Parsippany Town Hall Council Regular Meeting (01/24/2017)

Below is a copy of the email I sent to Council President Dr. Louis Valori.  Since the topic was discussed during the Open Public Session there is no reason you can not see it.

To:  Councilman Louis Valori

From: Brian R Tappen

RE: Council Speech Response

Date: 2017-01-25

I just wanted to respond to you since I was not allowed to last night.  I do look forward to working with you on the Town’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. The reason Council Vice President Peluso and others come to me is because I am a dedicated researcher and data head.  I will put those skills to use for the Committee.  With that said:

1.     You said we had never met.  That was not true.  We met at Coffee with a Cop, November 30, held at the Parsippany Library on Halsey Rd.  We spoke for 5+ minutes including discussing the GHA request to re-zone the GHA Parklands from Residential to RCW.  You saw no problem with that happening.

2.    You said that you were not contacted by the Daily Record.  On Tuesday , January 17, pg. A5 the article “Will Parsippany office space be turned into apartments?” the third paragraph from the end states “Council members Louis Valori and Loretta Gragnani did not respond to requests for information.”   Council members Peluso, Carifi, and dePierro are cited also in different parts of the article on pg. A5 deferring to the Town Attorney.  So I based my statement “Every elected official asked by the Daily Record on this subject deferred to the Town Lawyer or did not respond.” in last night’s speech on that report.  Everything I said last night has a citation or source.  I do not make up filler to toss around.

As a further example I stated “The Town Lawyer also told a journalist he had a document from me approving a fourth extension, a statement he was later forced to retract, since it was untrue.  I never gave approval for a fourth extension.”  That is based on a call I received from the reporter (Friday 2017-01-06) who told me he had just spoke with the Town Lawyer and that he had an OPRA extension from me for 2016-12-22 to 2017-01-20.  I told the reporter “The Town Lawyer is a ……….” (You call fill in the blank).  I then provided the reporter with documents to show the Town Lawyer’s statements were untrue.  On Monday (2017-01-09) the reported called again and told me the Town Lawyer had retracted his statement, and that the ensuing conversation was the strangest he had ever had with a lawyer.  He said the Lawyer’s statements made no sense.  Again, every statement I made last night has a source or citation.

3.         Lastly, the Town Lawyers statement that he did not know about the OPRA request until mid-December defies common sense.  The Town Lawyer’s communications with Mack-Cali were part of the November 4 OPRA request.  To imply the Clerk’s Office sat on the request until mid-December is clearly untrue.  Khaled Madin and Susan Ackerly would not have sat on the request for five weeks.  Both are outstanding public servants based on my interaction with them.  They would have notified the Town Lawyer shortly after receiving the OPRA request that his communications were under request, and therefore he would have known about the OPRA request.  The people who I work with on this project know about the OPRA request date and facts, and the Town Lawyers statement does not mesh with the documents or timeline.  I cannot speak how things are from your side of the dais, but on mine the Town Lawyer has no credibility, especially when he makes statements like last night.

I again want you to I am committed to making Parsippany the best it can be, but truth and facts are important and I will not undermine what my teachers in the Parsippany School system instilled in me that “Knowledge Conquers All”.

Thanks for your time.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.