VOTE NOV 8, 2016.  Click to enlarge.   Look for Lake Avenue on this CMA map.  The CMA  may support the NERP, but they know where Lake Avenue is.  Note that the map excludes the North End and the Lake Avenue route after Pilgrim Pathway.

Bring transparent  and honest  government to the Neptune Township Municipal Building—-Vote on Nov. 8.   Blogfinger photo. ©

Blogfinger is keeping an eye on things. BF reporter in action. ©

September 11, 2016. Ocean Grove, NJ:

This Blogfinger post began its life in December 2015, but we have updated it today.

In a November  2015  Blogfinger poll, 88% of respondents said that they did not trust the Neptune Township Committee to do what is fair and just for Ocean Grove. 310 respondents voted.     9% said they did trust them, while  the rest were unsure.

On  January  1, 2016,  a new version of the 5 person Neptune Township Committee was sworn in.  Returning were Dr. Michael Brantley (newly re-elected), Kevin McMillan (incumbent and new Mayor) and Randy Bishop (incumbent.)

Taking the place of Mary Beth Jahn was Nicholas Williams (newly elected.)     Carol Rizzo of Ocean Grove  was later  appointed to take the place of Eric Houghtaling.

Recently  Robert Lane was chosen to take  Randy Bishop’s seat after he was appointed to a County job.

Mary Beth Jahn had not been  re-nominated to run again in 2015  by the Monmouth County Democrats.  Her exclusion resulted in the nomination and election of Williams who vowed never to speak to Blogfinger on the record.

Eric Houghtaling, who was sympathetic to OG,  vacated his his seat in early 2016 as he moved up to the State Assembly resulting in Rizzo’s appointment.

Recently Committeeman Brantley was photographed showing new developers the North End, suggesting that he has no intention of killing the NERP and restoring single family home zoning to all of Ocean Grove.  Why would he and the others on the Committee be so determined to turn the North End into Asbury Park South?  Good golly Miss Molly—-Oh dear, what can the matter be?

So, in 2016,  Neptune Township  remains  the most Democratic town in Monmouth County.  But the  Republicans currently   have two candidates running for Township Committee.

Some say that party politics are not important in local elections, but don’t believe it.  If you look at the Facebook page of Brantley and Williams, after winning last November, they said, “Democratic residents of Neptune. This was a victory for you.”  Where does that leave the rest of us?  Do those Committeemen represent all of us?  It doesn’t look like that.

At Blogfinger our New Year’s wish was that the newly reshuffled Committee, headed by a new Mayor, would  take a fresh look at the way Ocean Grove citizens have been treated by the Township.  We need transparency and fairness. We need to know that our local government is acting in the best interest of the people of Ocean Grove regarding OG issues and that they do not have other agendas. What do you think?

So far, the 2016  Committee doesn’t look any different compared to the prior edition as it pertains to topics of concern in the Grove.

In 2015 Blogfinger said that it would ignore politics in Neptune Township with the exception of the ongoing horror show called the North End Redevelopment Plan  (NERP.)  But that topic has yielded a wide variety of concerns which we have been following, and some of them are seriously troublesome as you know if you have been reading BF. If not, use our search engine at the top right of our home page and type in “North End.”

On Nov. 8, two Republicans will face two Democrats to see who will fill two available seats on the Township Committee.

We don’t know if the two current Democratic candidates Carol Rizzo and  Robert Lane will be willing to provide clarity and share their ideas about OG issues. We suspect that the Democratic  hierarchy will try to shut them down.

Nor do we know if the Republican candidates Mike Fornino and Candy Storey will have anything to say about these complicated matters either.

The people of OG need a dialogue with our elected officials, instead of just talking to each other.   Perhaps a bipartisan Committee would at least be more transparent and open to a variety of  new ideas for the Grove.

If any of the candidates want to address Grovarian issues on Blogfinger, we would be interested in posting those opinions.  The last Committeeman who did so was Mary Beth Jahn, and she offered a wonderful breath of fresh air in an atmosphere that has been full of cloudy, stale, polluted air.

Blogfinger will not endorse any candidates.   But we will try to provide information about candidates, and you can decide for yourself.

In the last general election    (2015), there were 2, 281 registered voters in the Grove.  Neptune as a whole had 18,175.    The voting turnout overall was 24% but it should be much higher this year.    For Committee in 2015, the two Democrats, Brantley and Williams won, beating the two Republicans Harris and Sheehan.  But in Ocean Grove, the Republicans  obtained 529 votes vs 446 for the Dems.   Grovers must plan to vote in larger numbers if they are to get the attention of all these candidates.

For those of you who enjoy the minutiae of local politics, check our this 2012 Charles Layton piece on the subject:

https://blogfinger.net/tag/neptune-township-politics/

–Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger

JULIE LONDON: