I was very happy to see that John Hazard and the Ocean County Observer (Feb 17^th) have finally reported on (and implicitly criticized) Mayor Paul C. MattiaBrush’s use of nearly $500,000 in taxpayers’ money to hand more than a dozen pay-for-play appointments to his pay-for-play political contributors and those of the Republican Council.

Totally Lost Faith

Until John Hazard’s article appeared, I had totally lost faith in the good faith of the local paper.  I am relieved to have some company now, since I openly criticized the Mayor’s gratuitous lies during the recent election campaign that made him our community's first elected Mayor.

Mayor MattiaBrush ran on a platform that featured his promise to eliminate “Pay for Play” professional appointments. The Citizen’s Alert Committee made it possible for Mr. Brush to run for the Mayor’s Job. Brush jumped on the YES bandwagon and he and Salvatore Mattia scurrilously used the resources of the YES Committee under what proved to be false pretenses.

Russo Advisory Committee

As part of last year’s Committee business, Former Mayor Russo formed  an Advisory Committee to advise on the transition process.

The advisory committee has never been contacted by Brush or Mattia. Neither have numerous citizens that Mr. Brush knows to be knowledgeable about the local government and qualified to advise on how to save money and improve services.

Pay-For-Play And Nepotism Practices

Now, many citizens of both parties and of independent persuasions like Carol Benson, who ran with Paul Brush on the YES ticket and lost because of his despicable deal with Democrat John Furey, is now an adversary because of the MattiaBrush Pay-for-Play and Nepotism practices and the disreputable deals with the Republican Council since taking the oath as Mayor.

No Consideration At All For The Taxpayers

It is the disgrace of both parties, as well as the political process, that not one thought or consideration has been given to Dover Township’s taxpayers in this whole process.

At the Town Council meeting of February 10^th, I rose to ask for copies of the bids the mayor said he would obtain before awarding “professional” contracts. Needless to say he had not obtained bids.

He and the Republican Council simply handed lucrative contracts and jobs at taxpayers’ expense to Democrat cronies, former elected officials, Republican Club functionaries and political stooges.

Skeevey One-Hand-Washes-The-Other Political Deals

All of this was a product of a series of skeevey one-hand-washes-the-other political deals where the supposed beneficiaries of the local government, the citizens and taxpayers, were left out in the cold holding the bag – or, in this case, the monthly payment vouchers.

Who's Who In Ocean County - With Connections

Thousands of citizens find it offensive to read the names of expensive pay-for-play political law firms in news stories about local re-organizational meetings: Why is it that Assemblyman Holzapfel and GOP County Chairman Gilmore, and Gregory McGuckin, the partner of Republican County Finance Chairman Dasti; and former Mayor Mark Mutter, and the shadowy Daniel Becht, and Republican Campaign Manager Garry Mundy, and former freeholder Mark Troncone, and election disclosure scofflaw Steven Secare, and Republican Municipal Chairman Joseph Coronato, and 9^th District Assemblyman Brian Rumpf, and  Democrat Campaign financier Harry Levin, and others are either handing out or receiving $30,000 or $60,000 or, in Gilmore’s case, $90,000 in no-bid, no-competition legal services contracts for a few months part-time work at $135 an hour – billed directly to the taxpayers?

Engineers Appointed To No-Bid Contracts

Why are all the same engineers appointed to no-bid contracts? Are there really only a few qualified professionals in this big county? And why do we have to pay every single one of them $5400 for a forty hour week? (In case anyone is still struggling with this editorial, that’s $280,800 a year if the attorney is submitting accurate bills.)

Municipal “law” is not rocket science. There are so many “professionals” lurking in Toms River that one should be more than able to find capable and experienced attorneys and engineers happy to work at a reasonable price for the opportunity to serve the community.

Boss-Anointed And Politically-Connected "Professionals"

The practice of Pay-for-Play has fattened boss-anointed and politically-connected professionals and permitted them to build huge municipal law factories and charge outlandish  rates for excessive hours (Remember Robert Shea?) of what is largely clerical work.

Is the architect MassimoYezzi another Frank Lloyd Wright or Le Corbusier??

Is Yezzi the most expensive architect in North America??

Yezzi, The $950,000 VoTech Architect?

What in the name of heaven has made him the $950,000 Architect of choice for the vocational School, the Freeholders and Mayor MattiaBrush??

Unrefrigerated Seafood Usually Smells Bad

This whole fish stinks from the head down! We know we cannot control George Bush and keep him from awarding the whole kit and caboodle to Cheney-Halliburton, and Kenneth Lay’s Enron, but must we allow this wholesale political giveaway to permeate the legitimate business of our local government?

Recall Rumblings

There are already rumblings about a serious recall of the entire new government that was elected here in Dover in November. These rumblings will become louder and more pronounced if the Mayor and Council continue to leave the impression that their sole function is to deal out expensive legal contracts and expensive but unnecessary “professional” appointments to supplicating cronies and whining political prostitutes.

Mayor Trashes Campaign Promises, And Republicans "Cooperate"

In trashing his most important campaign promises, the Mayor has led the way to a wasteland of lies and political prostitution in Dover Township with the enthusiastic help of the governing Town Council of Republicans.

These Republicans are losing sight of the fact that this Mayor is now a Democrat and he comes to the table as a tainted re-incarnate version of Rich Larsen and John Furey!

Mattia Is A Democratic Political Hack Of Long Standing

Brush comes to the table with his “attached-at-the-hip” partner and collaborateur, Salvatore Mattia as hatchet-man, supplicant job seeker and Planning Board Chairman.

Mattia, a Democratic political hack of long standing, recently muscled his way to the Presidency of the local Democratic Party, wresting it from Old Time Democrat and former Dover Mayor Richard Strada, an educated man and a professor of Political Science at the County College.

The Republicans are playing patty cake with MattiaBrush for all the wrong reasons; and it is clearly for the purpose of siphoning off as much as they can from the taxpayers before their greed catches up with them, as well as Brush.

What else? Co-operation? Whose definition of “cooperation?”

Brush May Try To Steal Reserves From DMUA Ratepayers

Are the Republicans going to co-operate with Brush in raping the taxpayers, when as a Democrat, waving the tattered and skeevey Larsen-Furey banner, he makes his inevitable move to dissolve the Dover Township Municipal Utilities Authority?

We Have Been Through It All Before.

I have it from a reliable source that Brush, as an alternative to cutting expenses and running a cost-effective government, intends to try and do just that.

There is a rumor circulating that there is already an agreed consensus of thinking among former Brush supporters, that will result in a major recall attempt of this ungrateful and deceptive character who has duped the good people of this town before the new government is 100 days old.

If The Nonsense Continues, Recall Is Inevitable

If the Republicans continue to use Brush appointments as a way to mask their own, even more numerous and expensive Pay-for-Play appointments, they will also be subjected to recall.

The people of Toms River are not going to screw around this time. They are tired of having their collective intelligence insulted. They are all talking about it.

Now they are starting to talk about it in Town Hall. And in the Ocean County Observer, which is why I wrote this, isn’t it?

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