Dear Editor:
Less than three months before the primary election in Parsippany, the Mayor and his colleagues on the Town Council are delving into dirty politics, which is detrimental to the town.
Personal attacks are often used by incumbents in election primaries when they can’t defend their own decisions and policies. The Town Council meeting of March 4 stooped to a new low. It was extraordinary in its abundance of “holier than thou” sentiment and the absence of due process and justice. Based on unsupported innuendo, and the citation of a law, the Council moved into dangerous territory to pass a resolution of censure for Mr. Musella because, on video, Musella’s wife, who was driving, handed his business card, along with license, registration and insurance, to a police officer who had already recognized and acknowledged Mr. Musella. Since the police officer recognized Mr. Musella before he was handed the card by Musella’s wife, handing the card to the police officer was meaningless.
The March 4 Town Council Agenda did not include any notice of censure. Yet the censure was undoubtedly planned before the meeting. The Town Council is free to operate its meetings as it chooses, but such an important item as a censure of a Town Council member should be included in the agenda for discussion and should not be voted on in the same session, so there is a cooling off period. The original motion was to discuss the issue. That discussion quickly morphed into a vote for a resolution of a censure. The Town Council should implement that reform as soon as possible.
The censure theatrics are just the latest distraction to avoid discussing the Mayor’s record. Since the highly touted announcement in September 2024 of a partnership between the Mayor and the BOE, there has been no progress towards a signed shared annual revenue per pupil agreement or any other kind of agreement. The upside for the town from a revenue per pupil agreement is that the town pays no money to the school district UNTIL children living in PILOT Projects are enrolled in school. The downside is that even with such an agreement, there is little chance that the school district will recoup the full cost of educating those additional students. Based on demographic studies, estimates of a net increase of 300 additional students over the next few years will result in a low-ball estimate of $6 million to $7 million in additional costs per year. Those projected costs are in addition to the structural budget problems discussed at the March 13 Board of Education meeting.
Last year, instead of addressing the concerns of the town regarding the lack of revenue to fund the future influx of students due to PILOTS, the Mayor attempted another distraction and proposed an ill-conceived and nebulous BOE “audit” (later changed to a “review”). There was later clarification that the review would be of the number of students in the district. That number is closely monitored and updated constantly. It was a curious decision to hire an accountant for this purpose as such a review is not something an accountant would normally engage in or have experience in, especially one with no ties to Parsippany. This mismatch is mentioned in a Letter to the Editor by this citizen on 09/20/2024. Adding to the folly, months later there haven’t been any reported results for this engagement which should have required only a day of fieldwork.
The question was asked at the time whether hiring the auditor should have been charged to the Mayor’s campaign as this tactic was certainly for political purposes only and had nothing to do with good governance. Examining the ethics of this “review,” for which to this day, there are no findings, would undoubtedly be a much better use of the Town Council’s time than a censure for getting out of a speeding ticket with a warning, a benefit given to many, if not most people, not just Town Council members. If this is the worst thing on Musella, he must be very honest.
Voters need information on both candidates. Before the primary vote, there should be at least one debate, so the citizens of Parsippany are informed when they go to the voting booth.. Still, such
Respectfully,
Jack S. Raia
