Two Brick Democrats end their council tenures
Kavanagh and Underwood walk away after 2 terms on council
BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer

Councilman Frederick Underwood (r) did not seek re-election because Brick’s political climate is so contentious. He said his sons asked him not to run. Underwood is pictured with one of his sons, Fred Underwood Jr., and his granddaughter, Emily.

BRICK — Tomorrow’s 10 a.m. Township Council meeting will mark Gregory Kavanagh’s and Frederick Underwood’s last as councilmen.

The two Democrats did not seek re-election this past November.

Elected to the council in 1993, both Kavanagh, 42, and Underwood, 66, said they believed they would have kept their seats had they sought them.

“I feel I would have won if I ran,” Kavanagh said. “But it’s time for fresh ideas and new opinions.”

Kavanagh cited launching his own electrical contracting business as the reason for his departure; Underwood said the current political climate in Brick prevented him from seeking re-election.

The Republican campaign to unseat the Democrats in November focused solely on Scarpelli’s “judgment lapses and possible corruption,” GOP campaign manager Al Cartine has said.

Gregory Kavanagh

“I did not want to leave the council and I still don’t,” Underwood said last week. “When I could see the way things were going — my sons live in this town and they asked me not to run.”

Without two of their incumbents running, the Democrats sent up William McGuire, who ran a failed council bid in 2003, and newcomer Susanne Dyer. They lost to Republicans Dan Toth and Joseph Sangiovanni.

Kavanagh said he doesn’t feel responsible for the Democrats’ losses in November.

“I have to concentrate on my business,” he said. “If I don’t do this now, in four years retirement would be a lot closer.”

Kavanagh has served as a volunteer firefighter at the Laurelton Fire Company since 1994.

He served as a Brick Township Municipal Authority council liaison from 1998 to 2003. Between 2001 and 2003 he also served as an alternate commissioner.

“I wore both hats,” he said. “I actually showed up to meetings. I was told, ‘Greg, you don’t have to come here.’ Nobody ever came. That’s why I giggle when I see the council so in tune with the MUA now.”

Kavanagh lost the appointed liaison post to Republican councilman Michael Thulen in 2004 after a Republican majority took control of the council in 2003.

“I know the game,” Kavanagh said. “You come in by the sword. You go out with the sword.”

Six of the eight years on council Kavanagh served as public safety committee chairman. He cites the work he accomplished while in this post as his most significant.

“We did a lot of good,” he said. “We added a lot of police cars and instituted traffic-calming measures.”

The councilmen bid their public farewells during the Dec. 13 council meeting.

Republican Stephen C. Acropolis called Kavanagh one of the “top three” council people he has worked with while he’s sat on the council.

“You’re in the top three in my book,” Acropolis said. “You always tried to do the right thing, whether it was on your side of the aisle or not. It may have gotten you into some hot water.”

Kavanagh said he felt honored by Acropolis’s words.

“I never toed the party-line vote,” Kavanagh said. “And like Steve said, sometimes it did get me in hot water in my own party. It’s an honor to walk away and have both sides of the aisle saying that. When you’re on the council you look in the mirror and you say, ‘Am I doing a good job?’ and I feel like, ‘Hey, you know what? I did OK.’ ”

Underwood will continue managing the Lakewood Motor Vehicle Commission, a post to which he was appointed after he retired from the school district as a central administrator in 2002.

“Who knows, I might run again,” he said. “It was a nasty campaign.”

His decision to not run did not deter Republicans from occasionally attacking him, Underwood said.

“According to [Republican] John Barrett’s Web site I was an escapee from an insane asylum. Imagine if I was running,” he said.

Underwood said he believes Mayor Joseph Scarpelli will appoint him to the Planning Board. Underwood has sat on the board previously and said he accomplished the best of his work as a councilman while on the board.

“We upgraded the land-use laws,” he said. “We got about 27 ordinances passed that were little things that were eyesores, but that people don’t know how they got that way.”

Underwood has just recently been appointed to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ocean County board of directors and is seeking a spot on the township’s Historical Preservation Commission, he said.

Underwood will also concentrate his attention on his role with at the Church of the Visitation, where he is a Eucharistic minister.

His happiest and most productive time on the council was during this third year when he was council president and chaired the township’s 150th birthday committee, he said.

“I was instrumental in designing the new symbol for the town,” he said.

During his last night on the council Underwood said only, “I thought about the things I wanted to say: Goodbye.”

Council President Ruthanne Scaturro, who, during a recent public hearing exchanged caustic personal remarks with Underwood, had kinder departing words for the councilman.

“Sometimes this was fun, sometimes it wasn’t. That’s how this goes,” she said. “You helped make Brick a better place.”

Like Kavanagh, Underwood said he may run for council again.

“I certainly don’t want to leave being involved in government in this town,” he said. “If it happens, it happens.”