BY RICH FALCO
Guest Contributor
July 27, 2005
I am writing in response to a Letter to the Editor from Ringwood Councilman Bill Marsala, which appeared in the June 15th Suburban Trends. Mr. Marsala’s letter addresses a petition to change the form of Ringwood’s government that is currently being circulated around town by prominent members of the Ringwood Republican Club. This petition calls for shortening the terms of the current council, having elections every year, and calls for a powerful elected mayor who would have considerable control over our government while diminishing the power of the rest of the council members.
In an obvious attempt to mislead the public, Mr. Marsala makes several statements that are factually wrong. I would like to set the record straight and address some of his more outrageous comments.
1) Mr. Marsala asserts that this is a “non-partisan petition supported by regular citizens” like him and that neither he “nor anyone else from the Republican Party was the force which began circulating this petition”. There isn’t a person in town who doesn’t believe that this petition begins and ends with the Ringwood Republican Club in an attempt to reverse the results of the last election and regain control of Ringwood government. Consider some of the people who are gathering signatures: a local developer and his daughter who for years have controlled and dominated Ringwood Republican Club policy, Republican Councilman Bill Marsala, and Republican Council candidate Donna Anderson. And the supposedly “bipartisan” five-person “Committee of Petitioners” includes no Democrats, a former Republican Councilman, and a former officer in the Ringwood Republican Club. Even the group’s website is maintained by the same person who maintains the Ringwood Republican’s website.
2) Mr. Marsala argues that we need a change because the current borough manager “has no vested interest in the town” because he does not live in Ringwood. This is a preposterous statement that insults all of Ringwood’s professionals, including our police officers, who live out of town and are dedicated to their jobs and to our residents. Our current borough manager is a seasoned and experienced professional who we are fortunate to have in our government. The reality is that it is difficult to find a qualified borough manager, and limiting the choices to Ringwood residents only, as Mr. Marsala suggests, would do our residents a great disservice. And let us not forget that our current borough manager lived out of town when he was hired. In fact, both councilmen Marsala and Heck voted to appoint him, knowing he did not live in Ringwood. If this is such an important issue to them, why didn’t they object then? Unless, of course, there are other motives for this change of government petition and this borough manager issue is just a smokescreen.
Personally, I think there are some advantages to having our professionals live out of town, where they are not subjected to the social and political pressures, and possibly the rewards, of being local. Perhaps Mr. Marsala would like to go back to the old ways, when Republican Club insiders got top jobs in the administration as well as the majority of board and commission appointments.
3) Mr. Marsala says that the borough manager is not elected but “controls the purse strings and, ultimately, your money”. Mr. Marsala obviously does not understand the role of the very council on which he sits. It is the council that currently controls Ringwood’s money. The borough manager prepares a budget under the direction of the council. The budget is then voted on by the entire council. Our money is controlled by our elected officials just as it should be. And this year, for the first time ever, the whole process was conducted during open public meetings.
4) Mr. Marsala says that by having an elected mayor with a four-year term, and council seats with three-year terms with elections every year, the people will have a greater voice because they vote every year. I don’t agree. In the form of government being proposed in the petition, the mayor would have extraordinary power compared to the present mayor, and would make all appointments including municipal clerk, administrator, attorney, tax collector, tax assessor, treasurer, engineer, police chief, and all department heads. I fail to understand how having the most powerful person in the government be the only one to serve a four-year term would give people a greater voice in government. In the current system, all seven elected officials have an equal voice. How much fairer can you get?
Mr. Marsala also thinks that our residents are looking forward to local elections every year. I don’t think they are. Having to deal with unending mailings, campaign signs, and candidates over-running our shopping centers every year is not something that most people want. Annual elections will also increase the rancor and partisanship on the council. Currently, with elections every other year, the council has an off-year and there is more opportunity to work together. With elections every year, as Mr. Marsala suggests, the council will be in constant “campaign mode” and the partisan division would be even worse than it is now.
5) Mr. Marsala says that “our form of government should have changed a long time ago”. Mr. Marsala was on the council a full two years when the Republicans were in control, yet we never heard a peep out of him regarding changing our form of government. Now, with the Democrats in control, he has had an epiphany that we should have changed long ago. The fact is that if Mr. Marsala was truly serious about affecting positive change for our government and his intentions were sincere, he would have advocated public discussion before anything was petitioned to be put on a ballot. As it stands now, the petition that will be o the ballot will be for a form of government hand-picked by the Ringwood Republican Club that is best suited to reverse the results of the last election and increase the chances for the Republican Club to take over Ringwood’s government if they win just one election for a powerful mayor.
6) Mr. Marsala says that “whoever does oppose this petition does not want people to have a voice in government”, and says opposition to the petition is “un-American and not a Democratic process”. This is the kind of rhetoric that has no place on the Ringwood Council. Calling someone “un-American” because they may disagree with him is the worst form of political intimidation and has become the hallmark of Mr. Marsala and his followers.
One of the most disturbing things about this petition is that the people gathering signatures often mislead the public into thinking that they are signing only to have an elected mayor, and neglect to tell them about the other changes that this initiative will bring. The public is also often not aware that there are alternative forms of government with an elected mayor better suited for Ringwood than the one being petitioned. There is every indication that if this petition is successful and does go on the ballot, that this campaign of misinformation will continue.
When the Democrats were out of power in Ringwood for all those years, it was often suggested that we move to change the form of government to a type that would make it easier to win some council seats. We chose not to take that course. Rather, we worked hard, concentrated on the issues that affect our residents, and won the majority . We chose hard work over smoke-and-mirrors. It’s too bad that Mr. Marsala doesn’t have that ethic.
Richard Falco is President of the Ringwood Democratic Organization