The first order of business for Edison Township Council members in 2011 was to call on Mayor Antonia Ricigliano to rescind her executive order restricting their contact with municipal employees.
Councilman Robert Diehl voiced his frustration with the mayor’s order as he took the helm as council president during the council’s recent organization meeting.
“Things need to change in 2011,” he said. “We have a serious problem with finances and the manner in which the administration deals with the council; I feel it’s a ‘my way or the highway’ approach. We are going to disagree … that should not result in any type of threat or punitive actions, which I think are illegal and a misinterpretation of the law.”
Diehl, who, like the mayor and all other council members, is a Democrat, said communication will be key to moving forward with township business in 2011.
“The recent gag order is counterproductive and doesn’t work,” he said. “And what I find disturbing is the silence.”
Diehl said the executive order was a problem during the major snowstorm that struck on Dec. 26-27.
“Usually during a snowstorm, I am on the phone all day with the mayor, council members, the Department of Public Works. … That was not the case this time around,” he said. Diehl said that during the storm, he was on the phone with a dialysis patient and could have followed what he called “the gag order,” but instead was compelled to call town hall.
“When it becomes dangerous, I say ‘enough is enough,’ ” he said.
Councilwoman Melissa Perilstein added that she was concerned that the executive order was not relayed on official township letterhead.
Mayor Antonia Ricigliano has said her executive order is aimed at “stopping the misinformation circulating in the township.”
The mayor’s order, issued Dec. 14, prohibits Edison’s municipal employees from discussing township business with council members. It requires that all communication between council members and employees be arranged through Business Administrator Dennis Gonzalez.
Ricigliano issued the order after she vetoed the Township Council’s approval of an amendment regarding supervision of the Clerk’s Office on Dec. 8. The rescinded council measure would have brought Clerk’s Office employees under the supervision of the clerk and the council.
The mayor said the legal authority for her executive order is set forth in New Jersey’s FaulknerAct, which is the basis of Edison’s form of government.
“This does not mean that information will not be provided to council members,” Ricigliano said. “This is just a way to enforce the existing law.”
Bill Stephens, management specialist for the township, said the executive order is not a “gag order.” “We are just saying that this is a better way to pass information,” he said. “Every mayor has done the same type of order, but this mayor did it in writing.”
Stephens explained that the reduction of 20 to 30 employees over the past year through attrition has made it crucial for employees and officials to conduct business more efficiently.
“We needed to prioritize because the resources that we once had are not there anymore,” he said. “Rather than getting seven different calls from council members on, for example, a pothole, we needed to create a centralized place where those calls could be directed to, so as to ensure the conducting of business is done in an orderly manner.”
Diehl said that despite the controversy that occurred at the end of 2010, he is optimistic that the council will move forward in 2011.
“We have experience,” he said. “Usually during the reorganization meetings, we swear in a new council member, and this year we are not. We are strong and solid. As we move forward we have to do better with less, and we are poised to do that.”
Diehl follows Charles Tomaro as council president. Tomaro, a longtime Democratic councilman, resigned after being appointed to a vacant seat on the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
During the reorganization meeting, council members named Robert Karabinchak as council vice president.