To the editor:
Mayor (Angelo) Corradino starts off the New Year just like he ended the last, lying about what’s really happening in my hometown. Here’s the real truth.
He stated there was “an anti-Angelo movement within the Republican Party” and nothing could be further from the truth. There was a “pro-taxpayer movement” to lower property taxes and stop wasteful spending and a movement to fix bad policies he put in place that are out of touch with today’s financial realities.
Unfortunately we didn’t have the four votes required to save taxpayers and lower tax bills. Mayor Corradino won re-election by only 17 votes, which equates to a 9-vote swing, but I guess he considers that a mandate to do whatever he wants.
Yes, Mayor, we can no longer afford to pay for free health insurance for life for part-time employees or allow borough employees to use our gas and vehicles to commute to and from work, especially those workers who live far out of town. Our small two-square-mile borough increased its gas budget to $130,000 instead of looking for ways to save.
Insurance expenses up for the borough? No problem. Ask the homeowners to pay more. But then you turn around and appeal your property taxes so you pay less and have others pick up the slack. A nice 20 percent reduction in your home’s value sure does lower your tax bills. Why not fix your bad policies so we all benefit? Isn’t that why you came back? Or maybe your two new council members will fix this with the “teamwork” you so hope for this year?
Proper leadership would have supported a total re-evaluation of the entire town since we all receive the same services no matter where one lives. And for you to be the tie-breaking vote to approve a bloated 2012 budget, which again you lied about and said it was a budget I created, was very sad.
Manville has a “spending problem” much like Washington, D.C., which you contribute to. The governing body should have passed YOUR budget with a four-vote majority, working in a bipartisan fashion, making the necessary cuts you refused to make. Please let the council pass the budget for 2013.
If it weren’t for some citizens regularly attending council meetings who have a large stake in the game to see Manville prosper, I believe under your leadership we were headed to become the next Bell, California, where government ran amok.
Even a loyal Manville Democrat, Ms. Sharon Krebs, recently came before the council and criticized the direction the town of Manville has taken. Higher taxes, lower home values, blighted neighborhoods, no supermarket, etc. Council salaries doubled under your leadership and we have some of the highest-paid employees in all of Somerset County, contributing to our ever-increasing property tax burden. All that didn’t happen overnight.
The committee structure of our governing body is also a waste of time. Nothing really ever comes out of committee to be put on your meeting agenda or you see fit to move committee responsibilities to your favorites on council. Council President Sherri Lynn, your policy chair for three years, couldn’t even get a dog ordinance updated to the 21st Century after several recent vicious dog attacks in our borough, but I guess she worked so hard at trying.
I hope 2013 is a good year for everyone, starting with my mayor, who can begin it by being more civil at meetings and stop the personal attacks and lies. At the last council meeting of 2012, you even verbally attacked a citizen in the audience in your closing comments who didn’t say anything negative during his public portion address to you. How low can you go?
If I were mayor I would move the meeting start times to 7 p.m. to make them more accommodating to residents who work. Videotaping them would also help raise behaviors to a more professional level all taxpayers deserve.
Hopefully there won’t be any more threats made from the dais this year, like the one from Councilman Komoroski concerning a drinking incident at Manville High School. Another all-time low for Manville, but let’s reward him and make him Council President.
And finally I hope you will find the “political courage” and speak out more on the threat the new Zarephath flood levee presents to Lost Valley residents. I’m outraged over it, as are many of the residents who watched it become significantly increased in height and width without any concerns to the adverse effects to Manville.
You lied again when you said I only gave “lip service” to our flooding problems last year. I guess that is much more than you will do concerning Zarephath. Please use this situation to spotlight the need for a levee on our side of the river. Join me and speak out! I think we can agree that flood mitigation efforts for Manville residents are long overdue.
Happy New Year!
Rich Onderko
Manville

