MILLSTONE- Township Committeeman EliasAbilheira had the hot seat at the latest municipal meeting.
Republican County Executive Committee (RCEC) Chairman Steven Lambros said he had “unfinished business” with Abilheira, and some committee members criticized the committeeman for his lack of communication during the Jan. 16 Township Committee meeting.
At the Dec. 5 Township Committee meeting, Lambros had asked Abilheira about comments he made to the Examiner regarding a fair and open appointment process for municipal positions. Abilheira told the newspaper that the township’s RCEC had decided who last year’s municipal appointees would be.
Abilheira told Lambros Dec. 5 that he had not yet read the article but that he would “love to comment” once he did. Lambros said he would attend the Dec. 19 Township Committee meeting to discuss the article, and did.However,Abilheirawas absent from the meeting.
Both men had been present at the Jan. 2 re-organization meeting, but the subject did not come up.
Lambros said Jan. 16 that he did not think it was appropriate for him to approach Abilheira about the issue at the reorganization meeting, since Sen. Jennifer Beck and Assembly members Carolyn Casagrande and Declan O’Scanlon attended the meeting.
At the Jan. 16 meeting, Abilheira said that he would not engage in a conversation with Lambros because the RCEC did not re-appoint longtime Planning Board member George Zanetakos, who he said helped pass 10-acre zoning for the township.
Lambros had stated in the article that before the RCEC’s involvement with municipal appointments, roughly 158 new homes were approved for development in the township each year for 19 consecutive years, residents paid millions of dollars for professional reviews that developers should have paid for, and township boards were stacked with developer allies to increase developer profits.
Mayor Nancy Grbelja said Jan. 16 that the township’s Planning Board passed 10- acre zoning in 2003 and that the original plan for it “had more holes than Swiss cheese.” She said it took the governing body two years to plug up those holes.
Grbelja also said that before 2004, the taxpayers paid for all township attorney, engineer and planning review fees for developments. She said the people serving on the Planning and Zoning boards before 2004 were aware that the developers were not paying the fees.
The mayor said to Abilheira, “Because you disagree with people on the Township Committee, you do a flip-flop.”
As the discussion grew heated among the three, Abilheira said, “I’m not going to play ping-pong between [Lambros] and the mayor. I’m done with you. Good night.”
Lambros then quoted another Examiner article in whichAbilheira said, “I’malways ready to answer questions from the dais on township matters.”
Lambros said that Abilheira did not want to answer him. He added that while Abilheira alleged that the RCEC made all of the appointments last year,Abilheira had been part of that process formany years but now decided to complain about it.
“Elias, if you can’t be honest with the people in town, and you have to do this kind of stuff, you should resign,” said Lambros.
Grbelja said that Abilheira did not attend any of the committeemeetings during which municipal appointments were discussed. She also said that since Abilheira would not answer his cell phone when she tried calling him for six months, she no longer tries to call.
Grbelja added that Abilheira no longer explains at the dais why he votes against certain measures and that the rest of the committee has to find out his reasons by reading the newspaper.
As an example, she said that Abilheira did not explain to fellow committee members why he voted against the salary ordinance. She said he later told the press that he did so because the mayor raised her salary.
Grbelja said the committee did not intend to raise the mayor’s salary and that the resolution had a typographical error that could have easily been caught had Abilheira inquired about themayor’s salary at the dais.
“If you had brought it up at the meeting, I would have said it’s a misprint,” she said, adding that it was fortunate that the newspaper investigated his allegations.
Abilheira said that he states the reasons for his votes on many items.
“I’ve never complained how people vote,” he said. “They should vote their conscience. I will be accountable for every vote I make up here.”