Mayor: Protocol must be followed to lower American flag to half-staff

Acropolis discusses ‘flag-gate’ after Newman’s passing

BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

The American flag in front of Brick Town Hall on Chambers Bridge Road saw quite a bit of action on March 16, before it finally stayed at halfstaff.

The family of the late former Mayor Daniel F. Newman had requested the flag be lowered to commemorate his years as mayor, from 1983 through 1989, Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said.

And Acropolis said he had every intention of doing so that day. But first he needed permission from either Gov. Jon Corzine’s office or from President Barack Obama.

“The only two people that can allow a flag to fly [at half staff] are the governor and the president,” the mayor said at the March 17 Township Council meeting, where he attempted to clear up the confusion about what he referred to as “flaggate.”

Acropolis said he put in a call to the governor’s office on the morning of March 16, as soon as he got to work. But after he made the call, he looked out his window and saw that the flag had already been lowered before the permission was given, a breach of protocol.

So he temporarily ordered the flag put back to full staff, until permission was received to lower it, Acropolis said early this week.

When the governor’s office finally came through and granted permission to lower the flag to half-staff, Acropolis went out and did it himself.

“But until we got approval from the governor’s office, we couldn’t do it,” Acropolis said at the meeting. “You just can’t do that.”

In the past, some in Town Hall had lowered the American flag to half-staff without following protocol, Acropolis said.

“It dims the symbolism to fly a flag at half-staff when it’s done on an ongoing basis,” Acropolis said at the meeting.

The township and county flags were lowered to half-staff early in the day on March 16.

Newman, a Democrat, who served as mayor from 1983 through 1989 and also as a state assemblyman, died March 13 in South Carolina, while he and his wife were traveling to Florida.

Council President Joseph Sangiovanni dedicated the “moment of silence” at the beginning of the meeting to Newman’s memory.

“He served this township in a variety of capacities,” Acropolis said at the council meeting. “He spent six and a half years as mayor. When you look back on it, it seems longer than that. He was a worthy adversary, never an enemy, even though we disagreed on just about everything. We spoke on the phone two or three times a year. When he wanted to get his viewpoint across, he would pick up the phone and call.”

Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras recalled that Newman gave him his first job in Brick Township, back in the 1980s.

“He is the reason I am here today,” Pezarras said. “He gave me a job as a clerk when I left Wall Street, 24 years ago. Twentyfour years later, I’m still here.”

Councilwoman Kathy Russell, the lone Democrat on the Township Council, left the dais and went to the podium to pay tribute to Newman.

“He was a past mayor,” she said. “I think it would be fitting if someone [paid tribute], and I’d like to do it.”

Russell first thanked Councilman Daniel Toth and Acropolis for their efforts to get the flag lowered to half-staff.

When she first moved to Brick in 1978, Russell said her neighborhood was in the process of hooking into the municipal sewer system.

“Our neighbors hired a plumber,” she said. “Daniel Newman was the plumber. He came to my house, and that was the first time I met him.

“He had a gruff manner and said things bluntly to people because he always spoke his mind,” she said.

Newman also served on the Board of Education and helped to establish the Pop Warner football league in Brick, Russell said.

“He didn’t have much education, a high school education,” she said. “Daniel Newman made sure he educated his children. That was his inheritance to his children.”

Newman was also instrumental in bringing Ocean Medical Center to Brick and helped to establish the hospital support zone, Russell said.

“He really was a good man,” she said. “He had a good heart. He was honorable. He was a good friend. He cared about Brick Township. I am going to miss him deeply. I truly loved him. He was like an older brother.”

Toth and Sangiovanni were the other council members to acknowledge Newman’s passing.