By Chris Rotolo
RED BANK – Could future governmental affairs in the borough be directed by a special charter?
During public testimony on phase one of the Red Bank Charter Commission’s study, one resident suggested an additional investigation for a special charter, which differs from traditional forms of government or available options under the Faulkner Act.
Special charters may be obtained through an appeal to the New Jersey Legislature, and Red Bank resident Dan Riordan believes seeking such a charter could offer the borough flexibility in the division of responsibilities between the mayor and business administrator, in addition to setting term limits for elected officials and establishing campaign finance regulations.
“The main reason I’d like you to consider a special charter is because, by ordinance, the council already has the ability to change our form of government. I think our council has recently demonstrated that,” Riordan said. “In fact, they’ve done it twice in the last four years, giving authoritative powers to the business administrator and then switching back. They’ve demonstrated they’re willing to monkey with the form of government if you let them. With a special charter they can’t.”
Riordan referenced the ordinance amendment adopted in 2018, when the governing body delegated executive responsibility to the borough’s then appointed administrator, Ziad Shehady.
Shehady left the borough in May 2021, and the borough council regained its legislative oversight authority in January 2022.
As an unaffiliated voter, Riordan also questioned the borough’s current partisan election process, and whether it properly represented the large unaffiliated portion of Red Bank’s electorate.
John Godsen, a borough resident for 20 years, echoed Riordan’s sentiment, stating, “I don’t feel like I should be forced to join a party to participate in a local primary. For you to choose nonpartisan elections, it would be good, because I want to be represented from square one. I don’t want political parties picking my candidates.”
John Jackson, who earlier this month was nominated for election by the Monmouth County Democratic Committee for one of two open borough council seats, said if the charter commission ultimately recommends nonpartisan elections, it must ensure that measures are enacted to level the playing field.
“If we are going to put everybody on the same line on the ballot, then we have to make sure everything is equal across the board, including finances. If everyone is going to be treated the same, everything about their campaign needs to be equal. If we’re going to be nonpartisan, we have to be nonpartisan, which means accounting for partisan campaign contributions. If everyone is to be treated equally, then it needs to truly be equal,” Jackson said.
The council hopeful added that he believes the current borough form of government is functioning as it was meant to for its community of 13,000 residents.
“I’ve had the good fortune of being able to attend some of council meetings and it basically comes down to that, when people do their jobs well, things get done. As much as I appreciate the charter commission conducting its research, the key to any government’s success is who is in place, and how they work together,” said Jackson, who also took time to advocate for extended term lengths for elected officials.
“Look at the house of representatives. Two years is not enough time to have a newly elected person gain traction and do something meaningful. Four years would be a good stretch for a term; for someone to make connections, put forth a plan and see it through. But term limits overall is something I would agree with,” Jackson said.
Mary Ellen Mess said her fear in the current borough form stems from the scenario that played out in 2018, when the council placed executive power in the hands of a single individual.
“My concern is the role of a powerful business administrator. The idea of investing so much authority in one person should be a concern. How does the council hold that business administrator accountable? It was a big problem for our town,” Mess said.
From Aimee Humphrey’s standpoint, any governmental issues in the borough or beyond is derived from a lack of public participation.
“Maybe if we change this, and change that, and change our form of government we’ll have different outcomes. When really it’s a lack of participation in the process of government by the public, locally and across the country. It’s a lack of information and involvement. Until there’s a problem and everyone’s hands are waving at what they think has gone wrong,” Humphrey said. “The form of government, the style, when elections are held and how candidates are presented, it doesn’t make a difference unless people step up and do what’s necessary to be part of their local government.”
Commission attorney Michael Collins said the next meeting will be held April 6 when phase two of the study will begin. The meeting will feature a presentation by New Jersey Department of Community Affairs official Edward Sasdelli.
Acrimony at Red Bank Charter Commission Meeting
By Chris Rotolo
RED BANK – A meeting of the Red Bank Charter Study Commission turned contentious Thursday, March 11, when former borough councilman Mark Taylor delivered an aggressive examination of sitting council members Edward Zipprich and Michael Ballard.
Hosting Zipprich and Ballard for their public interviews marked the end of phase one of the commission’s analysis, sessions in which the pair praised Red Bank’s current borough form of government for providing the governing body opportunities to act decisively and efficiently in regard to crucial topics, such as the rehabilitation of the municipality’s senior center.
But Taylor challenged Zipprich about the absence of a strategic, five-year vision plan in the borough, noting that the sitting council member has served on Red Bank’s Vision Committee under Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna.
Taylor, who served on the council from 2016-2018, also pressed about the representation for unaffiliated voters in the borough, and posed whether a partisan system is best suited for an electorate of which a majority of voters are independent – approximately 60 percent of Red Bank voters, according to Zipprich.
Zipprich was also grilled about the recent rehabilitation of the Red Bank Senior Center, which Taylor explained was a crucial topic of conversation during his term.
“Issues seem to get politicized instead of addressed,” Taylor said. “I happen to know in 2016, ’17 and ’18 we were discussing repairs to the senior center before a pipe burst in February 2019. We were talking about half a million to a million dollars in renovations to make that building structurally sound. However, the issue didn’t come to the public forefront until election primary season in 2021. Why does it take so long to be addressed? Why does it have to be politicized?”
“I don’t think things need to be politicized when it comes to getting the work done,” said Zipprich, who also serves as Red Bank’s Municipal Chair of the Monmouth County Democrats Association. “As you know, usually these things come down to funding. Can the borough afford it or not? Whether those running for reelection want to push for a tax hike, or some sort of creative funding to control the tax levy.”
In February, the governing body announced it had amassed approximately $1 million of the $2 million it will cost the borough to complete renovations to make the senior center structurally sound.
During his interview, Ballard explained that he and Zipprich had uncovered this funding in “idle accounts,” and pointed to this financial mining effort as an example of the borough form of government working in favor of the municipality’s 13,000 residents.
Ballard said government in Red Bank had undergone change since the charter commission study was requested by voters, referencing the ordinance amendment adopted in February that reversed a 2018 decision to appoint an executive business administrator with total managing authority over governmental affairs. During this period the municipality was managed by Ziad Shehady, who left the borough in May 2021.
Ballard, a two-term council member who earlier this month was named the Red Bank Democratic Municipal Committee’s nominee for mayor, referred to the governing body as “rubber stamp congress” from 2018 through the end of Shehady’s tenure.
“Some of the pitfalls of that (executive business administrator) form of government is that we had to reduce services because the administrator decided that we should let go of two of our long-term, part-time employees. So hours and days of service were reduced down at the recycling center,” Ballard said. “There was no action on a Shrewsbury Avenue project that received a $1 million grant. There was only one voice being heard. Once it reached that silo, it never came back out, because we had been relegated to what the BA wanted to do.”
Ballard stressed the point when he referenced an amendment to a budget to allow for the development of master plan for the borough, “but he didn’t want to hear about the amendment, because it was his budget. Those are just some of the ways in which that form of government failed the residents of Red Bank.”
Taylor said Ballard and Zipprich’s stance that the governing body gave up too much power to the sitting business administrator “struck the wrong chord,” and left him wondering why a council of duly elected officials failed to better assert themselves by rescinding their amended ordinance sooner?
“From an individual standpoint, I was thwarted by an administrator who was the CEO and had been given all the power. For better or for worse I tried to do my job,” said Ballard, who stressed that annulling an amendment takes more than his single vote.
The charter commission is expected to make its recommendation to the council in July.
The article originally appeared in the March 17 – 23, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
