Ten months as mayor has been baptism by fire
Kelly has made it his mission to shake off the Scarpelli legacy
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer
Democratic Mayor Daniel J. Kelly, in office just 10 months, will be the first to admit he is not a polished politician.

And that may be just what Brick needs, he said.

"We can have civility in government," he said in a recent interview. "If I have any goal at all, at least we can be civil to each other. We all ultimately want the same goal. We want the best for Brick. Let's work together."

Kelly has had his work cut out for him since the GOP-controlled Township Council picked him on Jan. 4 to replace former Democratic Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli.

He and longtime Township Councilman Stephen C. Acropolis are vying for the remaining two years of Scarpelli's unexpired term.

Scarpelli, who was elected to four terms as mayor, resigned abruptly on Dec. 8. He pleaded guilty in federal court on Jan. 8 to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer.

And Kelly, 66, has been fighting to distance himself from the fallen mayor ever since. Republican campaign literature and ads over the past several weeks have equated a vote for Kelly with a vote for Scarpelli.

Kelly served as Planning Board chairman during the Scarpelli years. Any suggestion that he was influenced by Scarpelli to act favorably on an application is "total nonsense," he said.

"They've [Republicans] spent a lot of money on ads to tie me to Joe Scarpelli," he said. "It hurts they are saying I'm a crook. You spend your life with a set of standards you live by and somebody messes with it. It's very distracting."

Kelly spent his first week in office meeting with township employees. He has also done something Scarpelli didn't do in the last years of his administration. Kelly is at his desk in town hall every morning at 8:15 a.m.

"I think Brick is at a crossroads right now," he said. "The people who have been in have had their opportunity. It's going to take courage to govern this town for the next few years. If we are going to provide the services the people of Brick deserve, we are going to have to tighten the belt and cut spending."

Kelly rankled Republican Township Council members earlier this year when he presented a budget that called for a 12.9-cent increase in the municipal purposes tax rate.

"I had a choice of doing the politically correct thing," he said. "I chose not to do it."

Kelly had only been in office nine weeks when he presented the budget, which was compiled with Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras and the township's financial staff.

Pezarras warned that the township had relied too long on one-shot revenues like liquor license sales, municipal asset sales and deferred school taxes.

But Acropolis and Republican Township Council members, three of whom are up for re-election this year, refused to go along with the tax hike. They deferred school taxes and took more money out of surplus to come up with a 4.9-cent increase.

"I would be happy to come in with a zero budget and be a hero," Kelly said at a council meeting early this year.

2008 will be "real interesting," as far as the budget goes, Kelly said.

Layoffs would be a last resort, he said.

"But across the board, any budget request that comes to us will be an almost zero-based budget request," he said. "People are going to have to do without."

The township has made too many land purchases over the past several years, Kelly said.

"We have to stop this idea that we are in the real estate business," he said. "That's not our business. Our business is government."

The redevelopment plan for the Traders Cove site off Mantoloking Road is a good thing, but took too long to come to fruition, Kelly said.

"It took this council years to come up with this," he said. "It looks like it will be a good thing for Brick. They took too long to do it."

As far as the vacant Foodtown property on Route 70, "I don't know why they bought it," Kelly said.

Republican Township Council members vowed to use the Foodtown property as the site for a community center back in 2005.

But the property has remained unused ever since. Acropolis blames the delay on the former mayor. It wasn't until the Republicans won a "veto-proof majority" on the council last year that plans to redevelop the property were feasible, Acropolis said.

"They should have gone about with their plans, but they sat on it," Kelly said. "But now there are people out there moving forward with this. We need to get it back on the tax rolls."

Kelly is less enthusiastic about the proposed purchase of the Ocean Ice Palace property on Chambers Bridge Road.

The Republicans have not provided numbers for the total cost of building a recreation center on the 13.34-acre site, which already has an ice rink, he said.

Acropolis took Kelly out for a tour of the site the week before his July press conference announcing the purchase, he said.

"He tried to convince me it was the right thing," Kelly said. "It worked just the opposite."

He is still open to the idea of using the site for a recreation center, but wants details on just what would be built and how much it would cost.

A recent presentation at a Township Council meeting about what could go on the site was like "going to a Chinese restaurant," Kelly said.

He also pushed for a referendum on the purchase in August, but it was too late to put a referendum question on the November ballot, Township Attorney Jean Cipriani said.

Acropolis said Kelly was first informed of the potential purchase at a closed session in January and could have asked for a referendum then.

Kelly said he had only been in office several days when he attended the closed session and few details about the proposed purchase were discussed.

"There was plenty of time for the council to do a referendum," he said.

"What's it going to cost and will it pay for itself?" Kelly said. "We shall see. I can't go by figures we have seen right now."

Township Council members also lambasted Kelly earlier this year for a lawsuit he filed in February challenging professional appointments made by Township Clerk Virginia Lampman on New Year's Day. Kelly said he thought the appointments were his to make as mayor.

He did not name anyone in the suit when he first filed it and said he just wanted an answer as to whether the appointments were valid.

But Superior Court Judge Frank A. Buczynski ruled that Kelly had to supply names. The Township Council then hired attorneys to represent those named in the suit.

Buczynski eventually ruled that the appointments were valid. The legal fees ended up costing the township $77,000.

Kelly, a Cliffside Park native, has lived in Brick for 39 years. He has been married to his wife Gerri for 40 years, and they have three grown sons and four grandchildren.

He was a regional sales manager for a Maryland-based transportation company before he began his own trucking business. He was retired before he was appointed as mayor.