Statement made at the 9/12/18 City Council Meeting
I would like the following remarks on the public record.
I want to address a recent smear campaign engineered by my political rivals. I have recently been accused of positions and activities which I have never condoned or supported. I was using my Facebook page, which is a few years old, to offer a wide array of views on current issues that were being posted on Facebook. But the administration’s political operatives cherry-picked some of those posts to use them as a political weapon in this campaign. Since my page has obviously been misconstrued and misinterpreted by our rivals, I deleted the posts.
They are desperate to win. The only thing that has stood in the way of their complete control of the city – control that would have given you a tax increase, unnecessary and possibly illegal rezoning of the waterfront, is the City Council. I, as President, fulfilled my responsibility as a public servant, to question the administration’s ideas and had the independence to say no and stop plans that would hurt many and reward a few. For that I have been targeted. They have engaged in a nasty, vicious and slanderous attack on me for that reason.
My family has been in Perth Amboy for over 100 years serving this community which I love.
I have served for decades in the first aid squad, as a volunteer firefighter, member of the Board of Education, Planning board, zoning board and now on the city council, there has never been a hint of that type of accusation. Until now.
Interesting that it would appear now, a few weeks before an election.
People who know me, know what is in my heart.
And I would like to apologize to anyone who may have misunderstood or been offended by these posts which by the way made up less than 1 percent of the posts on my page. I am fairly unfamiliar with Facebook and I’m not making excuses for my naiveté, but my intent was just to inform, and stimulate conversation which is evident by all the other posts on my page including support for local causes and events and lots of posts on food.
Make no mistake: this is the politics of personal destruction. If you can’t win on the issues, destroy a person’s good name with attacks meant to weaken and discredit him. Is that what we’ve sunk to? Is that what we want politics in Perth Amboy to be? I think we’re better than that. There are enough present-day issues that affect our everyday lives here in our community, that should be the subject of this political campaign, high taxes, overspending, lack of parking, un-affordable housing, overcrowding. And while my opponents are wasting time trying to slander me, those issues that are so important to our residents are NOT being discussed. The election should be won on issues and experience, not personal attacks.
