Post #37 The uncalled for attacks on the mayor from the dais 12/15/11

12/15/11:
From this past council meeting, speaking for myself, I have to comment further than what was posted on the GW forum.

What galls me, as a resident and taxpayer, this year 2011 is the attacks on the mayor, who so far has not even served one year yet, from those sitting on the governing body. The public, i would say is allowed to do it, since they are the taxpayers and if they are dissatisfied with an issue they should have a need to express their sentiments to the mayor and governing body. Of course you all know that I use that latitude freely the other years and even in this year.

But for members of the governing body to use that action is just plain wrong. There must be decorum and a dignified effort at procedure the governing body holds among themselves, and when addressing each other up at the dais. I am not condemning the whole governeing body, but 2 members.

This year i have seen 2 uncalled for public attacks, both against the mayor.

One I had afterward expressed my concern to the councilor by phone, but it fell on deaf ear. That was the one where in an September council meeting councilwoman Todisco read publicly a letter from the recreation committee chair accusing the mayor of politics in the appointment process of members of the rec committee; which really makes that claim odd since the mayor appointed Todisco herself this year to the rec comm and Todisco is of the opposing political party than the mayor's. She should have recognized that the letter just was not right. That letter should never have seen light of day. The letter, even if there was any iota of validity to it, should have been tossed and a council report reworded by Todisco in a more dignified manner. The councilor should have handled herself a lot better than she did. And after the true explanation came out, weeks after, that proved her wrong; she then only summed it all up as just "miscommunication". She never apologized publicly or privately. We could chalk her actions up to either political arrogance or political innocence. She hasn’t been around long enough to be arrogant; she is nescient at this game. Maybe she has been indoctrinated with political fear of the opposing party. Good spinmeisters can catch a lot of gullible people in their webs; the county being a good example of this.

The latest one was at the 12/13/11 Tuesday council meeting. This was during the issue of the abolition of the longevity for the non-bargaining boro workers. To us it looked like it may have been choreographed, but it can’t be; so it was probably a combination of coincidences and telegraphing? During the speaking portion, the ex-mayors wife asked what the mayor’s sentiments were on the abolition of longevity, even though the mayor only would preside and would not vote on it, except in a tie. She unabashedly stated if voted for abolition, she would not sign the bill, forcing it tot a quick death. That certainly was a courageous statement since she said it before the governing body even voted. That could have given some sway the councilors vote either way. (Which actually after the vote, which was 4 for and 2 against, it appeared to luckily have no affect. All votes were correct and without prejudice IMHO). Right after the mayor made her veto type statement, councilor Matthieu quickly pulled out an email from June 2nd that was sent by the mayor to an unnamed recipient, and pointed out that in the body of the email, the mayor stated that longevity would best to be gotten rid of. To have this email at hand meant that there was going to be a premeditated move by the councilor for some reason; that possibly the mayor had expressed her sentiment in the weeks leading up to this December meeting that she was considering not to sign it if passed. In councilman’s Matthieu’s preplanned attack on the mayor, he did precede it with the statement that her veto meant that she was “hanging the committee out to dry”. He obviously was insulted since his committee did a lot of work on addressing boro workers contracts and took heat for it over the months. But we did not see the full context of the email he read. The mayor in her response to his reading the email noted that during those times, she was involved in minor guidance of how to address boro expenses and was not making any demanding statements but was leaving it up to the committee back then. (This last sentence is in my own words as I did not write the exact language down. Obviously the minutes of this December meeting were taken. But even though he may have been disconcerted, councilman Mattieu should have never taken up a full attack from the dais to try to embarrass the mayor. That was plain wrong. Should another apology be expected? We have come to understand to not hold our breath on anything in GW. But he will probably read this, and he would come to terms as to whether apologize or not, privately or publicly. The interesting item here is that he is of the same political party as the mayor, so we must wonder just what is his big picture agenda here. He seems to be alienating himself from being a good legislator.

The mayor during these attacks remained unflustered and held her dignity in explaining the situation and we give her full credit.


Resident Sytko in his impassioned goodbye early in the council mtg hit the nail on the head, that something is not right anymore in Garwood and this could be the path of the destruction of GW. Does it stem from the swing of power between the political parties? No it’s been going on for a while and ever increasing (and this governmental “anti-cooperation” is even apparent up to the federal level.) Besides the Garwood residents got fed up with the previous powers and their shenanigans and slowly disposed of them over the last few years. Maybe in observance of just this year, some of it may be initiated by the opposing party exiled and is created by their frustrations of the lost of control after 20 years, but it is more than that.

And the residents and taxpayers seem like innocent bystanders with no control in this ongoing horrible drama.