BY KAREN E. BOWES
Staff Writer
Your taxes are being squandered on “cronies” and “pet projects,” Middletown Democratic Township Committee candidate Pat Olsen said at a press conference Friday.
Olsen and running mate Steve Borbely held the conference outside of the municipal building, reading prepared statements that attacked Republican rival candidate Thomas Hall, Deputy Mayor Pat Parkinson and Amy Handlin, a Middletown resident and Republican candidate for Board of Chosen Freeholders.
A recently settled sexual harassment suit against Parkinson and the funds spent on its litigation were the main points of contention among the Democrats.
“As a taxpayer and a woman, I am personally offended by this whole mess,” Olsen said. “But even more so, I am offended that an appointed official, Tom Hall, who is running for election this year, is backing Parkinson and the Township Committee.”
Hall responded to the Democrats’ allegations in a prepared statement.
“I am loath to condemn either party because there has been no final adjudication of this matter. The defendants were covered by insurance. The insurance company settled, for reasons they chose and for which I can only speculate, under a policy that gives them that right. I have no legal standing to question any of the parties as all are represented by council. For that reason alone, it is obvious that neither I, nor other members of the committee can ‘speak up’ or ‘lay everything out for the public’ without additional peril or litigation,” Hall said.
According to Borbely, “This is not just another election, it is a contest between right and wrong, and good and evil.”
Borbely then accused his Republican competitors of not supporting the Constitution of the United States.
“The Republicans running against us are actively supporting and backing policies of the Middletown Committee that, in fact, do not actively support the constitutional rights of women,” said Borbely.
Olsen called Parkinson “a man who is plaguing Middletown” and added that the settlement money and attorney fees “could have been better spent elsewhere.”
“What kind of message do their actions send to the women of Middletown Township? It appears to me that their message is: You don’t matter … You mean nothing to us. You aren’t worthy of our respect. You are not our equal. You are only a woman.”
Concerning Handlin and Robert Clifton, the Republican Freeholder candidates, Olsen and Borbely called for the pair to drop out of the race, with Olsen citing “their stand against the rights of women, their support of the politics of sexual harassment, and their active support for the decisions of the Middletown Township Committee.”
“She claims to be a reformer,” Borbely said of Handlin. “Let her come out to Middletown and reform here.”