Winter. Ocean Grove. The sound of silence. Paul Goldfinger ©
February 25, 2019.
a. Two pregnant pauses at the Mother Ship: Once again Jack Bredin has run into a brick wall erected by Mayor Rizzo at the Township Committee meeting. Why in the world would the new Mayor want to stand out, not as a leader, but rather as an abuser of a citizen?
This time, Citizen Jack wanted to be able to stand up and express some opinions, as he has a right to do, 5 minutes at a time, but once again the Mayor gave him the business and dissed him in front of everyone.
The first time he rose to speak about an ordinance, but the Mayor sat mute and would not recognize him after having recognized others who wanted to speak.
Later in the meeting, during the Public Portion, the same thing happened. The Mayor is supposed to recognize those who would speak to the Committee.
Each time Jack had to be recognized by another Township official–the Clerk, who stepped into those two pregnant pauses.
Other towns get to elect their Mayor, but not in Neptune. That law should be changed so that citizens like Jack can receive equal recognition under the law. Either that, or this Mayor should be removed by her colleagues and placed back into the bleacher seats where she might be able to function more properly and effectively.
b. The Township Committee had a second reading on that $1.35 million living shoreline project in Shark River. But the engineer who designed this questionable and expensive plan was not present to answer questions from the public. This is wrong. And in this case, that engineer should have been present for the citizens of Shark River to review and question the plan.
At Blogfinger we have little interest in what goes on over at the Shark River community, but we are interested in the process with which those 5 elected big shots go about interacting with the public.
c. And, like a bad dream that won’t go away, the transparency problem, which the Committee refuses to address regarding the North End Redevelopment, has once again resurfaced through the muck and the fog to show itself to be more and more suspicious every time it rears its head.
This time, the Township Business Manager Vito Gadaleta, reported to all present that there would be an all day meeting on Tuesday, February 26, regarding the North End Plan, but he did not say who would attend the meeting or what the purpose of the meeting would be, and this, believe it or not, is a public project which is supposed to be transparent to the public. Isn’t anybody going to stand up and give them hell? Where were the Groaners on this matter? They were there, but silent.
d. Parking?? Did you all think that our parking problems would be under control in the winter? Did you all believe Jack Green when he said that OG’s parking problems were only significant during a handful of weekends each summer?
But guess what: Blogfinger has previously pointed out that Asbury Park wants to be a year-round seeker of crowds. And they are succeeding, not only with special events through the winter, but now you can find parking gridlock around Wesley Lake during ordinary weekends, with A. Parkers coming into the Grove at our North End to create parking mayhem.
Grovers need to be aware that our elected officials will do nothing to help the residents of the Grove, and this situation will get worse. The Township doesn’t care that Asbury parking will further compromise the life-styles of those who want to enjoy their town—the place where they live. All they know is that Shark River should get over $1.3 million to build a living shoreline and that our North End should become Asbury Park South.
Our town is changing, and nothing is slowing the momentum in the wrong direction. We have received comments that say, “If you don’t like it—leave.” The fact is that Grovers are leaving. My street has recently changed in a major way. And there is nothing wrong with change, until the change results in indifference, lack of direction, lack of spirit and lack of uniqueness.
ART GARFUNKEL: His album is The Singer:
From a theoretic point of view, the current dysfunctional players aside, an elected mayor should feel beholden first to all the people who elected him to be a Mayor–a position which is not a run-of-the-mill Committeeman as we now have—a “strong” Mayor should be a representative of the community and not in cahoots with the Freakish Four.
One definition of a “strong mayor” setup says: “Under the strong mayor system, interest groups can accomplish their goals by influencing the mayor rather than convincing a majority of city council members” Such a design might give a minority group such as the Ocean Grove community some degree of influence which is not present now where everyone of that fabulous five votes the same way and pays no attention to the Grove.
Would electing a mayor for a three year term be a better system? The elected mayor will be a Democrat and he or she will have support from the other Democrats on the committee.
There have been some bad and terrible mayors in recent years. The mayor is elected by the Township Committee, so each Committee-person gets a turn. The only good news is that the Mayor’s term is only one year.
The Democrats have held all five Township Committee seats for more than a decade. They can do or not do whatever they want.
We are waiting for Mayor Carol Rizzo to report on the results of the Mayor’s Redevelopment Committee meeting that was scheduled to be held all day yesterday (Feb. 26, 2019) with the “Conditional Redevelopers of the North End .”
Or, will she continue to maintain her “right to remain silent?”
The public meeting for the North End should have been reported through a public notice. For the Township to inform the public about a major meeting the night before shows a clear intent to deceive the public.
So much for the new mayor.
Kevin Chambers
Despicable. We should boycott paying taxes and revolt until they:
a.) Answer questions about the North End
Development
b.) Start showing respect for residents who take enough interest in showing up at meetings to speak for our community.
This is Mayberry USA, not Washington DC.
Does the appointment go to their heads and make them feel important to the point where they are rude?
I despise arrogance!