The Borough Council’s only Republican speaks out.
By: Leon Tovey
JAMESBURG Chris Maloney often prefaces his answers to questions about policy with the phrase, "You’re trying to get me into trouble aren’t you?"
A stocky, round man with delicate almost pretty facial features and sharp eyes, Mr. Maloney, 36, has been the lone Republican on the Borough Council for the past year.
His mannerisms reflect that fact. He enjoys the kind of verbal sparring and debate so often associated with dissenting voices think U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and when he asks if you’re trying to get him into trouble, it’s usually in a mischievous tone of voice that indicates nothing would suit him better.
On a rainy morning in early March, Mr. Maloney used his rhetorical question to preface his answer to The Cranbury Press’s question of what he thinks the Republican Party in Jamesburg needs to do to get more representation on the Borough Council that currently has a 5-1 Democratic majority and is overseen by Democratic mayor.
"The challenge for the Republican Party in Jamesburg is finding new, fresh, young faces or new, fresh, old faces and putting them out there for the public to make a choice on," Mr. Maloney says. "The people of Jamesburg really do vote issues and candidates; they don’t just go down the party line."
Recent election history seems to bear out this assertion.
Registered Democrats in the borough outnumber registered Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin (682-341 as of last November, according to the Borough Clerk’s office) and the Borough Council has been under Democratic control since 1998 when then-Councilman (now Mayor) Tony LaMantia took office. But voters have a history of bucking party affiliations, particularly at the state and national levels.
In his bid for re-election, President George W. Bush carried the borough last year by a narrow margin (nine votes) and in 2003 voters by a wide margin supported Republican candidates Bill Baroni and Sidna Mitchell for the 14th District seats in the General Assembly.
Mr. Maloney said his own election in 2003 was another example of the independent nature of borough voters. The first Republican elected to the council since two-term Councilman Adam Bushman lost his seat in 2001, Mr. Maloney, a newcomer to electoral politics, won a seat on the council even as voters re-elected Mayor Tony LaMantia and Councilman Joseph Jennings, both Democrats.
The Republican Party will have an opportunity to take advantage of that independence again this year; two-term incumbent Democrat Otto Kostbar and one-term incumbent Carlos Morales are up for re-election in November.
Mr. Maloney, who said he hasn’t yet decided whether he will seek a second term in 2006, said he believes both councilmen have an obvious advantage as well-liked incumbents and that they exemplify why the Democratic Party keeps winning in Jamesburg.
"As long as they keep putting up strong candidates like these, the Democrats have an advantage," he said. "That said, I think if the Republicans can focus on creative ways to help the town, (Mr. Kostbar and Mr. Morales) can be beaten."
Mr. Maloney said that the Republicans should make an effort to start smaller. He pointed to the Board of Education an ostensibly non-partisan organization as a place where the party should have run a candidate this year, but didn’t.
"And that’s a mistake," he said. "Because most of our taxes are coming from the school board."
A senior manager for Cisco Systems, Mr. Maloney is a Republican of the Ronald Reagan, pro-business, anti-taxes school. When asked about the top issues in this year’s upcoming Borough Council election his response was not surprising, given his voting record.
"Taxes, taxes and taxes are one, two and three," he said.
While party affiliations generally take a back seat during Borough Council business hours, Mr. Maloney’s focus on taxes and spending has often put him at odds with his fellow council members and Mayor LaMantia all of whom pride themselves on keeping spending tight while at the same time providing necessary services.
In January, Mr. Maloney voted against a 4 percent increase in borough sewer rates, on the grounds that the rates had been increased the previous year. The increase, which was necessitated by an increase in the flow rate the borough pays to discharge its sewage to the Monroe Township Utilities Authority, passed by a 5-1 margin.
In March, Mr. Maloney voted against a resolution increasing the salary level for seven borough positions because six of those positions are held by two people (Borough Clerk Gretchen McCarthy, who earns $67,812 per year, doubles as the registrar and Chief Financial Officer Denise Jawidzik, who earns $91,539 per year, also works as the business administrator, the purchasing official and the tax collector).[jde: If these are all part-time positions that should be pointed out. If you can find out the exact salaries for these five posts it would be good because reader is probably wondering if Jawidzik and McCarthy are earning $50,000 or $100,000 when all their various salaries are added up.: ]
Mr. Maloney has frequently said he believes this situation leads to salary inflation and waste.
Mr. Maloney voted against the resolution, despite a state law that requires salary increases for executive positions to be commensurate with salary increases for senior police officers. Officers had received 5 percent [jde: x percent : ]pay increases under the terms of a new contract. The pay increases were approved by a 4-1 margin (Councilman Morales was absent).
But the issue that has caused probably the greatest rift between Mr. Maloney and the rest of the council was Mr. Maloney’s opposition to the introduction of the 2005 municipal budget.
In February, Mr. Maloney voted against the introduction of the proposed $4.6 million spending plan, which at the time carried a 20 percent hike in municipal taxes. (The increase has since been reduced to 15.8 percent, and could be reduced even further if the borough receives any state extraordinary aid.)
The budget was introduced by a 5-1 vote over Mr. Maloney’s opposition, but some on the council were angered by his decision. Mr. Kostbar, typically one of the council’s most congenial members, was visibly irritated. He asked Mr. Maloney, "Why did you vote against it when you didn’t say anything during the discussion? What else can we do?"
"I don’t have a solution," Mr. Maloney responded. "But I don’t think the taxpayers should be penalized because we’re not smart enough to avoid this increase."
Mr. Maloney said at the time that he recognized that the budget was as lean as possible on the appropriations side (though he did say he thought it was time to consider "slaughtering sacred cows" during an earlier work session).
He now says his vote was motivated more by his opposition to what he considers the state’s tendency to mandate programs without paying for them than by any enmity toward the council or the mayor.
And he dismisses the charge leveled by some on the council that he was grandstanding for political purposes voting against a budget he knew would pass anyway just so he could say he opposed raising taxes.
"I think anybody can make that stand," he says. "Otto could’ve taken that position, but he chose not to.
"I will vote against things to voice the minority opinion," he adds. "In this case, my vote may not have been the most practical position, but the state is out of control with these unfunded mandates and somebody’s got to say ‘no.’"
"I don’t see how anyone can make that argument," Mayor LaMantia says. More than a month after the vote, the mayor admits that it still bothers him.
"We’re required by law to pass a balanced budget," he continues. "If everybody voted no, the taxpayers might not have an increase, but they also wouldn’t have a council we’d all be carted off to jail."
Mayor LaMantia’s comments seem to capture the sentiment of the rest of the council but Mr. Maloney says he doesn’t expect the vote to hamper his relationship with the mayor or his fellow council members.
"I haven’t seen any retaliation so far," he says with a chuckle. "I’ve never met with anything other than respect from the other people on the council. They expect opposition from me."

