Why I'm not voting for Sangiovanni

Why I’m not voting for Joe Sangiovanni:

Tomorrow we go to the polls to elect a mayor and three council members.  We have the opportunity to send a message to the political class that the people are stronger than all their money and connections. I dearly wish an independent or libertarian was running, but as there is not I plan on voting for John Ducey the Democrat in order to end an era of arrogant, excessive and toxic government.

I don’t know about you but I have been very disappointed and dissatisfied with politics for quite a few years. It certainly seems that a ‘political class’ of self serving, arrogant and greedy men and women has developed and their priority is to get elected, or re-elected by any means, and not to serve of the people, by the people and for the people they represent. The money, patronage and influence involved are absolutely huge and very difficult to overcome.

Here in Brick we, the people, have a chance to show that the political class can be defeated.  The Acropolis regime has been one tainted by patronage, greed and arrogance at the expense of the people of the town. Long term township employees treated as mere pawns to be dispensed with so that more patronage positions could be created. Joe Sangiovanni was handpicked by Acropolis to replace him and has played a key role in supporting the regime.

GOP campaign efforts to portray Sangiovanni as something new and independent are nothing more than a feeble attempt to put ‘lipstick on a pig’.  Sangiovanni has been an insider in local republican politics for the past 20 years having served as Republican Municipal Chairman, elected to the School Board, County patronage appointments to County Vo Tech Board and Lakewood Industrial Commission, municipal patronage appointment to the MUA, elected to Township Council and appointed by School Board to the full time position as Transportation Coordinator, then elected onto Council.

The Acropolis regime has expanded government rather than try to limit its growth; for example, creating new administrative and confidential positions, creating new municipal departments and entering into ventures (e.g. the marina and the solar field) that are better left to the private sector. These are not the hallmarks of a conservative, Reagan republican organization, but then many of our local republican officials became republican solely because of opportunism not due to any firmly held political beliefs.

During his years on Council Sangiovanni was the mayor’s guy, not once did he ever challenge or vote against the mayor’s wishes.  By his own actions he proved his priority was supporting the Acropolis regime and not the interests of the people of Brick. Here are some of things that I have found most egregious:

·         The hiring of Juan Bellu (Toms River republican) in January 2008 as a ‘data systems analyst’ at $99,980. Bellu also runs his own business in Toms River, a Commissioner with the Toms River MUA and is the board accountant for the Jackson Rent Leveling Board.  Acropolis announced that Bellu would serve primarily as Assistant Business Administrator; that he had known him for “15-20 years as an accountant and that he runs the MUA in Toms River”. The simple fact is that Bellu was not qualified by education or experience to be an assistant municipal business administrator.  At this same time a new municipal ordinance, which the Council introduced and adopted with Sangiovanni’s help, would create new deputy department head titles with a range of salaries up to $118,671.

·         The hiring of Dave Francese as a ‘data systems analyst’ at $85,000 with the intent of naming him the Director of Recreation once the new department was created. Francese was not qualified for this public administration position but had served as president of the local Pop Warner football association, a volunteer position. Meanwhile there was an existing recreation coordinator that would be made deputy of the new department. She declined to stay and has been serving as Director of Rahway’s Department of Recreation since leaving Brick.

·         At the end of 2008, 42 township employees were laid off.  This layoff happened after some administrative restructuring that allowed the Acropolis regime to protect certain workers of special interest to it.  Some employees of the Department of Public Works were all of sudden part of the ‘new’ Department of Parks and Recreation and therefore exempted when the layoff notices were issued.

·         Additionally at this time, the Acropolis regime dissolved the Township’s building inspections division and contracted those services out to Toms River.  Is there anyone who has had to deal with that situation since it was created convinced that move was in the best interest of the people of Brick? Of course not, complaints about communication and delays have been profuse.  While layoffs happened the Acropolis regime increased the code enforcement unit for two reasons; first, so they could hire personnel and place them in a protected unit and secondly, so that they could raise additional revenues on the back of Brick home owners.  Previous levels of code enforcement had been sufficient to ensure overall compliance with zoning regulations without being overly zealous and punitive to residents.

·         The BMAC (Brick Municipal Alliance Committee) was established by Ordinance in 1997, had received stable grant funding in the amount of $45,000 annually, a required 25% cash match was always met as the BMAC fundraising annual totals far exceed the requirement and the additional funds used to provide for services not covered by the grant. However, not a priority to the Acropolis regime, the BMAC fundraising was diverted to other accounts and not deposited into the rider account authorized by Department of Community Affairs for the Alliance.  Monies raised to assist our community in establishing programs to prevent alcohol and drug abuse and juvenile delinquency were used to support Summer Fest – that’s not conservative, Reagan republicanism and it’s just ethically or morally wrong. The State began to question the fundraising and was requiring more in-depth reporting, so the Acropolis regime withdrew from the Municipal Alliance Program in 2011 to avoid having to answer questions. The BMAC no longer exists as established by ordinance, but to provide cover for themselves they Mayor established a Brick ‘Awareness’ Committee – it’s not the same thing and our community is no longer linked with the other 500+ participating municipalities in a unified prevention effort.  It’s never a good time to cut back on prevention efforts, but this past year’s dramatic increase in heroin deaths only serves to highlight the mistake made by the Acropolis/Sangiovanni regime.

·         The Acropolis/Sangiovanni regime appointed another Toms River businessman and friend to the position of Tax Assessor in January 2010.  His name is Al Cerone who ran, and still does, an realty appraisal firm, but he had no previous Municipal Assessing experience and in fact when his name first serviced he not yet passed the exam to become a Certified Tax Assessor (he did finally pass on his second attempt in the fall of 2009.  Cerone is co-founder of the Jersey Shore Professional Business Association; a fairly small group of Toms River businessmen to which Juan Bellu belonged and Acropolis had many friends.  Brick’s long time Tax Assessor Fred Millman had retired, but the long serving Deputy Assessor, Rich Kenny, was certified and had years of experience.  Once it became clear that the Acropolis regime had no intention of promoting him to Assessor, Kenny accepted an appointment from Mayor Kelleher in Toms River to be their Assessor.  During the period between Kenny leaving and Cerone getting appointed, Irene Raftery served as acting assessor. Raftery has certification, is well regarded by other municipal assessors, and knows the operations of public assessing and tax appeals. Did the regime bring in the best and most qualified person they could? Certainly not! This man still runs his own business, like Bellu and Acropolis. How do they find the time with full time public service jobs? Cerone has also been hiring appraisers that are listed as professionals in his business to work as consultants for the town.  I’ve questioned this and been told there is no law against that. However, having looked at the Municipal Assessors Association code of ethics and other resources it does seem to be undesirable conduct for a public official.  The arrangement of being able to provide consulting work for people who are otherwise employed by him, without bids, or requests for proposals or quotes, is just not ethical.  I have also found out that Cerone does not use, and apparently is not required to use, the electronic time keeping device – other department heads are required to swipe in and out.  When he is in, he’s usually sitting in his office with the lights off, door closed, shoes off.  Just what you’d expect from a less than qualified patronage employee. If Sangiovanni gets in to continue the Acropolis regime he will reappoint Cerone giving him tenure in the position.

·         In the spring of 2010, Juan Bellu received a $49,000 raise (for a total salary of $148,980), which Acropolis claimed was for taking on the new responsibility of overseeing the Land Use and Building Department – wasn’t he already doing that as Assistant Business Administrator.  A few months later Acropolis was hired by the Toms River MUA to be their Executive Director with a salary of $93,000. Not only is Juan Bellu one of the MUA commissioners, so is Acropolis’ business partner Joseph Bilotta. The newspapers reported that they recused themselves from the vote and everyone involved said there was no quid pro quo.  I believe that, this was just business as usual for these guys to be taking care of one another. So Acropolis was now getting a total of $145,000 in public salaries.

·         Then came spring of 2011 when, due to Governor Christie’s budget caps, Acropolis proposed to lay off 171 employees that would include eliminating trash and recycling, 29 police officers and 8 crossing guards. Of course the expanded Parks and Recreation Department, Code Enforcement, and new administrative positions were all held harmless. The people of the town voted by referendum to raise taxes and keep those services.

·         In the autumn of 2011 in the lead up to the Council elections the TWU leadership, not the rank and file, supported the Democrat ticket. I also came to find out that Acropolis brought a township employee outside town hall with him to photograph vehicles in the employee parking lot that had Democratic bumper stickers on them.  Just how very wrong that is I cannot get into now due to space concerns.  By the way, most of the vehicles belonged to police officers. I also heard they were keeping record of whether employees were putting up lawn signs. Well the Democrats won the four council seats. I do not think it was for anything they said or promised it was a direct result of the actions of the Acropolis regime and a council that did nothing to reign in the excesses.

·         Because the TWU leadership supported the Democratic candidates, Acropolis announced almost immediately that he would pursue the dismantling of the Department of Public Works and eliminate trash and recycling as well as other personnel reductions in town hall. The budget he presented in the spring of 2012 did just what he threatened to do under the guise of cutting taxes. His actions were malicious and retaliatory.  Just a year earlier the people voted to keep those services.  The Democrat controlled Council with support from Republican Dan Toth passed a budget restoring the funds to keep those services. Sangiovanni as usual supported Acropolis.

·         On three different occasions the employees were put on the chopping block with threatened layoffs, especially the Public Works guys who on the average are the lowest paid employees of the municipality.  In all this time, not one administrative position was eliminated.

·         Over the last few months a number of new employees have been brought on, some with very curious relationships; while this is typical of most administrations before they leave office in these economic times it is just wrong to inflate the payroll.

Many people I plan to share this with know me and know my background. However, for those who don’t know me, I want to be upfront and transparent so it is important that I share with you some information about myself so that you may judge my words by their content with a full understanding of who I am.  For a lot of years I was involved in republican politics.  I am a Reagan Republican.  I served eight years on the town Council from 1992 through 2000 and prior to that I was on the Board of Adjustment.  I was President of both the New Jersey and Ocean County Young Republicans in mid 80s; the elected Republican County Committeewoman for my district for 14 years; elected as Treasurer of the Ocean County Republican Council from 1993-2001; was an alternate delegate to the Republican Convention in 1994; and, was Treasurer of B.A.N.G. (Brick Action for New Government) in 1988. 

In 1984 I went to work for Ocean County in a temporary position but took every civil service tests that came up and in 1985 became a Planning Aide in the alcohol unit of the Department of Human Services.  When the County Alcoholism Coordinator left in 1987, I applied for the promotional position exam and was appointed to the position by the Freeholders. The position grew to include drug abuse planning and services. In January 1998, I was nominated by Governor Whitman and confirmed by the Senate to be the Executive Director of the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.  In 1999, I decided not to seek re-election to Council. I had a job I loved and commuting to Trenton, but the primary reason I did not continue is that I was faced with having to embrace two running mates that I did not trust and that I believed were self serving and greedy. I served at the Governor’s Council through the Governorships of DiFrancesco, McGreevey, Codey, Corzine and the first two years of Governor Christie.  In 2009, I earned a Masters of Public Administration degree from Seton Hall University.  I retired in 2011 in order to be home to care for my elderly mom who has COPD.  I feel I was blessed to have a wonderful public service career in the addictions field and have remained active advocating for services since my retirement.

I have two brothers, Michael and Brunson, who have worked for the town 25 and 17 years respectfully.  I worked for the town myself in 1983 and my brother Jim did so as well for about three years in the early 80s.

I plan on voting against Joe Sangiovanni so that we can return the government of our town to the people of our town. If John Ducey doesn’t do the job then we un-elect him next time.

In the best interest of Brick.

Mary Lou Powner