I wanted to let the North Brunswick taxpayers know why I voted no for Councilman Francis "Mack" Womack as council president. I do not believe Councilman Womack will be the man to pull the council together. Instead I believe his motives will be purely political and not with the best interest of the taxpayers of North Brunswick in mind.
I have reached out to Councilman Womack over the past week and asked him to e-mail me the appointments to the various committees for Jan. 1. He promised me, along with Peggy Scarillo, the he would indeed e-mail a list of those appointments the next day.
When I did not receive them, I called him again, and he informed me that Morris Enyeart, not on the council but privy to information before the entire council, prepared the document on the computer and therefore Mack could not e-mail it to me. I then asked if he could fax the paperwork, which he said he would do the next day when he arrived at his office.
Not only did he never send the fax, he never gave me the courtesy of asking me, the senior member of the council along with Larry Baldini, what committee I would like to sit on. Instead I had to find out when I received my packet, that he put me on affordable housing, and the new member of the council, Adam Weiss, was not put on anything.
Womack also promised me that he would get in touch with Leo Ryan and put him on a committee and Peggy Scarillo on the open space committee. Those appointments never happened. He never called to say no.
I also want North Brunswick residents to know that the majority of the committee volunteers who have worked very hard for the past years and who wished to be reappointed to their committees, were thrown off — people like Dr. Richard Hartko on open space, Phil Sinicropi on open space, as well as Alice Rodakis on the ethics committee, all hard-working, upstanding people.
I see we are back to the same old tactics as in the past, and I am disillusioned and discouraged with the treatment I have received from Councilman Womack. I do believe he tells me what I want to hear and then does the reverse.
He misadvised me regarding a new ordinance on open meetings allowing members of the public to speak for only five minutes (instead of 10 minutes) but said that the meetings would continue until everyone had their full time to speak. When I received the proposed ordinance, it allows for whoever is running the meeting to close it down at will.
This is not what we have experienced with our current council president, Peggy Scarillo; no one was left in the dark, and we were kept informed equally. I am sure Womack will have to agree that she did keep him informed and answered him in a prompt and concise manner.
Even when Mack had no time to help a fellow Democrat whose husband was a disabled veteran and who asked him to help secure a tax rebate due her, he gave the job to Peggy, and she made it happen as quickly as she could. Mack knew she would get the job done.
However, now I see that Mack will not be the leader that it takes to bring everyone together as one, but rather a clone of his party who cannot stand up for himself or the council. I do not deserve to be treated as such. I expected better.
I, therefore, voted no on Mack Womack for council president.
Maureen Little
Councilwoman
North Brunswick