(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Oct. 27, 2010) SOUTH AMBOY — A standing-room-only crowd packed Sacred Heart Church’s Memorial Hall, Washington Avenue, late last week to see and hear four candidates for Mayor, five candidates for City Councilman-at-Large and one candidate for First Ward Councilman address the issues facing the “Pleasant Little City” in what has become the liveliest local election campaign here in decades.
Candidates’ Debate Night, hosted by the South Amboy Women’s Club, a new organization headed by former Councilwoman Beverly Samuelson, was moderated by Zena Gurman of the N.J. League of Women Voters. Sponsors include Amboy Bank and the Amboy Beacon.
All of the candidates showed-up, including Fred Henry (8B), Vincent Mackiel (8C), John Dragotta (8D) and Mary O’Connor (8E) for Mayor; Saverio Sagliocco (9A), David Longenhagen (10A), John Connors (9B), Michael “Mickey” Gross
(10B) and Eugene “Gene” Reagan (9F) for Councilman-at-Large, and Donald Applegate (11B), running unopposed for First Ward Councilman.
The only no-show of the evening was South Amboy resident Alicia Vitarelli of News12 New Jersey, who was scheduled to introduce the candidates.
Dragotta
arrived unannounced, and was seated at the Council candidates’ table.
The question of whether the event would go-on as planned was raised after Mayor John O’Leary, Chairman of the South Amboy Democratic Organization (SADO), e-mailed a letter on city stationery dated Oct. 18 to the League, with copies to the Debate’s sponsors, citing “numerous complaints” received from senior citizens about the facility being “non-barrier-free” and “not handicap (sic) accessible due to the wide winding staircase too wide for the use of both handrail (sic) simultaneously,” and “no elevator to enable a wheelc hair to enter the debate,” thereby presenting “a dangerous scenario for the handicap (sic), and does not afford them the ability to attend this debate.”
In the letter, O’Leary goes-on to offer as an alternative “the South Amboy Community Theater” at the Community School, Hoffman Plaza.
However, Samuelson said that Memorial Hall was selected because the theater at the Community School was unavailable and the Women’s Club was told by school officials that, as an alternative, the gymnasium could be used for a $500 fee plus $100 for insurance. She said that after the money was secured from Amboy Bank, the Club was informed that the $500 fee was incorrect, and the fee was actually $1,000.
“We then contacted Sacred Heart because they have a hall to rent,”
Samuelson said. “They gave us the rate of $500 for the hall and $100 for the insurance.”
As for the issue of handicapped-accessibility, the Sacred Heart facility has been used for many years to hold monthly meetings of the Sacred Heart Seniors.
But that fact did not deter Applegate — in his only remarks for the night, other than opening and closing statements — from raising that issue again at the event.
Interrupting Gross, who was about to make his opening-statement, Applegate declared, “I’d just like to put-on-the-record that the South Amboy Democrats didn’t have anything to do with scheduling this event here. This is not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant, and this is not a public building.”
The first announcement was a missing breast-cancer-awareness bracelet in the parking-lot, and Reagan was introduced by Gurman as one of the Democrats.
Then, someone called-out, “How-about the Pledge of Allegiance?” That was quickly-accomplished, and the Council candidates’ opening-statements got-underway.
The format used kept the four mayoral candidates sitting patiently until the Council candidates completed all of their answers, when they got to speak.
Each Council candidate started-out with his qualifications.
Sagliocco spoke-about his MBA and “banking and financial background.”
“I don’t have a degree,” Longenhaven said. “I’m a regular guy. I fix things. That’s what I do.”
Reagan spoke of how he brought the moribund South Amboy Youth Athletic Association (SAYAA) back-to-life in four years as its President.
Speaking on running the Frog Hollow 5K Run for the past five years, Gross, who is overweight, drew laughs when he said, “Yeah, I was last.” Turning more-serious, he stated, “I’m concerned that the amazing progress we’ve made will be reversed” if the Independent candidates won.
Connors, the only incumbent running for re-election, cited his non-Council experiences before he ticked-off a list of accomplishments listed in a recent campaign advertisement. He left-off with a swipe at his opponents as being “more-concerned with power than progress.”
“I’m a little nervous,” Applegate said. “Everyone looks-good in their underwear out-there.” Then, he started reading from a list of his “many youth-oriented activities” until he ran-out-of-time. “Sorry, the best part was coming,” Applegate said.
A question on the Council’s duties and the city’s form of government drew a variety of responses.
Connors described “the Faulkner Act” favorably as “a system of checks-and-balances,” while Reagan suggested that it “should be changed”
to “a
stronger Council rather than a stronger Mayor.”
“Most towns in Middlesex County are Faulkner Act communities,” Gross stated. “It’s a very-effective way of doing-business because the Mayor and Council work-together as a team.”
“The Council is supposed-to safeguard what you own, not go-along with what the Mayor wants,” Longenhagen said.
“I agree with Mr. Connors that we have the Faulkner Act, but let’s be realistic,” Sagliocco said. “We don’t have any ‘checks-and-balances.’
There
was not one ‘no’ vote when it comes-to increasing taxes.” That remark drew loud applause, which prompted Gurman to admonish the audience.
Reagan took the microphone to answer a question on “keeping municipal taxes in-check,” proposing “bringing-in commercial ratables” and “cutting-down fees we’re paying to professionals.
“We need to think-through projects better,” he added. “You can’t put bricks in the street, rip them up and pave, and then put more bricks down.”
That
remark, referring to Broadway, drew loud applause.
“There isn’t a municipality that’s not burdened,” Gross said. “We need to look-at getting a part-time grant-writer.”
“Warehouses are a bad ratable,” Connors declared. “Do we want tractor-trailers riding through town?”
“We have them already,” someone called-out.
The mayoral candidates started-out by speaking about themselves, starting with Dragotta, “a volunteer with the South Amboy, Sayreville and Old Bridge Fire Departments” whose father retired after over 20 years as a South Amboy police officer.
“I was voted-in to the Board of Education on a write-in,” he said. “The tax-base has to be equalized with no-more residential development.”
“There are vacant stores downtown, and the redevelopment properties have been at-a-standstill for the past 10 years,” O’Connor said. “South Amboy needs a plan based-on marketing principles.”
The turnout at the debate “demonstrates that we have a democracy in this town,” Mackiel declared. “I will stabilize the 2009 tax-increase because it was too-much to bear.”
“We’ve been accused about things that didn’t happen and misconstrued about things that did happen,” Henry said. “The key word is ‘spending,’ and that’s been caused because of decisions made in Trenton.”
Asked by Gurman whether “the sale of land should be used to balance the budget,” he replied, “The state took it away from us, $450,000 for one acre of land, and there isn’t Any reason why it shouldn’t be taking-place.”
“That’s not an acceptable practice,” O’Connor declared. “We should use our assets to the city’s interest. We could lease those lands, but there are other ways to fill budget-holes.”
“My chief concern is that the City of South Amboy receive the market value,” Mackiel stated. “There must be sacrifice in terms of each department. We all have to pitch-in to save a little.”
“What happens when we run-out of land to sell?” Dragotta said. “It has to end.”
“It was not of our doing that we had to do this,” Henry said. “We sold-off the land at a fair-market price.”
“What will you do to rein-in taxes and spending?” Gurman asked the candidates, adding, “Please do not blame the state or the economy,”
drawing
laughter.
“We’ve pretty-well stabilized our spending policy,” Henry said. “We’ll continue to look-into shared-services. We had 125 city workers, and it’s cut-back to 65 now.”
“I don’t believe City Hall has done enough about arbitrary litigation,”
O’Connor said. “We’re spending thousands of dollars with litigating when we can’t pick-up the garbage.”
“I suggest our citizens attend MCUA (Middlesex County Utilities Authority) meetings,” Mackiel said. “The paving of various streets is the key to out-of-control spending.”
“Contracts can be cut further if the contractors aren’t forced to kick-back hundreds or thousands of dollars,” O’Connor said. “We must have a ‘pay-to-play’ Ordinance in South Amboy.”
“We use the Fair & Open Process,” Henry said. “We don’t pass our own (“pay-to-play” restrictions) because they’d be totally-unenforceable.”
“There’s no place in South Amboy for it (“pay-to-play”),” Dragotta declared. “Let the contractors do the talking, and keep the politicians out of it.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with getting money from anyone,” Henry responded. “We are not doing anything illegal. If we are, prove it.”
“There’s a fine line between illegal and unethical,” O’Connor said.
“Giving our money to out-of-town contractors is unethical.”
Asked by Gurman about “rental units not being maintained by absentee-landlords,” Henry responded, “It’s up-to you to watch-out for your neighbors.
There will be a warning first, and eventually, they’ll be getting-fined.”
“We have to make-certain absentee-landlords should maintain their properties and provide enough-parking-spaces,” O’Connor stated, drawing applause.
“We all fight for a spot out-there,” Dragotta acknowledged. “Maintenance keeps everyone’s property looking-good.”
O’Connor and Dragotta agreed that the permitting process in South Amboy discourages new businesses, but Henry countered that “we’ve just formed a new organization in town to expedite things.”
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