By Muriel J. Smith
Two newcomers, running independently of each other, shocked the two incumbent council members with their upset victory Tuesday in the nonpartisan election held under the borough’s newly enacted local form of government.
Carolyn Broullon was high voter-getter with 448 votes, and Claudette D’Arrigo polled 370 to wrest the two seats on council currently held by Tara K. Ryan-Killeen who polled 319, and Kevin Redmond, who polled 281. The fifth person running for the two three-year terms, former councilman William Caizza, polled 192.
D’Arrigo, who is a registered Independent for other levels of voting, said that while she got into the campaign at the very last minute, replacing another potential candidate who had to decline because of personal reasons, she has spent the last months knocking on doors and hearing what residents have to say. Her conclusion, she told The Two River Times, is that “everyone has problems, and we are one town. The problems that affect people who live ‘on the hill’, a phrase she dislikes, affect everyone else in the borough just as the problems affecting “downtown, or the condos, or Waterwitch or wherever … We’re one town, the problems affect us all.”
D’Arrigo has also become well known since Super Storm Sandy in national newspapers and television, in her still ongoing discussions with FEMA and other agencies who have delayed funding for the house raising she and her husband completed on Seadrift Avenue. “Other people have the same problems and we have to keep on top of it until it’s resolved and things are done,” she said, noting that both U.S. senators as well as other officials and government representatives have been helpful in her quest.
Broullon, who concurred with D’Arrigo that while they did not run as a team, they share the same concerns for the borough and the same standards and plans for its future, said she was “cautiously optimistic” of a victory after going door to door, having residents invite her in “for dinner or a glass of wine … They wanted to talk and they wanted someone to listen,” she said. The door-to-door campaign was very effective she thought, since “it seems it’s been a long time since anyone has done that.”
D’Arrigo, who has attended ever y council meeting except 11 for the past seven years, said residents are tired of “hearing what council is going to do, then the next month having it put off til the next month, and so on.” Her goal is set priorities, lay out plans, set deadlines, and accomplish the goals. “I heard too many times from people that they feel they’ve been forgotten.”
Broullon, who is a market researcher and works from home, said switching from her New York office to a home office has enabled her to run for office and devote the time needed to serve on council. An initial goal after her Jan. 1 installation will be to make changes in code enforcement in the borough. “We have a code enforcement officer who has written 82 tickets in three years, and those were to only 46 property owners. Yet there are dilapidated, mold-infested, vacant homes throughout town and nothing’s been done. I’m happy to be able to be on council so I will be able to have a voice in correcting some serious problems that have been permitted to continue.”
A registered Democrat, Broullon said communication is “a two-way street, you have to let people talk…but you also have to listen, then fight the solution through asking the right questions.”
Local 2015 election coverage on The Two River Times
- Unexpected Results in a Historically Low Turnout Year
- GOP Takes Red Bank By 4 Votes
- Incumbents Ousted in Highlands
- GOP Sweeps, Other Than Stunning Angelini and Casagrande Loss
- ‘Quixotic’ Oceanport Mayoral Attempt Succeeded
- Local Election Results
- Voters Approve Liquor Sales in Little Silver
- VIDEO: Local Candidate Debate
- Every Vote Counts (Editorial)
