Dear Editor:

By now, we’ve all heard the news that Donald Trump was indicted for a fourth time, this time on racketeering charges in Georgia for the criminal conspiracy he led to overturn the 2020 election.  

The indictments in Georgia and Washington, D.C. made clear that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 presidential election, but worked with his cronies on a variety of illegal schemes to change the election’s outcome so he could remain in power. When his plans to pressure state officials to overturn the will of voters and create fake elector certificates failed to secure him the presidency, Trump and his allies resorted to instigating a violent insurrection to try to keep Trump in power. 

We must make sure this never happens again in the United States of America. Accountability is essential to protecting our democracy, our freedom to vote, and future elections. 

No one is above the law, including former presidents. Trump’s trial must proceed without political interference so that a jury of everyday Americans can do their jobs. 

Sincerely,

Lindsey Ryan

Dear Editor:

Vote Parsippany Democrats in November. Why Keep Delaying the Future? People of the Town Deserve a Voice.

Matt Kavanagh is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and is familiar with managing budgets. Bernie Clarkin is an accountant, not an adjuster, therefore no more financial looting of specific designated funding, especially water and sewer. Judy Hernandez is an environmental/stormwater engineer, not a developer clown, who believes in endless growth at others’ expense.

Municipal Government is not a business, it’s an entrusted responsibility, not something to be given away or severely compromised. What good has the rateable chase done Parsippany; over development, land destruction, water problems, trashed community, traffic just a few. Allowing developers to determine Parsippany’s destiny and not its residence is also a betrayal of the public trust.

Affordable Housing Responsibility

Now Housing Mandates. Parsippany set itself up for this by being over-developed, what else can be done with this “corporate real estate” that litters our landscapes; tax ratables and spending without frugality have earmarked Parsippany for more outside domination by corporate real estate barons. 

Misplaced Blame, and False Assumptions through Disinformation. COVID Impact ignored

Blaming the former Soriano Administration for bringing so-called affordable housing to Parsippany, showed the lack of understanding of the issue by the general public. It was Soriano’s administration that lowered the numbers from what former Attorney John Inglesino developer friends had wished. It was also Inglesino who allowed PILOT deals with 1515 Route 10 and the UPS facility (UPS profited $14 billion in 2014); so why a PILOT deal?  Waterview landscape was also lost to development, another unneeded mall, after a grassroots movement accomplished a no-rezone decision and a promise of open space. Parsippany tax-payers coughed up $4 million in local open space, for something that should have been zoned as a buffer, the 300-feet all were speaking of. There was more, 700 Mountain Way for Forge Pond. Forge Pond could not be developed, as a wetland, and 700 Mountain Way an environmentally sensitive area, was lost to another Mosberg LLC deal.

Believing in Progress but not its consequences of waste, pollution, and Over-Development?

Republicans believe in the myth of progress and the fantasy of what the United States was and in many ways is no more. Endless growth is unsustainable and defies the laws of nature and limits. Denial of man-made climate change despite the science is disturbing. Corporations as people and people as mere consumers, chattel that must serve the system, not a system that serves them. 

If you don’t know, how the world really works in an ecological sense, you are incapable of fitting or preventing more problems from being created. Our water infrastructure is a good example, In the recent past 11 of the 19 wells had severe problems, 4 wells; 3 went dry, and one shut down due to contamination. Parsippany has the highest water deficit in the watershed, due to over-development, not protecting recharge areas, (like Waterview, Mountain Way), depletion, and consumption, and water-mining. Only nature makes us great. 

What good has the corporate rateable chase done Parsippany, if taxes keep increasing? 

 Every election look at the mass pollution of political signs, all posted as opposed to the rules, as the rules are apparently for someone else. The signs are also evidence of following the money, the corporate campaign sponsors’ interest, not the people of the affected community. Under corporate power, the property becomes anti-community, anti-earth itself. Profits for corporations placed above health welfare and sustainable life is the great flaw of power and control, not a caring democracy. 

 We need  Candidates with a long-term vision of a sustainable future, in Parsippany. Without an ecological paradigm in government, we like lemmings continue blindly into the myth of progress, and evade real needed evolution into a sustainable life worth living. Problems of quality of life cannot be solved by tax-ratables and endless growth outside the laws of nature.

Science is telling us one thing, while politicians deny or ignore thru dark money allowed in the system. The Climate Crisis is the most pressing issue of the time. Those who deny the science will take us to the point of no return, as they retreat to their enclosures.

Parsippany is like a landscaper with no Land Ethic 

Time for real change, not musical chair politics. Republicans are not trying to improve or make things better as needed, from single-stream recycling to lack of political courage to enforce source separation mandates that cost us all, pretending that somehow what we see before us, is an acceptable norm. Parsippany can do better. 

The Good is the Bad we don’t do. Vote Democrat Vote Community Vote Sustainable Future

Nick Homyak

Dear Editor:

The Green Team and Environmental Commitee initiated the FIRST and sequential MEETINGS with the Mayor to get the Farmers Market started again.

I don’t recall ONE town council member present at any of the meetings.

The township hired a Professional Farmers Market company and they did all the work. Again, no Town Council members set any of the process up. I did see the Town Council and Mayor at the farmers market ribbon-cutting ceremony and the Green Team and PEAC were not even invited. HISTORY NEEDS TO FACTUAL, EVEN ON A LOCAL LEVEL.

Enjoy your day folks.

Laura McCluskey

Dear Editor:

At the September 5 Parsippany Town Council meeting, our community was shocked to hear Council President dePierro pledge $7,800 in developer cash to the 2023 Republican campaign for the Council. dePierro accepted this $7,800 in campaign contributions from developers and attorneys of the Lanidex housing project along Parsippany Road. These generous contributions came after dePierro’s vote in favor of the project.

Several weeks ago, dePierro falsely claimed that this developer cash would be donated to
charity, not used for political purposes. But apparently, Councilman Carifi and his running mates need the cash. dePierro’s developer dollars will provide Carifi and his running mates with a large sum to promote themselves while hiding their support for Barberio’s 18% tax hike.

In the end, this is yet another incident that reflects Mayor Barberio’s failed leadership of our township. He and his ticket don’t care about your money, which is why he raised taxes 18% in two years. He and his ticket don’t care about honest government, which is why developer funds are flowing freely. He and his ticket don’t care much about anything, except spending other people’s money.

The truth has come to light and it is now clear that dePierro’s true intentions were not to donate the contributions to the residents of Parsippany. It was to help Barberio’s handpicked council candidates to get elected this November. The Republican campaign is only a reflection of how they will act in office; with a complete lack of transparency and no vested interest in the residents of the town.

We are calling on the Mayor’s council candidates to reject the exorbitant campaign donation
from dePierro and invest the money back into the community as dePierro previously once
promised he would do. The residents of Parsippany deserve a town council that is working to address their needs and concerns.

Judy Hernandez, Bernard Clarkin, and Matthew Kavanagh