Dennis Galante, In Commentary In Ocean County Observer, Toms River Times, Says Dover Republican Council Members "Are Bad For The New Government And Bad For Our Community"

Dennis Galante of Dover Township is a local businessman and a leader in the pay-to-play reforms endorsed by Common Cause, the citizens interest group, and trashed by local politicians.

Galante recently wrote a commentary for local media and OCP citing some of the abuses foisted on the public by the new Dover Township government, especially the Republican Council which controls the local purse strings, sets policy on pay-to-play reforms and provides funding for numerous crony jobs and lawyer appointments made since Republican council members took office in January of 2004 and proceeded to hand taxpayers money to every politically-connected lawyer in the telephone director.

The text of Mr. Galante's Commentary follows:

From the amount of damage they did, the four incumbent ward council Republicans up for re-election may be the four worst elected officials in the history of Dover Township.

Trashed The Public Interest For 19 Months

The Republican incumbents trashed the public interest for 17 months even though they all knew their two year terms were up and they would have to face the public in November of 2005 for re-election:

They never said a word when Republican County Chairman George Gilmore, Republican Freeholder John Bartlett and Dover Republican Boss Richard Clement compromised the whole process by creating a useless $90,000 job in the county parks department for Councilman-Lawyer Michael Fiure, which was arrogance funded by the taxpayers. One newspaper said the Fiure job giveaway “stinks.”

Fiure "Job-That-Stinks Led To Gilmore Rip-Off"

They fell all over themselves the day they were sworn in sucking up to Gilmore and handing him a $90,000 contract (Fiure made the motion) to pay Gilmore to adjust the township administrative code so they could hire 50 more political cronies to newly created township jobs and professional contracts. This corrupted the whole climate and led to the biggest spending increase in the history of the community.

Gilmore Billed Taxpayers For Unauthorized
Work He Did Before The Council Took
Office, Some From Before They Were Elected

When Gilmore didn’t get his bill up to the $90,000 limit, he artfully presented an amended bill for $29,997 of additional “work” he claimed was done before the council even took office, including hours on election day 2003 before they were even elected: the ward representatives with a total disregard for ethics amended Gilmore’s contract and paid his ridiculous bill, again at taxpayers expense.

Democrat Troncone used Essentially The
Same Gimmick For An Extra $54,000

Just so they couldn’t be accused of favoring Republicans, the Republican Council let township attorney Mark Troncone, a Democrat, exceed his $60,000 2004 contract by more than $54,000, for a total of more than $114,000, and they waited 5 months after the fact to quietly use taxpayers funds to pay Troncone the extra $54,000 to show how bi-partisan they were ripping off the taxpayers.

Republican Club Cronies Have DMUA Finances
Screwed Up Despite Regular Warnings From
Commissioner Haelig Over Five Years

The Republican incumbents and Chairman Gilmore appointed political cronies like Juan Bellu as commissioners who proceeded to waste DMUA reserves so the DMUA now has a single-year deficit of $5.3 million, and a cumulative deficit of $14 million, despite constant warnings from Commissioner Robert Haelig over 5 years that they were consistently doing the wrong thing.

Repeated Violations Of The Pubic Trust

And just to show they weren’t put off by little things like OUR First Amendment Rights and OUR new form of government under the “Faulkner Act,” they violated the citizens trust in their antics by repealing the citizens ordinance on pay-to-play reform, which they substituted with their own ineffective ordinance. They trashed the $20 million dollar open space program they campaigned for; broke every one of the campaign promises they made to the public – and treated citizens with real problems (like me) like dirt and with utter disrespect at public town meetings.

Bad For The New Government And Bad For The Community

These are only a few of many examples all pointing to the same conclusion: These officials: Gregory McGuckin, Maurice Hill, Maria Maruca and Brian Kubiel – and the others – are, in my opinion, bad for the new government and bad for our community!

Galante: "All they care about is themselves"

All they care about is themselves. And of special note to Councilman Michael Fiure, just to let him know he was elected as a public servant to serve ALL the citizens of Dover Township and also to let him know that public meetings are “all about each and every INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN of our community.”

This article prepared for publication July 19, 2005.

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