How a write-in candidate ousted Oceanport’s incumbent mayor

OCEANPORT — Before the summer, John “Jay” Coffey didn’t have any intentions of becoming the borough’s next mayor. A member of the Board of Education, Coffey was an active participant in the community — but he didn’t start regularly attending Borough Council meetings until after a slew of officials in the borough resigned. The resignations caught… Read the rest of this entry »

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Jay Coffey is Mayor-elect of Oceanport

Oceanport Mayor-elect Jay Coffey

Attorney John F. Coffey II received 949 of the 988 write-in ballots in the Oceanport election for mayor, according to Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon.  Incumbent Mayor Michael Mahon received 721 votes.

All machine and Vote By Mail ballots have been counted. There were 15 provisional ballots cast in Oceanport, which will be counted on November 9.   Jay Coffey is the Mayor-elect of Oceanport.

For Borough  Council, full-term, there were 807 write -in votes. Write-in candidate Cullin Wibble received a total of 694 votes. Candidates John A. Patti received 901 votes and Patricia Cooper received 843 votes.

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Belmar’s controversial boardwalk pavilion narrowly approved by voters

BELMAR — Belmar residents should be getting a new pavilion on the boardwalk after voters Tuesday night narrowly approved a bond ordinance to borrow $4.1 million to rebuild what Hurricane Sandy destroyed three years ago. The approval wasn’t without confusion, though. Shortly after borough officials declared victory with a plan they had pushed and modified for… Read the rest of this entry »

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Unofficial Oceanport Results Will Be Reported By Days End

Presumed Oceanport Mayor-elect Jay Coffey, center,addresses supporters as Culllin Wible , left, and Councilman Joe Irace,right look on. photo via facebook

In the Oceanport mayoral race, “Write-In” has defeated incumbent Mayor Michael Mahon by a margin of 988 to 721.

Monmouth County Clerk told MoreMonmouthMusings this morning that each of the Write-In votes will be reviewed today in order to determine the winner of the race, subject to the counting of provisional ballots and certification of the election.

A bi-partisan coalition of Oceanport leaders supported Attorney Jay Coffey, a registered Democrat, in his campaign unseat the Republican mayor who was unopposed on the ballot.  Coffey is widely expected to be the winner of the campaign. He declared victory last evening.

Oceanport’s all Republican municipal government has been in turmoil for the better part of the year as Mahon stopped communicating with members of the Council, particularly regarding redevelopment issues at Fort Monmouth, and a growing distrust of Borough Administrator John Bennett festered throughout the governing body and members of the public.

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Hanlon: Vendor’s error caused incorrect reporting of Unofficial Election Results

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon said that she discovered an error in the reporting of Tuesday’s election results website at early this morning.  The problem was corrected by 10:15 a.m. and the correct Unofficial Results have been uploaded to the site.

As a result of the correction, the bonding referendum in Belmar has unofficially passed by 17 votes, Red Bank Republican Council candidate Michael Whelan now leads incumbent Democrat Michael Dupont by 4 votes instead of the previously reported 31 and Republican Councilman Richard Pryor is now trailing Democrat Michael Skudera by one vote in the Neptune City Council race.

“Dominion Voting Systems, the County’s election software vendor, was on site to oversee the tally of the 2015 General Election results. Dominion appears to have deleted the Vote By Mail results from the tally at the end of the night for some unknown reason,” Hanlon said.

“We have spent several hours investigating the problem and have determined that the Dominion representative made an error in deleting the Vote By Mail numbers. We have corrected the problem and have posted the updated unofficial results to the MonmouthCountyVotes.com website.

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Democrats oust Republicans in Assembly’s 11th District

TRENTON — In maybe the biggest upset of Tuesday’s legislative races, Democratic challengers have ousted both Republican incumbents representing the Shore’s 11th District in the state Assembly. Democrats JoAnn Downey and Eric Houghtaling defeated Republican Assemblywomen Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande, according to the Associated Press. It’s the first time since 1991 that Democrats have… Read the rest of this entry »

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Curley Romps To A Third Term

Freeholder John P. Curley

Freeholder John P. Curley was easily elected to a third term on the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders.

With 57% of the vote (44,713-34,227), Curley defeated Carol Rizzo of Neptune Township, keeping control of the Board in 5-0 control of the GOP.

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Hanlon Wins A Full Term As County Clerk

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon has been elected to a full five year term as Monmouth County Clerk.

Appointed by Governor Chris Christie and confirmed unanimously by the State Senate to replace M. Claire French who retired in March, Hanlon can now furnish her office after 57% of Monmouth voters, 44,982 votes, elected her over Freehold Councilman Kevin Kane.

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Republicans Win Red Bank in Photo Finish

Republican Mark Taylor is the top vote getter in the Red Bank Council race with 956 votes.  Taylor’s running mate Michael Whelan is leading Incumbent Democrat Michael DuPont by 4 votes, 896 -865.  Democrat Michael Ballard, a member of the Red Bank Board of Education got 837 votes.

There are reportedly a “hand full” of provisional ballots.

Should tonight’s result stand, the GOP will take control of Red Bank’s municipal government for the first time in two decades.

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Deception and Distraction: An Inaccurate Report on Health Benefits Remains Inaccurate Nearly 4 Year later

By Joseph M. DiBella

Recently the Asbury Park Press published a story based on a widely criticized and discredited State Comptroller’s 2012 report examining the state of health benefits for public workers of municipalities, county governments and school districts. The report, which was panned by most benefit and insurance professional at the time as being actuarially and statistically invalid, also failed to accurately reflect the process local governments must use when selecting benefits for its employees. The report made for good headlines, but it didn’t make for good policy.

The takeaway of the report was that local entities in New Jersey — counties, townships, boroughs, school districts — could simply join the state health benefit plan and save the state $100 million dollars. But that wasn’t correct then and it isn’t correct now. The report overlooked the fact that benefits are collectively bargained for and can’t simply be changed on whim or all at once. It also made the false assumption that just by merging all the groups across the state, their claims history, which is how insurance policies are priced, would miraculously get better and generate savings. Finally, the report largely blamed local benefit brokers and consultants for the high cost of health care for public plans even though the cost of brokerage services is about 2% to 3% of the total cost of healthcare. The state plan is a solution for many public employers as are other private plan options. The key is to examine all of the options and align the entity with the best solution for their circumstances.

The report was largely discredited and dismissed at the time of its issuance by industry experts for being naïve and non-factual. But because it includes an eye-popping alleged savings number, the nearly 4 years old report is regularly dusted off and re-circulated by political operatives and media types looking to re-create a controversy that never existed.

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