Mayor Doherty has a letter in today’s Coast Star, and I always get a lot of hits when I pick apart one of the mayor’s letters, so here goes. As always, my comments are in red italics.
On Jan. 9, Governor Chris Christie stated, “Belmar is leading the way to recovery,” as he looked at all we had cleaned up and when we installed our first piling for the boardwalk. (Of course Christie said that before Doherty took a hard left turn off the road to recovery and onto the road to urban renewal, or redevelopment or whatever the nom de jour is.) In addition, Gov. Christie joined us on May 22 to open the new boardwalk stating, “Belmar is back. The boardwalk is back. And summer will be back in New Jersey, right here in Belmar. Matt, thank you.” (I had no idea that the changing of the seasons was dependent on man-made structures. I thought it had something to do the the angle of the earth’s axis. Obviously, the governor is as given to political hyperbole and emotionalism as the mayor.)
We are proud to work with the governor, and we do not allow political differences to get in the way of doing what is right for our residents. (Actually, the political difference between Christie and Doherty is not exactly a Grand Canyon.)
I want to thank the residents of Belmar for showing a tremendous amount of resilience and determination as we continue to recover from Sandy. (Ditto.) There is no other town that has come as far as us, (he must be referring to debt accumulation) and it is because of the great people of this town. While we can celebrate how far we have come, it is important to remember we still have families displaced from their homes and we will not rest until every family is back home where they belong. In addition, we will continue our work to bring the public spaces back to pre-Sandy conditions, or better. (That depends on what you mean by “better”)
Unfortunately, there is an element in our town that has worked against our recovery. (Google defines recovery as: 1. a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength. 2.the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost. So tell me, who exactly is opposing “recovery? Give me their names. And enough with the word “element” already. It’s getting old.) This is a small faction (Hundreds signed the petitions.) in town comprised of political opponents who are more interested in imposing a political doctrine on our town and families, than working with us to help with recovery. (Yeah, we hold this crazy political doctrine that says that a town shouldn’t grant multi-million dollar no-bid contracts to outfits that just hired the mayor’s wife. And we believe that we should not acquire another $7 million of debt when we have no solid information on how much of the existing $40 million debt will be paid by FEMA and whether the state will allow us to use badge revenues to pay for the additional debt. Even more insane, we actually trust the voters to participate in an important decision like this.) I can assure all our residents that no matter how many frivolous lawsuits they file, (Those “frivolous” lawsuits were filed by former mayor Ken Pringle. I guess the voters must be pretty stupid to elect a frivolous guy like Ken Pringle as their mayor in five consecutive elections.) how many false allegations they level, (Name one that was false please.) or how much mis-information they intentionally spread, (All I’ve heard is somebody was off by a couple of feet on one of the building’s elevations. I highly doubt it was intentional. But we’re expected to believe that leaving a total of a million dollars in wire transfers to Ferreira off the payment of bills list five times was unintentional, even though there were multiple conflicts of interests possible with the transactions.) nothing, and I mean nothing, they attempt (including asking the will of the voters) will stop our mission to recover from Sandy. (Again, for the 58th time, nobody opposes true recovery.)
Council President Claire Deicke, Councilman Brian Magovern, Councilwoman Jennifer Nicolay and I work together as a team — Belmar’s Team. (To the Democrats, teamwork means nobody has an idea in their head that differs from what the mayor thinks.) We will continue to work together as a team because that is what our town needs. We have seen our residents come together this past year (That’s true. The grass-roots group “Let the Citizens decide” came together.) and we need to show that same level of leadership. So on behalf of Belmar’s Team, your elected officials working together to bring our town back, (That’s the problem. We want our town back. You want to change it.) we pledge to continue working on your behalf and do what is right for the residents of Belmar.
One Comment
The way I read the ending paragraph of the Mayor’s letter is that Jennifer, Claire, and Brian Magovern are all a member of team Doherty. That would seem to me that we then can hold each of them individually as “At Fault” or accountable for the out of control spending and the complete dismissal of the rights of the Belmar residents discourse.(to write or speak formally). Discourse is the right of every citizen in a democratic governmental structure, to take that right away or ignore it leads to tyranny.
(where the ruler {Mayor Doherty}has absolute power)
I for one do not like this current situation and my efforts are directed at restoring fiscal responsibility and to bring to council,principals over politics. This current practice of “Doherty Style Teamwork” most assuredly is not how Dave Schneck and I will represent the residents of Belmar.
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