Washington committeeman criticizes selection process.
By: Cynthia Koons
WASHINGTON Three candidates have been selected as possible replacements for Jack Mozloom on the Washington Township Committee but not without criticism about the township Republican Committee’s process in choosing them.
Pete Chamberlin, Thomas Harris and Kathleen Goodwine are the three contenders for Mr. Mozloom’s seat, which he vacated two weeks ago because he moved to Hamilton Township. The three-year term on the seat expires Dec. 31.
The Township Committee has 30 days after receiving the list of candidates to make a selection, which it expects to do by Aug. 7.
Committeeman Dave Fried, who was appointed to the Township Committee by the same process three years ago, criticized the Republican Committee because he said a secret meeting was held at Mayor Doug Tindall’s house prior to the formal nomination meeting.
The Republican Committee advertises the opening, accepts applications from potential nominees, and holds a meeting to select the three names to present to the Township Committee, which then votes to choose its new member. That meeting was held on Thursday, July 10, and the names were given to the Township Committee that night.
Yet Mr. Fried said that a private meeting held at Mayor Tindall’s house prior to that night may have skewed the results and created a conflict of interest for the mayor.
Chairman of the Republican Committee, Dominick Magnolo, said Dave Fried’s comments about the process were "ridiculous."
"The issue he’s trying to make here just doesn’t exist," he said. "Whether or not Doug Tindall talked to me or anyone else has nothing to do with it."
He said he believes Mr. Fried is confused about the difference between laws that govern the Republican Committee versus laws that govern the Township Committee in these types of appointments.
"I don’t know why Dave is so upset. He may have just misread the (laws) and was confused," Mr. Magnolo said. "Doug Tindall and I had several discussions after Jack Mozloom’s resignation as did Dave Fried and I."
Mayor Tindall said the meeting at his house was to ensure that he and county officials were on the same page about finding an appointment for the position. Because there are often no interested candidates, Mayor Tindall said he wanted to brainstorm candidates as early as possible.
"The purpose of the meeting was to try to keep from having an argument, and there’s an argument anyway," Mayor Tindall said. "There’s really nothing covert going on . . . (we were) just trying to build a consensus."
He said the names that were originally in speculation were not the same ones that were introduced last week.
Mr. Fried said although the committee has discussed the private meeting, he is still "truly ashamed" of the private discussions that took place.
"I think that the mayor should recuse himself," Mr. Fried said. "He owes the people of our town and our Township Committee an apology. It’s high time that the ‘good-old-boy network’ stop running Washington Township."
Township Attorney Peter Sheridan said he is researching the laws governing municipal ethics to determine if the private meeting was unethical or whether the mayor will have to excuse himself from voting on the new appointment.
Whoever is chosen will fill the remainder of Mr. Mozloom’s term, which expires at the end of this year, as well as possibly run for a full term of three years in the November general election.
"We have three good candidates who’ve all lived in town at least 10 years and they’ve all been involved in various community and local (organizations)," Mr. Magnolo said.
Kathleen Goodwine, a substitute teacher, has been on the township’s zoning board for 10 years. During the ’90s, she was also a member of the Washington Township Recreation Commission and served on various PTA boards.
Running for Township Committee, she said, is "an idea that I’ve flirted with for quite a long time and something that I’ve thought about. Prior to this I thought my children were a little young and now they’re older and it would be easy for me to dedicate the kind of time that the position requires."
She said that stabilizing the tax rate is her biggest priority if she is chosen for the committee.
Pete Chamberlin, eight-year president of the Washington Township Business Association and a 20-year township resident, said he’s always been interested in township politics.
"I have been on the zoning board, I sit on the municipal utilities authority right now, I have sat on some subcommittees of the township," he said.
He would like to work on the stabilizing taxes by encouraging commercial ratable growth in Washington Township.
He expressed a particular concern with the senior citizen population’s ability to afford the rising taxes in Washington Township.
A 32-year the township, Thomas Harris is vice chair of the Planning Board, and has served as its chairman the past two years. He runs Harris Surveying on Main Street. Prior to that he was the Director of Public Works for Somerset County.
"I have a lot of experience in government and I think I’d like to use some of it to help our community," Mr. Harris said. "Township Committee is doing a good job at bringing in the ratables and create some economic growth."
If chosen, he said he would continue Township Committee’s work at preserving open space and encouraging commercial growth.