Dear Editor:
I am reporting back on my review and analysis of the statement at the March 21, 2017 Town Council meeting by Council Member Valori that “the Town had invested $4.5 million dollars in Sedgefield and Glacier Hills on infrastructure in the past year”.
That statement is False, Untrue, a Lie (more on that later). There was no money spent on Glacier Hill’s infrastructure in the past year (data listed below).
Let us review this experiment from the beginning. I listen to the soundtrack of the March 21, 2017 meeting and Councilman Valori makes the statement “the Town had invested $4.5 million dollars in Sedgefield and Glacier Hills on infrastructure in the past year”. I don’t think that was true and decide to check it out. Facts are fun and one should never pass up a good experiment!
I live in Glacier Hills and I know of no infrastructure projects in the neighborhood. OK, only a single source cannot be considered reliable, need multiple sources. I solve that by asking my neighbors if they know of any infrastructure work in Glacier Hills. The neighbors have no memory of infrastructure work.
I next decide to check Town records to see if there was truth to Councilman Valori’s statement, and we who live in Glacier Hills just did not know about it.
On March 27 I filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to see Town records noting “I would like any Financial, Planning, Zoning, Building & Construction, Engineering, Sanitary Sewer, Streets & Roads, Water Utility documents listing any infrastructure investment in Glacier Hills from January 1, 2016 to the present.” I also sent an email to the Town Council that the public utterances of the Council were under review. This was a Public Comment at a Public Meeting by a Public Official and worthy of Public Review.
I did add a 3 month cushion to Councilman Valori’s “past year” timeline to be generous.
I have received the results of my OPRA request (after two extensions – subject for later discussion). Per the Town’s own records Councilman Lou Valori’s statement at the March 21, 2017 Town Council meeting that “the Town had invested $4.5 million dollars in Sedgefield and Glacier Hills infrastructure in the past year.” is false. There has been no infrastructure work done in Glacier Hills for years!
The Numbers as provided by the Town are as follows (they had it down to the penny!):
Sedgefield Area Streets
2008 Consultant Design $97,357
2010-11 Sedgefield Phase I $747,559.64
2013 Sedgefield Phase II $855,521.29
2014 Sedgefield Phase III $1,260,892.71
2015 Sedgefield Phase IV $1,217,543.88
Moraine Area Streets
2015 Consultant Design $72,000
2017 Moraine Phase I $1,015, 889.10 (bid awarded, not actual expenditure)
There was no money spent in Glacier Hills. Nada, Zero, Zip! Moraine Phase I started yesterday morning.
I would like to request that all members of the Council try to be more truthful and accurate in their public statements. When you make statements which are untrue, we the public will be watching and holding falsehoods accountable (it is an election year). I will now forever wonder what other untruths have been uttered and not caught. Whose word can be trusted? That should be all except…
Except that at the March 21, 2017 Town Council meeting Council Member Valori called the President of the Sedgefield Civic Association a Liar. He calls him a liar and put forth no evidence that it was true. I think they call it “character assassination”, but it is also the Council has different standards for different people.
A review of the January 24, 2017 Town Council meeting shows disparity in treatment. Some people can speak for three minutes and then are told to stand by the microphone while members of the dais try to undermine and demean the speaker on the floor. The Council President has given specific orders for people not to speak while the dais responds.
Others are allowed to speak and ask questions and continue a dialogue with the dais while sitting in their seats. It’s a double standard, and a standard set by the Council President and can be seen on the video.
I have no problem calling someone a liar if I have the facts to support that position (see above). Let us now apply Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion to politics. For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. If it is okay for Councilman Valori to call a community leader, The SCA President, a liar without evidence – then applying the Third Law a speaker from the floor can call the Councilman a liar and it passes muster because he set the standard (and probably the First Amendment, but then John will want to consult at $150 / hour.). And the standard does not require evidence of untruth as I have provided above. Imagine a speaker calling Councilman Valori a liar at a public Council meeting. There would be an uproar against the speaker.
Members of the Council act like this to deter others from speaking about things they don’t want to hear. Not only do you have to be willing to speak up and out about what you believe, you have to be willing to endure the dismissal and derision if your ideas and issues to not meet with the approval of the powers that be. Speaking during the public open comment session used to be five (5) minutes, but that has been cut to three (3) since the Council does not want to spend too much time listening to the grievances of the people of Parsippany. People are to comply with the direction of the Council, not complain about the direction of the Council.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which specifically prohibits Congress from abridging “the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances“. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence cited King George’s perceived failure to redress the grievances listed in colonial petitions, such as the Olive Branch Petition of 1775, as a justification to declare independence:
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Speaking at a Parsippany Town Council meeting during the Public Comments period is the modern and local equivalent of the right to have one’s grievances redressed. Some people are treated no better than the King treated early American colonists. People need to be treated equally before Government, even if the Government does not like what it is hearing.
Earlier I noted the weakness of single source reporting. The same is true on an experimental level – one experiment is just one experiment. You solve that problem by running a parallel experiment.
On March 24 I wrote on email to Town Economic Development Advisory Committee and suggested we get together elect a new chair, and set an agenda and schedule. I press the send button and the timer is running. Dated March 27 (postmarked Mar 28) a letter from Councilman Valori was sent to the Economic Development Advisory Committee stating he would contact the Committee in mid-April and we would meet by the end of April.
It is April 25 as I write this email, there has been no contact and there has been no meeting scheduled. This may be the second of two tries to document untruth. It is not the end of April so the clock is still running.
There is no better summation than the woman who was the first public speaker at the April 11, 2017 Special Town Council meeting to rubber stamp the Salary Cap Ordinance change. Speaking to the Town Council about the Town Council. “You are a disgrace”. She nailed it.
Thanks for your time.
Brian Tappen
Glacier Hills
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