Maureen Little’s comment in last week’s letter complaining that "the majority of the committee volunteers who have worked very hard for the past year … were thrown off … all hard working, upstanding people" is filled with irony and is incredibly disingenuous.
It’s a shame Little didn’t feel that way two years ago when the Republican majority took control of the township and unilaterally dismissed dozens of longtime, hard working, and upstanding volunteers that had not one or two, but 10, 15 or even 20 years of experience. To say nothing of many municipal employees who met the same fate.
My 10 years of experience on the Parks and Recreation Committee certainly wasn’t considered. No consideration was given to Geri Frank or Donna Scher, who, combined, had nearly 40 years of service on the Cultural Arts Committee. Was Little distressed about the dismissal of Robert Bubnis from the Heritage Day Committee despite his 10 years of service? The Republican-led purge of volunteers was so pervasive even the Rev. John Polyak was removed from the ethics board.
The result of removing so many experienced and dedicated volunteers has been devastatingly obvious. The Cultural Arts Committee has held just a fraction of the programs it once sponsored and failed to receive a grant from Middlesex County for the first time in more than a decade. The Heritage Day Festival was a shadow of its former self and displayed a complete lack of organization. The Parks and Recreation Committee enticed our teen-agers and families pre-Election Day with promises of a skate park, only to later acknowledge it had no site and no money available.
It should also be noted that during the past two years, virtually every municipal committee had openings the Republican majority was unable to fill. In fact, several of its appointees were assigned to multiple committees in order to try and fill slots.
Little also complained at the reorganization meeting about not being involved in the committee selection process, but was noticeably absent from the previous workshop meeting.
The new Democratic majority successfully worked hard with the mayor to fill all of these seats and returned several longtime volunteers to the positions they once held. Little’s complaints are unfounded and hypocritical.
Candice Sanchez
North Brunswick