Dear Editor:

With the Primary election only a day away (Tuesday, June 6) the Parsippany Republicans have a choice to make. There are two candidates running for Mayor and its our duty to vote for who we feel will  best represent the taxpayers of Parsippany in November and for the next four years.

Mayor Barberio has been in office now for eight years. During this period he has created a lot of controversy within our township. Remember Waterview? The question we must answer now is can we afford another four years?

Things to consider:

1) 0% municipal property tax increase for 2017. In order for Mayor Barberio to accomplish this he used $3,800,000.00 of surplus and reserve money (2,500,000 sewer/ 700,000 water/ 600,000 township reserve). 0% increase is politics 101 during an election year. However, this could hurt us in the future the 2% saved in 2017 can be used in 2018 allowing up to 4% increase. We’ll have to wait and see.

2) Township ordinances are being ignored by Mayor Barberio (ex. Township vehicles and White Collar Salary Ranges). Township attorney John Inglesino has stated on record that “ordinances are more guidelines than laws”. I ask you, if they are just guidelines why do we pay Mr. Inglesino to prepare them? Why do they have to go before council three times be voted on and adopted

3)  Mayor Barberio has made it a habit of using surplus monies to help balance his budgets over the years. Mayor Barberio has drained more than 8 million dollars in surplus for this purpose. The water/sewer utility is being used as a piggy bank by the Mayor. The water/sewer utility is a self-sustaining facility and surplus should be used for the needs of the facility only.

4)  Job postings in town hall under Mayor Barberio’s watch have changed. Per OPRA request I was advised that the only jobs that are posted are jobs that civil service refer to as open-competitive. This is a big change from previous administrations that followed the employee handbook policy and posted job opportunities on bulletin board giving township employee’s a chance for advancement if they desired. Is it possible Mayor Barberio may be hindering the advancement of some township employee’s?

5) Mayor Barberio hired two individuals in December 2016 for the positions of Keyboard Clerk offering them salaries that exceeded our White Collar Salary Ranges.  An emergency meeting was called by Council President Lou Valori on April 11, 2017 to have this ordinance amended to show new salary ranges. Ask yourselves:
• Why would Mayor Barberio offer more money then ordinance allowed?
• These positions were not posted anywhere (newspapers, town website) so how were these individuals chosen?
• How did these individuals hear about job openings? Is it possible Mayor Barberio is hiring family and friends (daughters boyfriend, boyfriends mother, recently retired police officer)?

6) Transparency is still lacking. Only what Mayor Barberio wants residents to know.

7) Aurora Information Security is being paid a monthly fee for storage of materials related too James Carifi’s case. Is this not ridiculous? The township doesn’t have a place to store this stuff? More taxpayer dollars being wasted. As of March 1, 2017 a total of $68,820.83 has been paid. When will this end?

8)  James Carifi lawsuit – this witch hunt/vendetta that Mayor Barberio created is costing the taxpayers of Parsippany dearly. Millions have been spent (our hard earned dollars)in the last four years and we can expect millions more in the future. The only one benefiting from this is Mr. Inglesino the township attorney. I believe its time Mayor Barberio resolves this major issue the taxpayers of Parsippany can no longer afford to have this witch hunt continue.

9) Attorney fee’s- Mr. Inglesino’s 1099 for 2016 totaled $701,985.21. When does it stop?When do we say enough is enough?

Parsippany residents, we have a decision to make come Tuesday, June 6. Do we want/need another four years of Mayor Barberio or do we want a new leader to step up and make change? New leadership with fresh ideas would be a welcome relief in my eyes. So, once again I urge you to go out and vote. No matter what you think your vote does count. For new leadership vote Peluso.

Pat Petaccia

Dear Editor:

This weekend, Mayor Barberio sent a letter to Intervale residents inexplicably criticizing my efforts to protect the neighborhood from a proposed Target, Whole Foods, strip mall, and large-scale housing project just 50 feet from our property lines. I, along with many other people, organized to push back against the egregious proposal while the Mayor’s administration openly supported it.

It should be noted that the Mayor never reached out to anyone who would have been directly impacted by the development; we had to reach out to him. 

And while the Mayor did eventually accept my invitation to come to my house and meet with us, he sat in my living room espousing all of the reasons why we needed to accept the developer’s proposal as-is, not once making an effort to explore a compromise. 

Mayor Barberio can claim all he wants that he tried to preserve Waterview. His words are one thing, but his actions were clearly another. For example, in his recent letter, Mr. Barberio asserted that if I really wanted to preserve Waterview, I should have proposed to him taking the property through eminent domain. Is he actually admitting that it would have been that easy and that he was waiting for someone else do that for him? If that is the case, then it is clear that Waterview’s demise was ostensibly his fault and his leadership ability was woefully apparent.

Mr. Barberio is taking credit for the preservation of 10+ acres that will serve as a buffer between the neighborhood and the development. Here is the truth: When Mr. Barberio couldn’t get his Council’s support and the project was initially defeated, then when the Freeholders rejected his anemic attempt to apply for open space funds, the developer’s attorney threatened to build 666 housing units only 50 feet from the neighbors’ property lines. Shortly thereafter, the developer called me and asked to speak with the citizen’s group to work out a compromise in lieu of the housing project. We met and spoke with the developer on several occasions, looking at various iterations of plans, topography maps, and traffic patterns to find a solution that we felt would be acceptable to the neighbors, while simultaneously protecting the neighborhood with what would ultimately become a 400-foot buffer. We painstakingly tried to preserve every possible square foot of land, and did that over a period of several weeks – without the Mayor.

In the Mayor’s letter, he also accused me of agreeing with the settlement proposal. Obviously, that is true. The Citizens For Health, Safety, and Welfare group and I eventually and reluctantly did. No one at that time, including council members, had a choice. However, Barberio didn’t write that I, and many other residents, spoke at multiple Council meetings and Planning Board meetings stating that it was our preference to have the township preserve the entire 26 acres. He didn’t write that given the COAH situation, we no longer saw full preservation as a viable option, so we ultimately agreed by default to what we thought was the best deal for the neighborhood. The mayor didn’t write that there was an entire group of residents that spent more than $50,000 hiring experts and lawyers to protect our interests because he couldn’t or wouldn’t do so.

Finally, the Mayor’s letter overtly accused me of having some sort of agenda in my efforts to preserve Waterview. If by working to keep a Target out of my back yard that meant I had an agenda, then I suppose he’s correct. If having the will to stand up for what I thought was best for my community meant I had an agenda, then again, I suppose I did.

I find it pathetic that Mayor Barberio would pick a fight with a citizen who is not running for any office and who undoubtedly did what anyone would have done faced with the same threat to his and his neighbors’ quality of life.

At the final Planning Board meeting, when the development was ultimately given the blessing to proceed, Mayor Barberio, on the record, thanked me for my efforts and stated that even though we disagreed, I handled everything in a classy way. What has changed since then? I guess he’s upset that his campaign sign isn’t in my yard – or in the overwhelming majority of the yards in Intervale. I, like many others, are supporting his opponent, Mr. Peluso. But after seeing Mayor Barberio’s character revealed as he desperately approaches the electoral finish line, I suppose I’m not surprised. 

Good luck to all of the candidates and I applaud everyone for giving their time to run for public office. 

David Kaplan

Dear Editor:

The Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills School District consists of fourteen schools (ten are Elementary levels) and only two are covered by armed security. The current Mayor and School Board have not provided our children with suitable security measures.

As a concerned parent armed with common sense and a calculator, this level of protection is not only ineffective, but disgraceful.  Our Mayor’s office and School board haven’t done what’s necessary to enact the protection all of our children deserve.  I had enough of the political double talk and nonsensical justifications. There’s a simple, thoughtful plan that’s not only feasible within our budget, but also backed by Chris Christie’s task force that encourages and gives schools permission to hire armed SRO’s (Security Resource Officers) in all fourteen Parsippany Schools.

This plan isn’t my idea so I’m no innovator. This solution and the push for school-wide security coverage have been presented at nauseam by Robert Peluso, Parsippany Council Vice President.  He continues to preach to the Mayor and School Board that we should hire Class III retired police officers to protect all of our children. This is not a political endorsement as I don’t know the man.  I’ve watched him plead for our children to be protected and watched the current administration do nothing. My only goal is for all of our children to be safe in school.

Mayor Barberio, his Administration, and our School Board need to be held accountable for putting 75% of our kids at constant risk.  Furthermore, whomever is elected this June, the primary focus should focus on prioritizing our children and our families.  Honorable people with integrity should have found a way by now.  Perhaps it’s in the works?  No matter who is elected, let’s collectively be proactive rather than reactive.

A Concerned Dad
Mal Maher