Middletown’s Millennial Mayor
Tony Perry
Tony Perry, 28, will become the youngest mayor in Middletown’s history when the Township Committee meets on Sunday to reorganize for 2019, according to an announcement by the Township.
Perry was elected to a three year term on the Township Committee last Election Day. He has been a member of the Committee since November of 2017 when he was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Steve Massell resigned upon taking office on the Monmouth County Tax Board.
Upon graduating from Temple University in 2012, Perry went to work for the Office of the Governor where he worked on the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, coordinating the recovery efforts for more than 2,700 families across the state with the U.S. Office of Emergency Management, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In 2014, he became then State Senator Joe Kyrillos’s Chief of Staff. He is currently the Director of Government Affairs for the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey.
“Tony exemplifies the important qualities of an effective public servant—a passion for making a difference, the strong commitment to helping others and the ability to navigate government and get things done,” Kyrillos said of Perry in 2017.
Prior to his appointment to the Township Committee, Perry served on the Planning Board and the Library Board where he is still a trustee.
“If elected on Sunday, serving as Mayor at the start of my term is a tremendous way to begin the journey,” said Perry. “I’m humbled to be given this opportunity and deeply appreciate the support of the Township Committee and the Middletown residents.”
Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore, 42, will continue in the Deputy role for a fifth term. A 10 year veteran of the committee, Fiore led the Township as mayor during the recoveries from Tropical Storm Irene and Superstorm Sandy in 2011 and 2012.
“Perry’s energy, enthusiasm and youth combined with Tony Fiore’s years of experience on the Committee will be a huge benefit to our residents,” said Kevin Settembrino, who has served as mayor since Stephanie Murray’s resignation last June.
Committeewoman Patricia Snell and Committeeman Rick Hibell will also take the Oath of Office at the Township’s Organization Meeting on Sunday, January 6 at 10 a.m. in the Courtroom at Town Hall. Snell was elected in November to complete the term of Stephanie Murray who resigned last summer. Hibell was elected to complete the term of Gerry Scharfenberger who resigned when he became a Monmouth County Freeholder last February.
Perry met for an interview with MMM’s Art Gallagher in November of 2017 shortly after he first took office:
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I think we should put an end to this mayor rotation nonsense.
Wow, what an impressive resume, NOT. Every single position held by Tony Perry was a political appointment of some type. It’s clear that there is a full out effort to build this novice a political resume through cronyism and nepotism. Shows you how much the TC respects the taxpayers in Middletown that they appoint a Mayor who has never actually earned or held down a real job.
I don’t know what is greater – your stupidity or your jealousy. From reading his resume, the only “appointment” is the volunteer positions of library board, planning board and township committee (before being elected in November). All of his other pursuits were standard jobs. And his present job, according to their website, is a private organization. I suspect you are a bitter Democrat who is frustrated at getting his ass kicked year after year because the residents of Middletown are too smart to hand the town over to Phil Murphy and his merry band of incompetent socialists. I for one, am excited at the prospect of having this accomplished young man lead our town. You can always move to one of those bastions of Democrat bliss like Camden, Trenton, or Paterson if you can’t stand living in one of the top towns in the state – thanks to Republican leadership.
Standard political appointee jobs. Would love to see a more detailed resume including salaries. Enough to afford a home in Middletown? The only non appointee position is the last election where his installation by his father in law in a Republican town guaranteed a win. Cmon stop embarrassing yourselves with little Tony’s “resume.” In the real world, his experience would not get him past any recruiter that wasn’t related to him.
At least Settembrino stuck to Perry’s “energy, enthusiasm and youth” in his statement. Of course my new puppy has the same qualities but I would not install her as the mayor of Middletown. But on second thought that might seem like a reasonable choice.
Welcome to the comments section Deputy Mayor! Feel free to post here without threat of repercussion from your employer who was not all that happy in the past regarding your verbal jousting with various citizens on a certain prominent social media platform. Embrace the anonymity, it is liberating.
I have to laugh when I see the sore loser Democrats try and denigrate a 28 year old who is dynamic and has more experience than people twice his age. So while the hapless democrats run crack addicts and sign thieves, the Republicans have a bright, personable, experienced young man who has just made history. Have fun wallowing in self pity.
You must be a very old and out of touch Proud Republican because the resumes of most kids just out of collegehave many more accomplishments these days. Ones that are not earned through nepotism. If Christie, Kyrillos and Scharfy didn’t exist, the new Mayor of Middletown would be making his mistakes at Starbucks and not on the backs of Middletown taxpayers. When you’re a crony, it’s called “dynamic”. In the real world, it’s called green and inexperienced.
Embrace the anonymity! Love it!
I think you confused Middletown with Spring Lake Heights, Crack addicts with Opiate Addict, and Democrat with Republican.
https://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2018/12/19/spring-lake-councilman-merriken-cleared-drug-charges/2364223002/
Oh I get it now. I was wondering why anyone who supports Republicans would be crazy enough to publicize the installation of a totally inexperienced Mayor chosen by his fellow Republicans.
But Proud Republican just gave it away, They are marketing this as history making! Maybe the APP will give him some ink like the oldest mayor in Tinton Falls, who happened to be a WW2 vet?
Um, not quite the same. Middletown’s mayor is chosen and the only history being made is breaking records for nepotism and chutzpah!
I feel like this guy is always making negative headlines. He’s married to Scharfenberger’s daughter: there you go. Scharfy got his buddy Chris Christie to get this kid’s career started and now that Scharfy has moved to a Freeholder he installed Perry boywonder as a puppet. Congrats Middletown voters, Scharfys now Controlling Monmouth County as well as Middletown government. Way to go! Perry boywonder is already doing Scharfys bidding- more to come! Ain’t politics fun?
No, I was right. Your illustrious crack addict Mr deceive-o and sign stealing Mr. Beaver were Middletown Democrat candidates.
This is hilarious! Reading this and thinking about the Democrats heads exploding because a very capable, experienced Republican made history. Democrats are terrified that this individual will be such a success, they will never get a chance to get into office and turn Middletown into one of their other Statewide hellholes. The funniest part? They attack him for a supposed lack of experience, when he in fact has more experience than most people twice his age, and what’s funniest, is that he beat a Democrat candidate whose main experience is being a so-called Community activist. You just can’t make this stuff up. And I will bet anyone here that none of the Democrats who are howling at the moon will move out of Middletown Because deep down inside they know it’s the best run town in the entire state.
I don’t live in Middletown because it is an overpriced, overrated, mostly whiskey tango piece of trash. Please tell me how much some of you pay in property taxes right off Nut Swamp Rd. I will guess somewhere in the vicinity of 14k per year for the same or worse kind of service I get for less than half of that. Prove me wrong. Smooches.
Proud Republican gave away who they are, lol. Dude, lay off the Stouts your neck is fat as fuck.
Okay Proud Republican, convince yourself that the annointing of an inexperienced hack is history making. You are either a bit slow on the uptake or Tony’s mom. Any other explanation is too embarrassing to contemplate.
but, think if this happened in a Dem town: like that wacky socialist new NY congresswoman, they’d be heralding the new young mayor for his “ new blood, new ideas,” etc.. be honest, a lot of this stems from sour grapes/ sore losers/ genuine personal hatred.. looks like we have another year of it, from local on up to federal.. sigh..rather than focusing on all the taxes we pay, all the programs that are bleeding us dry, border safety, and trying to not fail to create good citizens in our educational system, here we go again with unproductive personal sniping.. I do wish Facebook and crazy, mostly self- centered social media had not become so prominent in our world, today..
Not sure how it’s sour grapes when NJ has tossed out even long standing Republicans but I agree our representatives should keep their chubby fingers off social media. Especially when they use alternate names. And that applies even more to someone who misused the township’s emergency email addresses for his personal ambitions.
@young, etc. As with most liberal democrats, your obsession with identity politics and lack of knowledge of the facts exposes the idiocy of your views. Let me try and teach you something. There was an election last November where Mr. Perry was elected quite convincingly over the liberal Democrat candidate. He was not appointed. Also, the fact that you mention “white” shows your racist views that Democrats try to use to divide us as if race should matter at all. By the way, in case you didn’t notice, all three Democrat candidates were white. So once again, you are showing why the voters repeatedly reject liberal Democrats and the ugliness of their disgusting, divisive identity politics in their beautiful town.