Candidate information:
Email: milnerjh@yahoo.com
Phone number: 732-983-8672
Party affiliation: Republican Party
Campaign website: not available
Social media: https://www.facebook.com/john.milner.395
Date of Birth: 4/28/63
Education: MBA in Business
Occupation: landlord
Public/Party service: first time candidate, recently defeated in the primaries
Position on good government initiatives:
- Would you support reforming New Jersey’s Primary electoral ballots to give all candidates an equal chance of being elected?
Yes. Your suggestion is important. However, a candidate has no way of getting a message to the public without some help from a standardized internet format, hopefully a required message board on municipality websites that are promoted by newspapers and television, where statements must hold and can be challenged, and hopefully for audience questions. I have found an unbelievable crime that I hope your organization can get the media to report. It affects all of us. Please visit my name on the website, ‘Quora’, and look up the question, “How did President Trump delete this tweet?” Thank you. I believe that our government can be healed by such close in oversight as message boards, an informed public, required participation from office holders and government employees, and jail time. - Would you support measures to increase voter participation (eg. same-day registration, early voting)?
Yes. I believe all voting can be done through the internet, since all voters have unique social security numbers, and that proper safeguards can be put into place easily (with additional requirements such as a credit card, a home address, etc.). In fact, once legislated, we might want to make a law that all citizens should be required to vote. - Would you support placing a nonpartisan commission in charge of the legislative redistricting process?
No. Right now the governor handles that function, and I don’t know how it is possible to improve on this, and to make it efficient. - Would you support ethics reforms that would require broader disclosure on financial information and the release of income taxes by candidates for public office, as a means for regulating campaigns and limiting corruption?
It depends. The question is off track. Prerequisites for candidates should be limited to education disclosure. Once in office, all elected officials and other officers should then be required to reveal real financial information on financial disclosure forms. Unfortunately, New Jersey’s required financial disclosure form mirrors the federal government’s, which provides almost no disclosure at all (check boxes for categories of income). The proper oversight tool to reveal theft involves two things: 1) Remake the form so that it is meaningful, and not a shield to protect the privacy of public employees, and 2) A Governor Christie like salary website for all county and municipal employees. Unfortunately, the, ‘YourMoney.NJ.Gov’ website only accounts for state employees. All county and municipal employees (where most graft may be occurring because this is where most of the money is collected) should be held accountable like state employees. Although all local units are on separate payroll systems (565 municipalities, 21 counties, and various county agencies), a centralized database can be constructed to connect to these places, W-2 information can be downloaded by payroll managers, and complete oversight achieved. The level of secrecy with regards to salaries, hiring, and public ignorance is unbelievably high today, and this wall must be broken. With the reforms above, this can easily be achieved. As far as cost, it is almost nothing. Once it’s in place, it’s paid for, a high level of public good will have been achieved, and it will be there forever. - Would you support reinstituting the statewide public advocate and making it a directly elected position?
Yes. That’s a great idea. However, what we really need is direct participation, by the public, on internet message boards to hold our officials accountable. There are two things to fear about a public advocate position. One would be the public advocate taking the place of direct accountability, and two, further down the road, a public advocate law firm, paid at taxpayer expense, to handle difficult questions. Believe it or not, municipal ethics boards employ retain municipal ethics board law firms for just this reason. If the board doesn’t want to work (because they are set up by mayors, they are all unpaid volunteers, the public does not know that they exist, they are completely ignorant, they fear the responsibility, and they are never asked to do anything), it will call their law firm, and the law firm will put down any complaint. - Would you support changing the nominating process for members of Commissions and Boards to have panels of nonpartisan experts nominate candidates, with full public disclosure of the candidates’ credentials, and to have the legislature vote on the nominations?
Yes. Anything is better than the status quo. : ) Honestly, website transparency should bring up these people. Presently, the mayoral handles these functions, and public is ignorant about all of it, unless they review the municipal laws, and the responsibilities of the mayor. Every mayor has 15 to 20 of these commissions to fill, and internet transparency can bring this issue up front and center. If we add this element to our democracy, we should have a greater number of, and better quality candidates for our mayors to choose, and town council’s to vote on. I definitely would keep the state legislature out of this. They are part time workers, and having them engage in this would be so difficult for them (think about the number of municipalities x the number of commissions x the number of volunteers on each commission). - Do you support public funding of campaigns for all statewide offices, including the legislature?
Yes. Eliminate the RNC and DNC. They are engaged in monopolistic competition, and I have written to the justice department about this. We will always have skewed platforms and a screwed society until they are gone. Remember that George Washington ran for office without political parties, the electorate still voted on the issues, and that political parties only cause damage to society. - Do you support making the state legislature full-time and prohibiting simultaneous holding of other paid positions?
Yes. I do like this idea. However, it is more important to make them fully disclosable to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA). The public knows nothing about them, they invent their oven laws, and this must be revealed. On the, ‘www.njleg.state.nj.us/’ website, look up your own senator or assemblyman, find the number of bills he has written year to date, and think critically about this. One of my own, Assemblyman Ron Dancer, has written over 500 bills since January, and no one knows a thing about him. I would bet my life that a constituent never asked for a single law, and he does this because of a shortness issue, or for some other attention problem.