Dear Editor:
On a recent Bill Spadea radio show, Mayor Jamie Barberio went on a tirade, badmouthing a councilman who had rightfully called him out for being absent from this week’s State Police drone briefing—a briefing attended by approximately 180 mayors from across the state.
Embarrassed and angered after being caught red-handed by his constituents, Barberio frantically took to the airwaves, attempting to deflect attention from his well-documented ineptitude and laziness by smearing someone else. Unfortunately, Spadea allowed an arrogant and lazy mayor to hijack his platform for a smear campaign against a councilman who fights for honest and responsive government. Your program is built on exposing no-show officials, yet you give a pass to this no-show mayor from Parsippany.
During the interview, Barberio dared to claim, “Everything is going great in Parsippany with regards to drones and stuff like that. I get briefed regularly on the drone situation here. And, um, we hear nothing new, nothing whatsoever new. Um, you know, a whole bunch of mayors, we, as we speak, almost every morning through text messaging and talking and stuff like that. We get the same answers.”
This incoherent response from Barberio highlights his cluelessness and indifference. Jamie Barberio is the only full-time, six-figure-earning mayor in Morris County. Yet, you would never know it from his performance. Compare him to Pequannock Mayor Ryan Heard, who, despite leading one of the county’s smallest municipalities, has emerged as the face of leadership on the national drone issue. Heard is calling out state and federal authorities for their failure to inform and protect residents. Meanwhile, Barberio continues to sit idly by, passively receiving “updates” via phone and text messages.
I agree that the mayor of any city or town cannot take direct action but in the case of Parsippany, our mayor decided that the desire of his residents to be informed was not compelling enough to attend a meeting hosted by the New Jersey State Police and the Department of Homeland Security. Regardless of how that meeting turned out, his failure to attend sent a clear message to his constituents that he didn’t care about their legitimate concerns. His decision to attend a holiday party while almost 200 of his fellow mayors were attending this meeting is a slap in the face to every resident of this town.
Thankfully, the residents of Parsippany have started to rally behind Jamie Barberio’s opponent, who has emerged as an empathetic and ethical leader who appropriately calls out our truant mayor during these dangerous times.
Dennis Letts
