary), a resident reached out with more detailed budget docs (from the county) along with his notes. We took a hard look at the spreadsheet and his notes. This is what we found. 2024: Big Increases, Few Answers The 2024 budget ended a four-year tax freeze with a...
No Response Yet: NJ21st’s Questions on Union County’s 2025 Budget
Two weeks ago (09/07/2025) we emailed the Union County Board of Commissioners questions on the executive budget. I know – we’re a bit late but we’ve been kind of busy and better late then never. We never got a response back (not surprised) but we figured it would be a good idea to publish the questions as a way of...
Breaking Down Union County’s 2025 Primary Vote: Method, Party, and Municipality Trends
John Migueis The following data is based on data received from the Union County Board of Elections and represent Unofficial Results Early Voting Total Union County Registered Voters: 383,383 Total EV Ballots Cast: 8,237 Democratic Ballots: 6,115 Republican Ballots: 2,122 Overall Early Voting Turnout Rate: Total: ~2.15% Democratic Voter Turnout: ~1.6% Republican Voter Turnout: ~ 3.2% Highest Democratic Turnout Rates...
Turf Fields and Tutoring: Who Gets What in NJ’s Broken System?
The real tax issue in New Jersey isn’t about funding critical services for underserved communities—it’s about the relentless churn of money between politicians and special interests. Take Berkeley Heights as an example: the Township received a $250,000 grant for a turf field, pays $30,000 annually to a public relations firm, and brought in over $2 million in PILOT payments—with not...
Concentrated Influence: Following the Money in NJ Politics (2019–2024) Part 1
State Level Data and Insights Last year, NJ21st published a multi-part series tracking the flow of grey money into County Committees between 2019 and 2023 — helping clarify how more than $50 million from non-individual entities, like PACs, moved through the county networks. This year, we’ve built a more robust infrastructure to collect, clean, and analyze a more complete dataset....
New Jersey & Union County Property Tax Trends: 2019–2024
The Department of Community Affairs published it’s annual Property Tax Report. Excel files were merged from 2019-2024 and Google Colab was used to assist in cleaning the data, applying uniformity to the tables and creating the graphs. What the Data Tells us about the State as a Whole Based on verified statewide municipal tax data, this report provides a comprehensive...
Power, Priorities, and Paychecks: Unpacking the Devanney Council’s Latest Moves and a Local Press that Fails to Hold them Accountable
$30,000 for Media Services, Armies of Attorneys and Lobbyists funded by the Families of Berkeley Heights Arik Samson is a Resident of Berkeley Heights and was a candidate for the Berkeley Heights BOE during the 2024 elections. The Town Council has voted to extend the deadline for submitting the 2025 budget, even as it swiftly approved multiple executive orders immediately...
Laura’s Notes on the 01/07/2025 Berkeley Heights Town Council Reorganization Meeting
With the November 2024 election results favoring Andrew Moran, our community seems to be heading toward a direction that many, including myself, are concerned about: governance by a single party. Regardless of political affiliation, single-party dominance rarely benefits anyone. A balanced leadership with diverse ideologies and perspectives fosters healthier governance, especially in a small town like ours, which feels more...
Concerns About the 11/18/2024 Town Council Meeting and the “New Civility”
A resolution authorizing the township to seek bids for improvements to Deerpath, previously pulled from the last Town Council meeting, has returned to the agenda for this weeks council meeting. This development comes on the heels of the controversial approval of a $450,000 resolution connected to the Westside Drainage Project. Before Ms. Akiri addressed the council at the last meeting,...
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