Ocean County Politics DMUA Meeting May 11, 2004

Ocean County Politics .com

Public Is Shut Out Once More, As Four Commissioners Turn Their Backs On The Public Again At Special DMUA Open Space Meeting

Commissioners Go Into Secret "Executive" Session At Start Of The Meeting For The Sole Purpose Of Shutting Public Out

Toms River - I attended the DMUA Meeting tonight and saw the commissioners, all obviously controlled by Republican Boss Richard Clement, override Authority Chairman Robert Haelig to terminate an important public session to hold a lengthy "executive session" without attending to the public business first.

Marginally Legal, But Really A Gag Rule

This may be marginally legal but it is wholly inappropriate for a public agency to shut out the public in this way, a manipulative and irresponsible political strategy by the big Republican boss to keep as much of the agency's public business as secret and remote from the public as possible.

DMUA Wasting A Lot Of Money On Political Payoffs

I care a lot about this treatment because I am often the only member of the public who attends meetings of the DMUA, an agency that currently spends $17 million a year in public funds and which currently has a $2.1 million operating deficit, two little items that the public would never even know about if it were not for the candor and forthrightness of Chairman Haelig.

Is Boss Clement The "King Of Nepotism?"

Boss Clement

Rick Clement, King of Nepotism, is the husband of Commissioner Deborah Clement, the notorious health insurance double dipper, who sits there like an orchestra director leading every misappropriation or foolhardy maneuver.

Most of these maneuvers are designed to finance the enrichment of some special interest, make the authority's deficit bigger, or promote another political payoff set up by Boss Clement, Chairman of the Board of the Dover Township Republican club.

Shouldn't Let Mrs. Clement Near DMUA Checkbook?

Mrs. Clement

Allowing Mrs. Clement within 2500 yards of the authority's checkbook is a perilous and foolhardy adventure, as the big operating deficit proves. The big deficits, cumulatively more than $8 million in three years, were initiated (we kid you not) after Mrs. Clement, who knows next to nothing about finance, became "Finance Chairman" of the authority in 2002.

Backs To The Audience And The Camera Again

Four commissioners sit with their backs to the camera and they waste time making sure the only microphone in the room, the one provided by OCP, is positioned so the public will have difficulty hearing what goes on.

"Alternate" Commissioner April Yezzi
Misses Third Meeting

Mrs. Yezzi

"Alternate" Commissioner April Yezzi was absent for the meeting, the third important meeting she has missed since becoming an "Alternate" Commissioner.

Mrs. Yezzi was appointed to the authority in January as a political payoff to her husband, pay-for-play architect Massimo Yezzi, a campaign supporter of Mayor Paul Brush.

Will Mayor Brush Attend Meetings?

I have asked Mayor Brush to attend these meetings to see for himself what is going on in the name of "government" in our very tax conscious community.

Never Attended A Meeting?

Mayor Brush has never attended a public meeting of the Authority, not as a candidate; not as the mayor.

I have also urged members of the public to attend authority meetings, but very few have ever attended a meeting.

I will ask members of the council to attend.

Council Appointed These People

Maybe when they see for themselves how the people they appointed do violence to the public interest at virtually every meeting, they will take some action to put the authority back on a sound footing. Probably not.

Please watch the captioned video. To Video

Richard Schiff - Editor