PARSIPPANY — This morning, the Chair of the Parsippany Republican Party, Lou Valori, announced his candidacy for Mayor. As Council President of a 5-0 Republican Council under former Mayor Barberio, Valori has long been complicit in the political favoritism, budget gimmicks, and overdevelopment that had plagued Parsippany for years.
Valori has demonstrated a severe lack of integrity over the course of his political career. In 2013, Valori released a recording of Mayor Barberio offering him a job in exchange for political favoritism, an allegation Valori described as a bribe and reported to the Prosecutor’s Office. Just four years later, Barberio and Valori ran on the same ticket; a ticket the voters resoundingly rejected. If Valori would run with a man he accused of bribery, what would he do for his friends? Perhaps this is why Parsippany voters ousted Valori by over 800 votes in the 2017 election. This marked the most lopsided defeat for an incumbent Republican Councilman in township history.
The former Council President is also remembered for restricting public comments at Township Council meetings. His refusal to allow residents the standard amount of time to speak was reversed when Mayor Soriano took office.
Valori’s failures extend beyond the Parsippany government. As Chair of the Parsippany GOP, Valori saw his own Vice-Chair, former Freeholder, and Councilman John Cesaro, arrested on bribery charges. Although this arrest took place over a year ago, Valori has yet to comment. Valori has also failed to condemn the January 6th riot at our nation’s Capitol, after standing shoulder to shoulder with QAnon and Proud Boys members at a Trump rally in Parsippany on September 12.
Even out of office, Valori has continued to advocate dangerous policies for Parsippany residents. For months, Valori has pushed for the development of a children’s park in his home neighborhood of Glenmont Commons. As Council President, he and Mayor Barberio hosted not just one, but two, election year groundbreaking ceremonies on a plot of land planned to become a children’s park. The only problem? The township did not own the land. When Mayor Soriano came into office, his ask to the owner about this former construction staging site was routine: the soil needed to be tested for contaminants before our children could play there. To this day, the property owner, a major Valori donor, has not permitted soil tests. And to this day, with the full facts known, Valori continues to push for the township to acquire this land and construct a children’s park, without environmental testing.
That, in a nutshell, is the type of leadership Parsippany can expect from a Valori administration.
Parsippany voters had the good sense to reject Valori once. The decision to do so again is an easy one. A vote for Valori is a vote for political favoritism, budget gimmicks, overdevelopment, dishonesty, and putting Parsippany families in jeopardy.
