GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli and Middletown Mayor Tony Perry celebrate Middletown’s reorganization on January 3, 2021
Municipal reorganizations are a big deal for New Jersey elected officials, especially during a gubernatorial election year. Newly elected and reelected mayors, council and committee members, and fire chiefs are celebrated and their families are thanked by their communities for their sacrifice. The new officials make optimistic speeches about the future of the communities and big shots from state and county government show up to issue the Oaths of Office and pose for pictures.
In 2009 former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, not yet a declared candidate for Governor, was all over New Jersey swearing in mayors and council members on January 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. His first stop was Middletown where he issued the Oath of Office to newly elected Committeeman Tony Fiore as Mayor Gerry Scharfenberger looked on.
Middletown Mayor Tony Perry is expected to be selected to serve a third consecutive year as the leader of the Township when the governing body reorganizes in a virtual meeting on Sunday, January 3 at 10 a.m.
Middletown Mayor Tony Perry sent off a scathing letter to Alice M. Greenwald, President of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City, condemning the decision to not light the Twin Beams Tribute to the victims and heroes of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States of America. Perry offered to host the tribute in Middletown.
Thirty-seven residents of Middletown died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Middletown Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore responded to the news that the Twin Beams represented the World Trade Center will not be lit this year in remembrance of those we lost on September 11, 2001, due to COVID-19 public health concerns, by promising that Middletown’s annual remembrance will go on.
Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore will not seek a 5th consecutive term on the Middletown Township Committee.
In a February 29 email to Middletown’s Republican leadership, Fiore said, “My recent expanded responsibilities at work (which include many nights of travel) coupled with my most important responsibilities as a husband and father, will make it impossible for me to continue to serve the Committee the only way I know how, at 110%.”
“The Township is in better shape than it was when I came into office 12 years ago,” Fiore said in a phone interview. “That’s what I’m most proud of.”
First elected in 2008 in the wake of Operation Bid Rig, the investigation by Chris Christie’s U.S. Attorney’s Office that resulted in the indictment and convictions of many Monmouth County elected officials including a Middletown Township Committee member, Fiore has been the driving force in reforming Middletown’s municipal government.
Tony Perry is expected to be elected to a second consecutive year as mayor of Middletown when the Township Committee reorganizes on Sunday, January 5 at 10 am at Town Hall.
Tony Fiore will serve as Deputy Mayor of the Township for the sixth time since he joined the Committee in 2009.
“I’m honored to have the opportunity to build on all we accomplished in 2019 and provide our residents with the fiscally responsible government they have come to expect,” said Mayor Perry. “This has been an extremely productive year and the Township Committee and I will continue to seek innovative solutions that will lead Middletown into the next decade and not shy away from the pressing issues that impact our community.”
MIDDLETOWN, NJ – Last week the Middletown Township Committee directed its attorneys to withdraw from court proceedings that commenced in July 2015 to address unrealistic affordable housing obligations imposed upon municipalities throughout New Jersey by the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, July 17, 2019, the Township Attorney applied for an Order of Dismissal, which was entered by the Hon. Jamie S. Perri on July 19, 2019.
As a result of the demise of the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (“COAH”), municipalities have been subjected to proceedings in Superior Court to address ongoing and ever-increasing demands by the Fair Share Housing Center (“FSHC”) to develop more high density affordable housing. Read the rest of this entry »
Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden issues the Oath of Office to Middletown Mayor Tony Perry while Allannah Perry holds the Bible. Jan 6, 2019
A simmering political and legal battle between the Middletown Board of Education and the Middletown Township Committee was extinguished on Sunday morning when both boards tabled conflicting resolutions regarding the date of the annual Board of Education elections.
The Township Committee had a resolution on its agenda to move school elections to April. The BoE scheduled a Special Meeting to pass a resolution to keep their elections on the annual general election ballot in November.
In 2012, the Middletown Township Committee voted on a resolution to be a part of what was an initial pilot program to move the local Board of Education Election from April to November. The benefit of entering that program was that election costs could be saved for the Township while school budgets would not be subject to voter approval so long as they complied with the 2% cap.
After 6 years of election data, it has become clear the potential benefits of this change do not outweigh the unintended fiscal and political costs of continuing to elect Board of Education members during a partisan electoral cycle.
Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger takes the Oath of Office on Feb 3.
Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger will be running for office again in 2019. He will either seek his own full term on the Freeholder Board, having been elected to complete Assemblywoman Serena Dimaso’s term last month, or he will seek the Assembly seat being vacated by Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Middletown).
