Blogger Banned from Highlands Republican Club

I received this letter from the Highlands Republican Club this afternoon. 

Oh well.

1/21/11

To: Art Gallagher

Highlands N.J. 07732

From: Louis Croce

President, Highlands Republican Club

Dear Mr. Gallagher,

Please be advised that due to your recent actions following your attendance at the Highlands Republican Club meeting of 1/17/11, that effectively immediately, you are no longer welcome to attend such meetings. The reason(s) for this are as follows: Specifically, that after your attendance at this meeting, you knowingly and intentionally posted comments of former Highlands Mayor Anna Little on your online internet blog. 

Please note that comments made by those present at Highlands Republican Club Meetings are not for, or intended to be, for public consumption, publication, or posting on the internet. You did at no time represent at the 1/17/11meeting that you were there as a member of the media. It was assumed that your attendance was solely as a member of the Republican Party. Additionally, you did not request permission to quote any person in attendance at this meeting, including former Highlands Mayor Anna Little.

Please be advised that the executive board has determined that your actions are not only inappropriate, but in direct violation of the Bi-laws governing the operation of The Highlands Republican Club including but not limited to Article IV Section 7.

It is regrettable that this action has to be taken. However your actions following the meeting of 1/17/11, and those in the past, are counterproductive to the positive growth of the Highlands Republican Club, and of the Highlands Republican Organization in general. We would appreciate you abiding by the wishes of the Executive Board of the Highlands Republican Club. Should you wish to disregard these wishes by attending Highlands Republican Club meetings in the future, appropriate measures will be taken to have you removed.

Very Truly Yours,

Louis Croce

President, Highlands Republican Club

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Weekend @ Monmouth: UPDATE

Where can you watch the J-E-T-S, eat and drink , support a cause, and have a great time for $40?

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He’s the M A N

Congratulations to Highlands Mayor Frank Nolan and his wife LoriAnn on the birth on their son, Maxximus Anthony Nolan.

Maxximus was born this morning, 8:19, at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank.  He weighs 9 lbs, 7oz and is 21.5 inches long. 

LoriAnn and Maxximus are both doing well.

The proud father posted this photo on his facebook page:

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Little Holds Her Ground

By Art Gallagher

Declaring that it was not a partisan issue but an individual decision, Highlands Mayor Anna Little again joined the two Democrats on Highlands Council in approving a amendment to the Highlands PBA contract, over the objections of her Republican successor, Council President Frank Nolan, and her Republican predecessor, Councilman Rick O’Neil.

In introducing the resolution to the public, Little distributed the statement she posted on her facebook page over the weekend.

Little said that the new agreement would result in a saving of $500,000 to Highlands taxpayers vs. a net savings of $34,000 had the resolution failed, which would have resulted in layoffs of three police officer.  During her remarks, Little admitted the numbers in her statement were her “beliefs” and the result of assumptions regarding police overtime of $18,000 per month provided by the Police Chief.  She admitted that her numbers had not been certified by the Chief Financial Officer.

Little addressed the penalties in the new agreement only after Nolan brought them up.  Nolan asserted that Little’s calculations were off by at least $300,000, which she disputed.  Nolan argued that the council should not accept the penalities knowing that there will very likely layoffs necessary that will trigger the penalites.  At that point Little scolded Nolan for speaking out of turn regarding Executive Session matters that council had not agreed to make public.

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All Eyes On Highlands Tonight

Will Anna Little End Her Term As Highlands Mayor As A Christie Republican or As A Corzine Democrat?

Dramitization. Neither Anna Little nor Jon Corzine really look like this.

By Art Gallagher

Tonight in Highlands we find out if Anna Little has come to her senses or if she really has forsaken any future in the Republican Party.

In case you missed it, on December 1 Little inexplicably returned to Highlands from the campaign trail for the 2012 congressional race to join her Democratic colleagues on the governing body in approving a hastily drawn labor agreement with the Highlands PBA that undermines the plans of her Republican successor as Mayor, Council President Frank Nolan.

Her actions have lead many of her recent supporters, including yours truly, to question who Little really is. Others have been saying, “I told you so.”

Is Little the “Christie Republican” she campaigned for Congress as, or is she a political opportunist “Corzine Democrat?”   Did she vote with the Democrats on December 1 to give herself some time to study the agreement  before making her final decision with the vote that will occur tonight?  Will she make the tough, yet potentially unpopular choice to reduce the size of government and save taxpayers money, ala Governor Christie, or will she hamstring her successor like Corzine did to Christie in 2009 when he made a hasty deal with the state workers union out of political expediency.

Early indications are that Little has left us for the leftists.  Late Sunday night, apparently in response to my post this weekend, Will The Real Anna Little Please Stand Up, the Mayor posted a grossly inaccurate and incomplete justification of her support for the PBA deal on her facebook page.  “Fuzzy math on facebook,” is how one former supporter described it.

There are two major items missing from the “Fuzzy math on facebook” piece. 

1) The penalties included in the agreement, payable by Highlands taxpayers to members of the Highlands PBA, that could run anywhere from $60,000, to $150,000 should layoffs become necessary in the next 18 months.

2) Little knows that Nolan has started conversations with Middletown about a shared services agreement for police that could potentially save Highlands taxpayers high six figures or more, and return Highlands to solvency, for many years to come.    This new deal complicates a potential shared services agreement and reduces the savings should it occur. 

Democratic Councilman Chris Francy, who promised regionalization in his unsuccessful campaign for Mayor last November, said “Its only $60,000,” when asked to justify his vote for  the agreement on December 1st when he knows about the potential shared services deal coming in 2011.    Maybe Little is thinking the same way.

Hopefully Little will come to her senses tonight.

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Will The Real Anna Little Please Stand Up

By Art Gallagher

Has anybody seen the real Anna Little lately?   I haven’t seen her in months.

I’ve been intentionally restraining myself from writing about Anna Little since election day.  We have a long history.  Given that history, I offered her inner circle, which despite perceptions to the contrary I am not a member of, a private critique of what worked and what didn’t work about her congressional campaign.  If not for our relationship, I just would have written my observations as I have after every election since I started this blog.

Little’s recent actions as Mayor of Highlands, my hometown, and the decision she will have to make next week over a labor agreement with the Highlands PBA compel me to treat her as I would any other public figure and write my observations with the candor I’ve been known for, yet have been withholding in her case.

When I started preparing this piece, it reminded me of the long running TV game show To Tell The Truth which ran in various forms from 1956 through 2002.  The show featured a panel of four celebrities who were charged with correctly identifying a described contestant with an unusual occupation or experience.  The “real” contestant and two impostors won the game if they fooled the panel.  The real contestant was sworn to tell the truth when answering panelists’ questions.  The impostors could lie. The game was over when the host said “Will the real X please stand up?”

The more I worked on the piece, the more I realized that To Tell The Truth didn’t fit.  There were more than two impostors and they all inhabited the same body.  Maybe Sybil is a more appropriate analogy.  I don’t know that the psycho drama fits, but the multiple personalities and characters may be the majority of Little’s remaining supporters. Her Army is quickly becoming a figment of her imagination.

I think the real Anna Little is the woman I’ve known for almost 10 years.  She’s been a principled public servant who would fight to do the right thing.  She would fight for an ideal, regardless of the power and resources of her foes, winning and losing political battles, with scars.  Often she produced improbable results.  She always landed on her feet and emerged from battle with a smile.  She was uncompromising to the point of being a pain the ass, but she was usually right.

The real Anna Little started the year as a Tea Party mama grizzly with charm.  Tri-City News publisher Dan Jacobson called her “Sarah Palin with brains.”  Her stump speech for the CD-6 congressional primary was musical and inspiring. It hit all the patriotic notes and inspired the best in her audiences.  While she was challenging the establishment, she positioned herself as a uniter, promising the local and state party leadership that win or lose the primary she would rally her Tea Party supporters behind the Republican ticket. 

Little delivered on her unity promise, partially, when she supported Joe Oxley for reelection as Monmouth County GOP Chairman hours after her stunning and improbable primary victory over Diane Gooch was official.  However, she only went so far in uniting the troops.  She never healed the primary wounds with the Gooch camp.  There was griping and sniping from the Little camp throughout the general election campaign that the local GOP was not doing enough for her. She let that fester.  While there was public unity with the Monmouth and Middlesex leadership, Little repeatedly snubbed the Union County GOP leadership.  For now, let’s just say that Little’s horrendous showing in Plainfield was not solely the result of Frank Pallone’s superior ground game in the city.

The “real” Anna Little would not let those wounds fester.

Once she got her bearings in place for the general election, Little positioned herself as a “Chris Christie Republican” rather than a “Mama Grizzly.”  This was not a Sybilesque malady, but smart political strategy.   Christie had won the 6th congressional district in the previous election and his popularity was strong among the constituencies Little would have to win over in her quest to unseat Pallone.

When Little is on her game, her communications skills rival Christie’s and Palin’s.   However, as the campaign progressed the inspiring stump speech she consistently delivered during the primary was often replaced with a defensive justification of her candidacy that fell flat.  At home she would tell her audiences how much the national GOP and PACs in Washington loved her, as if the campaign was about her and as if her audiences cared.   In Washington, she would tell her audiences how loved she was at home.

She was on her game and at her very best when among her enthusiastic supporters.  Her performances at the debate at Temple Shalom in Aberdeen and at the health care forum in Red Bank were extraordinary.  However, when in the presence of those who challenged her and without her “Army” to back her up, Little was often strident and argumentative. Her appearances with NJN’s Michael Aron, before the editorial boards of the Star Ledger and Asbury Park Press and one on one versus Pallone on News 12 are examples of when she was not at her best and needed to be.

Where was the “real” Anna Little?

Behind the scenes, Little actively alienated herself from long term supporters who would frankly tell her the truth about what was working and not working.  It was as if she took constructive criticism from team members as personal attacks.  The “real” Anna Little wouldn’t do that.  She would argue and debate with trusted team members and then make a decision.  The Anna Little that showed up during the general election campaign turned her back on her best local advisers and surrounded herself with “yes” men and women and people who did not know the district.  She’d gone from a Palinesque Tea Partier, to a Christie Republican, to a Nixonian paranoid.

As the campaign reached its critical peak in mid-October, Little introduced yet another personality.  She took a hard right turn and morphed into a Mike Huckabee Republican, only without the cornball charm.  The fair tax, abortion and strict Ron Paulesque constitutionalist philosophy were not issues to emphasize during the last weeks of a general election campaign. Not when she had polling data that indicated a moderate Republican could defeat Pallone.  She was pandering to her Right to Life supporters who were upset with how she handled the life question during her NJN appearance with Aron.

Despite these problems which were grumbled about behind the scenes among Tea Partiers and Regular Republicans alike, Little’s political stock was flying sky high, even after the polls closed and she lost by double digits when most observers were expecting a nail biter.  In the final days of the election Monmouth County politicos were rooting for her victory because they didn’t want to have to compete with her in the event of a vacancy in the State Legislature after redistricting.   Win or lose, she was expected to be a force to be reckoned with in Monmouth County politics.  

In perhaps the fastest fall from grace since the Howard Dean scream, Little squandered torched that hard fought for political capitol before she got off the stage at her Shore Casino headquarters on election night.  Apparently concerned about insulting either her Tea Party supporters or Regular Republicans who she never truly united, Little insulted both in her concession speech which was short on humility and gratitude and included an announcement of her 2012 candidacy for congress in a district that hasn’t been drawn yet, and the formation of three new political organizations, including one called “Anna’s Army” which she apparently presumed all of her hardworking supporters would just sign on for without any acknowledgement of what they had just finished doing and sacrificing.   Did she expect to lose?  How else could she have planned and even named these three new organizations within two hours of the polls closing?   One television reporter commented on the air that Anna Little just wants the limelight. 

Was this the “real” Anna Little?  Did she have me fooled all these years?  Was I the one who misunderstood her when I argued with others that they didn’t really know who she was?  Maybe so.

This brings me to the present and why I’m writing this piece that has been eating me up inside since November 2.

I can support the Tea Party Mama Grizzly, the Christie Republican or the Huckabee Republican.  The Nixonian paranoid is tough to deal with, but I’m Irish too and have dealt with such passive aggression for 52 years.   I could forgive the election night performance and help her recover some of the political capitol she squandered.  But I can’t support a Republican Mayor who is turning into a Corzine style Democrat as her latest character.

On December 1^st Little sandbagged her Republican colleagues on the Highlands Council.  She showed up unexpectedly and joined the Democrats on the council in approving a hastily drawn labor agreement that will either needlessly increase the costs of Highlands government or handcuff her successor in managing Highlands budget like Jon Corzine did when he made a hasty deal with the state workers unions on primary day in 2009 so that Vice President Joe Biden would join him on the stage for his campaign kickoff. Corzine’s deal prevented Governor Christie from laying off state workers during the first year of his administration.   Little’s deal probably won’t prevent layoffs in the Highlands Police Department.  More likely the deal will end up costing Highlands taxpayers between $60,000 and $150,000 over the next two fiscal years.  Little knows this.

The payoff for Corzine’s expensive sellout was clear. What Little thinks she accomplishing, after assuring her Republican colleagues that she was with them, is a mystery.  Maybe she’s delusional enough to think that her actions will win her union support in her hypothetical rematch with Pallone in 2012.  Hopefully she just had a bad night and didn’t realize the consequences of her actions, despite her words to the contrary that evening and since.

Fortunately Little has a second chance with this one.  The PBA agreement has to be voted on again on Wednesday December 15^th.  Little could miss the meeting, which means the agreement would not carry on a 2-2 vote. Or one of the Republican Littles could show up.  For the sake of Highlands taxpayers, I hope the Little Corzine does not show up.

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Little Government Returns To Highlands

By Art Gallagher

After being absent from Borough of Highlands Council meetings for much of the year due to her congressional campaign, Highlands Mayor Anna Little swept into the Council’s public meeting last night in order to vote with her Democratic colleagues to prevent police layoffs.  Little skipped the Executive Session in lieu of attending holiday parties sponsored by the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce and the Monmouth County Affiliated Republican Club.

Little voted for a resolution offered by Democratic Councilman Christopher Francy and seconded by Democratic Councilwoman Rebecca Kane to amend the PBA contract to accept concessions by the police union in exchange for penalties to the borough should there be layoffs through June 30, 2012.

The police have given up a 4.25% salary increase, retroactive to July 1, 2010, have offered to accept comp time in lieu of overtime payments, and have agreed to join the rest of Highlands employees in having their health insurance transferred from the borough’s contract with Horizon-Blue Cross to the NJ State Health Benefits Plan, in exchange for a no layoffs pledge through June 30, 2012.

Should there be any police layoffs through June 30, 2012, the borough will make cash payments to all members of the PBA for the conceded salary increases and for overtime incurred, under the proposed agreement.

Highlands Chief Financial Officer Steven Pfeffer told MMM that the salary and overtime concessions would save the borough $90,000 in the current fiscal year through June 30, 2011 and another $60,000 in the following fiscal year. The Borough is saving $300,000 by transferring all of its employees to the state health benefits plan, according to Pfeffer.

Republican members of the Council, Frank Nolan and Richard O’Neil voted against the resolution.  Had the resolution failed, 3 police officers would have been laid off, resulting in a savings of at least $250,000, according to Nolan.

Nolan will succeed Little as Mayor on January 1st. O’Neil is Little’s predecessor.

Nolan and O’Neil are in the early stages of negotiations with Middletown to share police services with Highlands.  Should the two municipalities enter an agreement that has Middletown taking over policing Highlands, the savings to Highlands taxpayers would be reduced by the penalties the Borough would have to pay to the PBA members.

The deal with the Highlands PBA must be ratified by its members and be approved by the Council again, presumably at the December 15th meeting, before it will take effect.

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Vote For Ryan Britton On November 9!

Highlands poltics is never boring.

Back in April the Highlands Democrats failed to file the petitions on time  to have their candidates names on the primary ballot.

As is frequently the case in Highlands, there is an Independent running this year for the only municipal office on the ballot, mayor.

His name is Ryan Britton and apparently he doesn’t know what day the election will be held on.

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Treaspass? Eminent Domain? Why Are They Ending Road Work Anyway?

How long has that sign been on my property?  I’ve been keeping odd hours lately, but how did I miss it?  Surely government workers were working overtime on Saturday to post that sign on MY PROPERTY.

Who do I call?  Mayor Little?  Hmmm, I live on a county road, is it too early to call Director Burry?

How much rent should I charge?  I think I’ll charge $15,000.  That would cover the property taxes I pay in Highlands for a year.  But this is a county road, prime real estate.  Thousands of commuters, including Oceanport Council President Joe Irace drive past my house everyday on their way to the SeaStreak ferry to NY.   We’re coming into the prime sign season as politicians are usually very nice to me around now so that I’ll let them put their signs on MY PROPERTY.

I’ll have to think this through and consult an attorney.  How long will the road work be going on?  Maybe I can charge enough rent to cover property taxes for two years!   Maybe I can get the 5 acre requirement for farm designation waived so that my property can be declared a fish farm and I’ll get a property tax break forever!

Here’s what I’ll do.  I won’t file trespassing charges and I won’t charge rent. Why would I want to gouge my neighbors and friends anyway?  I’ll let the sign stay there for free so long as the union workers who do the road work earn market rate wages instead of “prevailing wage.”  If I’m not going to gouge my neighbors, why should they?

That sounds like a fair deal to me.  Draw up the papers Lillian, I’ll be calling.

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