In Marlboro: Why are the Hornikcrats lying about John Dwyer?

Why are the Hornikcrats politicizing Marlboro’s schools?

What else are the Hornikcrats lying about?

John Dwyer smiling

In Marlboro, the incumbent Democrats, Mayor Jon Hornik, Councilwoman Randi Marder and Councilman Michael Scalea have raised over $70,000 and counting for their reelection campaign. They are spending aggressively in an apparent pursuit to keep anyone other than an approved member of the Hornikcrats from participating in municipal government.

In contrast, the “Positively Marlboro” Republicans are spending less than $13,000 on their campaign, according to their filings with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The Hornikcrats have also politicized the highly regarded Marlboro School System by endorsing a slate of Board of Education candidates.

They have further politicized the Schools with two mailers to Marlboro voters in the last week or so, in which they lie about former School Board Member John Dwyer’s role in the property tax increase associated with the School Board Budget.  Dwyer, and Sui Allex, are the Republican candidates running against Marder and Scalea.

Dwyer voted NO on the current School Board Budget.   Here’s the proof:

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Gopal: Marlboro is in play

With only $3,000 cash on hand, as of September 30, Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal seems to be abandoning his strategy of concentrating on LD 11, and now appears to be focused on protecting his turf in Marlboro.

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Larry “The Lunger” Luttrell Resurfaces, Attempting To Thwart News Of Marder’s Ethics Violations

When we last heard from Lawrence “The Lunger” Luttrell, the three time election loser, was scurrying into obscurity while threatening to sue the Monmouth County Republican Committee for a radio ad that claimed his law license was “suspended” when in fact he had been ruled ineligible to practice law.

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To our knowledge, no one has actually investigated whether or not Luttrell actually practiced law during his ineligibility.  He claimed he was unaware that he had been ruled ineligible, so maybe he did perform legal work when he was not legally authorized to do so. That would be a problem.

Now, nearly a year later, Luttrell has resurfaced in an apparent attempt to keep the voters of Marlboro in the dark about Councilwoman Randi Marder’s ethics violations and worse, the waste of $16,000 of Marlboro tax dollars that Mayor Jon Hornik and the Marlboro Township Council authorized to be spent in legal fees to appeal the New Jersey Local Finance Board’s findings that Marder committed eight ethical violations associated with the Township doing business with her husband’s companies.

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Marlboro GOP Candidates Congratulate Middletown for Taking Action on Property Taxes

Mayoral and Council Candidates Pledge Solutions, Not Grand Standing

Ira Goldberg, Sui Allex and John Dwyer

Marlboro, NJ- Ira Goldberg, the Republican candidate for mayor in Marlboro Township issues his congratulations to Middletown Mayor Stephanie Murray and the Middletown’s Township Committee for taking decisive action to bring accountability and fairness to their Township’s Property Tax Assessments in the wake of the Asbury Park Press investigation that shed a scandalous light on the state-mandated Assessment Demonstration Program, the controversial new method of setting property values in Monmouth County.

“While Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik has been political grandstanding in the face of a scandal by calling for the ADP to be suspended without offering a replacement, my friends in Middletown have enacted a solution to inequitable tax assessments and put their own credibility on the line,” Goldberg said, “By firing Realty Data Systems, and bringing the home inspection and data collection functions in house, Middletown has offered a solution to the problem.  That is leadership.”

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Marlboro Republicans Accuse Hornik Democrats of “Fairy Tales” and “Gimmickry”

Hornik Campaign: Republicans Don’t Know How Municipal Government Works, Blames Board Of Ed, John Dwyer For Tax Increases

Graphic via PositivelyMarlboro.com, the Marlboro Republican candidates’ website

Invoking Abraham Lincoln’s ‘You can fool all of the people’ quote and Congressman Frank Pallone’s promise of affordable healthcare, the Republican “PositivelyMarlboro” team of Ira Goldberg for Mayor and Council candidates John Dwyer and Sui Allex charged that their incumbent Democrat opponents, Mayor Jonathan Hornik and Councilwoman Randi Marder have been deceiving the public regarding their record of taxing and spending.  The Republicans noted that Hornik’s own property tax assessment went down in 2015 and that Marder’s assessment is lower now than it was in 2011.

In a press release and postings on their website and on facebook on Friday, the Republicans said that Hornik and his “obedient” and rubber stamp” Township Council are employing election year budgetary gimmicks and deceitful campaign language in an attempt to convince voters that they’ve been fiscally responsible and that others—the Board of Education and the County Tax Board—are responsible for the growing tax burden.

The Republicans disputed Hornik’s recent claim that the new property tax assessment program has “effectively has eliminated the avenue to appeal a tax assessment.”

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Hornik Campaign Accuses Marlboro Republicans Of “Dirty Politics” For Proposing Recreation Department Reforms

There appears to be a race worth watching in Marlboro

The Democratic campaign of Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik and Council Members Randi Marder and Michael Scalea has characterized their opponents’ plan to reform the Township’s Summer Camp as “cheap gutter politics.”

In statement promoted by Hornik on facebook and released on the JerseyShoreInsider blog (a site funded by Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal and Ocean County Democratic Chairman Wyatt Earp that has nothing to do with Snooki or The Situation), Hornik campaign manager Jon Evans accused Republican candidate for Mayor Ira Goldberg and Council candidates Sui Allex and John Dwyer of exploting the “unfortunate and serious incident” that occurred as a result of Matthew Kleinstein, while working as a Marlboro Camp Counselor, sending pictures of his penis to four 11-13 year old female campers in his care.

Councilman Scalea was a member of the Township’s Recreation Committee at the time the incident occurred.

Evans’s statement goes on to claim that the reforms the Republicans proposed are already in practice in the Township of Marlboro.  Evan’s states that the Republicans have no platform for improving Marlboro’s government.  Read the full statement (that Evans inexplicably did not send directly to MMM) here:

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Is Marlboro in play?

Labor Day is still a week off, but the political season is already underway in the most unlikely place; Marlboro Township where Democratic incumbents Mayor Jon Hornik and Councilwoman Randi Marder are running for their third terms with newcomer, Councilman Mike Scalea who is running for his first full term after replacing Frank LaRocca on the governing body.  LaRocca resigned from the council and quit politics to become the Municipal Judge in Keyport in January.

Both the Democrats and Republicans have launched their campaigns on social media and both have major campaign events this week.

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Belmar Councilman Jim Bean Lodges Ethics Complaint Against Mayor Matt Doherty Over AshBritt Contracts

Bean cites Local Finance Board’s Decision Against Marlboro Councilwoman Randi Marder To Support His Complaint

Doherty Dismisses Complaint As Politics

Belmar Councilman Jim Bean. Photo credit: Belmar.com

Belmar Councilman Jim Bean, a Republican, has written to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board requesting an investigation into a “potential violation” of New Jersey’s Local Government Ethics Law by Mayor Matt Doherty, a Democrat.

Doherty’s wife, Maggie Moran, a former Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Jon Corzine, worked as a consultant for AshBritt, the Florida company that performed debris removal throughout much of New Jersey after the Superstorm Sandy.  Belmar paid $2.67 million to AshBrit and its affiliates, according to Bean’s complaint which can be found here.

Doherty said that Bean is “Belmar’s Bayshore Tea Party….a cancer on the Republican Party.”

“This is the second, politically motivated, baseless complaint Bean has filed against me in the past 8 months, ” Doherty said, “If he didn’t waste his time on this nonsense maybe he could actually do something useful for the people of Belmar.”

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Marlboro Republicans Want Ethics Complaint To Be Referred To Local Finance Board

Marlboro GOP Chairman Christopher Dean filed an ethics complaint against Mayor Jon Hornik, Councilman Frank LaRocca and Councilwoman Randi Marder last October. To date, no action has been taken by the Marlboro Ethics Board.

The complaint involves the Township doing business with a company owned by Marder and her husband on a “no-bid” basis.

Dean was a candidate for Township Council, running against LaRocca and Marder, when the complaint was filed.  He and one of his running mates, Craig Marshall who ran for Mayor against Hornik, are continuing their fight for ethical government in Marlboro, despite their loss at the polls.

Members of municipal ethics boards are appointed and approved by the Mayors and Councils of their respective communities.   Of the 566 municipalities in New Jersey, only 37 have their own Ethics Boards.  Of New Jersey’s 21 counties, 7 have Ethics Boards.

In a January 26 letter to the Marlboro Ethics Board, Dean asked that his complaint be referred to the State Local Fiance Board rather been heard by the local board which is comprised of personal friends of the Mayor and Council members who are subject of the inquiry.

Marshall questions the objectivity of the board’s new attorney.  In a Letter to the Editor published in the Marlboro Patch, the former mayoral candidate notes that the attorney, Ken Biedzynski, earned $221,146 last year as a Marlboro special council for affordable housing, an appointment he received with the approval of the subjects of the pending ethics complaint.

All government officials should recuse themselves when faced with a conflict or the very appearance of a conflict.  This is especially so for an Ethics Board and its attorney.  In this case, there is enough of an appearance of conflicts or potential conflicts to warrant recusals.

Even if the Marlboro Ethics Board were to hear the case, which they could have done in the last four months, and found that there was no ethical violation, Dean and Marshall are going to appeal to the Local Fiance Board anyway.

The fact that this issue is still dragging on after four months with multiple attorneys raises questions about the impartiality of the board. 

The Marlboro Ethics Board would be wise to refer the matter to the Local Finance Board when they meet on March 14.  Hornick, LaRocca and Marder would be wise to publicly call for such a referral.  

Let both sides make their cases to the Local Finance Board and put the matter in the rear view mirror.  That’s going to happen eventually anyway.  The delaying tactics only raise more questions.

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Ethics Charges Dragging On In Marlboro

The ethics complaint filed last October by former Marlboro council candidate Christopher Dean will not get a hearing until next month at the earliest, according to a report in the NewsTranscript.

Dean, who is also the GOP municipal chairman in Marlboro, filed a complaint with the Township’s Ethic Board a week before the election because the Mayor and Council approved no-bid purchases of promotional items from Inkwell Global Marketing.  Inwell is owned by Councilwoman Randi Marder’s husband.  Marder, who works at the company, voted to approve the purchases, according to Dean’s complaint.

At the February 8 meeting of the Ethic Board, Dean said his complaint included Mayor Jon Hornick and Council Frank LaRocca.  Board Chairman Michael Cali said Dean should file new complaints against Hornick and LaRocca.

LaRocca is a candidate for Monmouth County Democratic Chairman.

The board has not yet held a hearing on the complaint because they are unsure if they should do so in public or in executive session, out of concern for Marder’s privacy.  Their new attorney, Kenneth Biedzynski, said he would advise the board on the proper venue for a hearing at the March meeting.

Dean requested that the board refer the complaint to the Local Finance Board.

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