Mayor surprises some by signing ordinance
Statement from mayor on his decision draws criticism from GOP
BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer

BRICK — Mayor Joseph Scarpelli has changed his mind.

Although the mayor said he would veto an ordinance creating the position of Township Council vice president, the ordinance was signed last week in a move that he said was meant to promote “compromise and cooperation.”

The Township Council passed the vice chair ordinance at the Jan. 11 public meeting with a 4-1 vote. Council President Ruthanne Scaturro, and councilmen Stephen Acropolis, Anthony Matthews and Michael Thulen, all Republicans, voted in favor of the ordinance. Kathy Russell was the lone Democrat present at the meeting and voted against it.

The council first agreed to elect a vice chair so someone is in place to serve as council president when he or she is absent. But the wording of the ordinance that would create the position prompted a battle between the Republicans and the Democrats.

Democrats said language should appear in the ordinance that would keep the council president from serving as vice chair the year after being president. The president is not allowed to succeed himself, or herself, as the president two years in a row, so he or she should not be able to serve as vice chair the next year either, they said.

Following approval of the first reading, Scarpelli said he would veto the ordinance if it passed on second reading. A veto would have resulted in the council voting on the ordinance again, and five council members would need to vote in favor of it to override the veto. Since Russell and Democratic councilmen Gregory Kavanagh and Fred Underwood all were opposed to the ordinance without the added restriction against the outgoing council president, that override was not expected to occur.

But the override is no longer needed, since Scarpelli signed the ordinance at the council’s caucus meeting Jan. 18. Scarpelli released a statement that said he sought a compromise with the Republican council members.

“This compromise would have satisfied both sides and allowed this government to move forward,” Scarpelli said on Jan. 18, reading from a prepared statement.

The mayor said he felt the passage of the ordinance by the council majority was “evidence of its unreasonable refusal to work in the spirit of compromise and cooperation.” He added that he has worked successfully with a Republican majority for seven of his 11 years as mayor.

“I respect the separation of powers of this government and have made it a point to not interfere with their work or disregard their authority,” the mayor said.

The Republicans, Scarpelli said, were trying to put political gain before the “essential work of this government.”

He felt there were other more pressing matters for the township officials to attend to than this ordinance.

“While I do not feel that the creation of a council vice president is an essential task for this government ... I will not veto this ordinance,” Scarpelli said in his prepared statement. “While some seem intent on delaying the work of this government to extend the fight over this issue, I will not. Let’s move on.”

He ended his statement by saying, at Jan. 18 caucus meeting, “In the spirit of compromise and cooperation, I am going to sign the ordinance here,” Scarpelli said.

“I appreciate your sentiments that you would like to move forward,” Scaturro said at the meeting.

Late last week, Scaturro said she was surprised by the mayor’s decision.

“I’m very pleased. I think that it’s something everybody thought was necessary,” Scaturro said about the ordinance. “I’m glad that we’re moving beyond [this] now.”

Scaturro said that she will nominate Thulen to the council vice president’s position. Unless the votes go otherwise, the council president said she expects Thulen to sit in her seat in her absence.

Russell said she wasn’t disappointed with the mayor’s decision, but she was surprised by the Republican council members’ reaction.

“I thought he might change his mind,” Russell said. “I was just surprised that nothing pleased them [the Republicans].”

“Anytime somebody says one thing and does another, it surprises me,” Acropolis said after the mayor decided not to veto the ordinance.

In his statement, the mayor said the Republican council members were unwilling to compromise, which Acropolis disagrees with. Acropolis said he felt the disagreement was over himself becoming the council vice president because he’s running for mayor in the November elections. Therefore, he took his name off the table for the vice president’s position.

“As soon as I took my name out of the running, well wouldn’t you know, the mayor had a change of heart,” Acropolis said.

“What compromise did he give other than just signing the ordinance?” he added.

He was surprised that Scarpelli read his statement and signed the ordinance at the meeting, saying that he felt the mayor was “grandstanding.”

“I thought it was a little much, but the mayor is a showman; he puts on a very good show, and that’s just what he did,” Acropolis said.