Walsh responds to "the Fibber" Fiore's COAH letter

Patricia Walsh, Democrat for Middletown Committee has issued a response to the letter that Tony "the fibber" Fiore sent to the Atlantic Highlands Herald and I am sure many others in the area that addressed the COAH issue in Middletown.

"Recently, the Republican candidate for Middletown Committee, Anthony Fiore, published a letter to the editor about COAH.

It is not the first time that Mr. Fiore has completely distorted the facts surrounding a subject, including his resume qualifications.

In fact, both republican candidates continue to use scare tactics while misstating the facts and figures regarding Middletown's COAH obligations. It was the committee GOP majority who was responsible for leasing our precious open space, to plant a massive development on Hwy. 36.

Fact No. 1 is that Middletown residents would not be facing this enormous impact were it not for the 23 years of complete mismanagement of our COAH obligations by the GOP. The Republican Party has lead us down a path to noncompliance and are the real reason Middletown is vulnerable to builder's remedy lawsuits that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

The Republican candidates have stated that the most effective way to make housing affordable is to cut taxes” then why did the GOP majority impose a tax increase of 7.1% in this years budget alone. As a candidate for elected office, Mr. Fiore is either ethically challenged or incompetent by misrepresenting the facts or not being able to grasp the true impact regarding the town's COAH obligations.

Mr. Fiore, Mrs. Brightbill and their GOP predecessors who have sat on the planning board and township committee have created this tax increase due to their negligence in handling our COAH obligations. Rather then paying a lower cost earlier, they have hit the taxpayers with a financial balloon payment that has come due on their watch.

Despite attempts to mislead the public, or place blame on others, what could have been taken care of years ago at a much lower cost and minimal impact will now hurt taxpayers at a time when they can least afford it."

Patricia Walsh
Democrat for Middletown Committee

Tony "the fibber" Fiore passing along yet another falsehood

Tony "the fibber" Fiore is at it again. The Republican Candidate for Middletown Township Committee is passing along falsehoods as if they were facts. 

This time out instead of passing a long a puffed up resume' and miss representing himself as something he is not, he is trying to link his opponents in this years upcoming election to the COAH controversy.

In a recent letter that has been published on the Atlantic Highlands Herald  website, Fiore states that his Democratic opponents for Township Committee back the proposed changes to COAH, which would have a huge negitive impact on Middletown.

This is not true and is yet another attempt by him and the Middletown GOP to try and take the heat way from themselves for totally miss-handling the issue for the past 25 years.

The Middletown Democratic Candidates, Patricia Walsh and Jim Grenafege, have not come out in support of the recent legislation that was passed by the Statehouse  and signed into law by Governor Corzine . They have in fact expressed their concerns over the issue and what the impact will mean to Middletown.

It should be note, that Matt Morehead, the Chairman of the Bayshore Young Democrats, is working alone on this issue. The Middletown Democratic Committee's position on this issue, as far as I am aware is, that the Republican majority has miss handled the issue and now the Township must work within the guidelines of the law.

Instead of passing along false information Tony, how about addressing your resume' and the miss information you have passed off as facts? As far as know, Melissa Gaffney and the Courier are still waiting to see documentation to prove your experiences that are on your resume' are legit and not just fluff. 

How about it Tony, why don't you just come clean and admit that you are a fraud and be done with. It will save the residents of this community embarrassment later if you just resign from the Planning Board and your candidacy for the Township Committee now instead of after the election. 

  

The Fiore Resumé Surfaces

Check out Melissa Gaffney's post over at her SableMinded blog. It seems as though she got a hold of the resumé which Anthony Fiore submitted to the Township for inclusion into it's Talent Bank program.

For people that do not know what the Talent Bank is, it's resumés that are submitted to the township for consideration of inclusion onto various volunteer boards and commissions within the Township. Examples of such boards or commissions would be the Safety Committee,Human Rights Commission or in Fiore's case, the Planning Board. Most, if not all of the posistions on the various boards and commissions are filled by politically connected individuals in town.

If you take a look at Fiore's resumé, it is amazing that he was even considered at all for a position, let alone the mother of all boards, the Planning Board, his resumé is totaly devoid of facts or explanations of experiance. It seems that he holds to the belief that less is more, much of what he has listed is nothing more than fluff.

Keep in mind that Fiore is 31 years old and some of his experiances do not seem plausible:

A member of the Carteret Recreation Commission 1995-1997 (in fact may have held just a summer job.)
A member of the Carteret Human Relations Commission 1997 (he was 20 yrs. old??)
A member of NJ Federation of Baseball Umpirers 1995-2001 (umpired Little League games?)
Sargent-at-Arms for the Carteret Republican Municiple Committee 1997-2001 (at 20yrs old ?)
Carteret Republican Municipal Chairman 2002-2003 (at 23yrs.old)

How did any of this make Anthony Fiore qualified to sit on the Planning Board or run for Township Committee? The Middletown GOP has a big problem on their hands and needs to fix it.

Click here to read Melissa's blog and to see Anthony Fiore's resumé for yourself.

(Image courtsey of the Courier)

Has Fiore’s fibs cost Nelson?

I generally do not like to deal in rumor or innuendo but I have heard from a reliable source that Middletown Republican underboss Brian Nelson has fallen out of favor with Republican Party Chairman Peter Carton.

It seems as though Carton has been under extreme pressure from higher ups in the party to win this year and retain control of the Middletown Township Committee or else.

For years now it has been alleged, that Carton is nothing more than a figurehead to the Middletown GOP and its true leader was Brian Nelson. It has been Nelson’s responsibility to run the daily activities and campaigns of the Middletown GOP over the past few years and with the stunning loses that the Republicans have experienced in the last two elections and control of the township committee in jeopardy, their long time friendship may have come to an end.

Both men work for the same Newark law firm, Gibbons, Del Doe, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione and it has been alleged that Peter Carton may have pushed Nelson out the door and onto the unemployment line.

It seems as though the final straw that may have broken Nelson’s back and his long time relationship with Peter Carton has been the recent controversy surrounding Middletown Republican Candidate for Township Committee, Anthony Fiore and his exaggerated resume`.

It was extremely important this year for the GOP to have a candidate that would not rock the boat and who would help Pamela Brightbill with her reelection. It was Nelson’s job to perform the candidate search and investigate Fiore’s background thoroughly, unfortunately this did not happen, possibly due to his familiarity with Fiore and his position on the Middletown Planning Board.

Who will Peter Carton find to replace Brian Nelson? Only time will tell, more importantly though is who will Carton find to replace Anthony Fiore?

Fiore's fibs Worst then Expected

I couldn't wait till tomorrow to read what Melissa Gaffney had to say about Anthony Fiore at the Courier online so I just picked up the hard copy a little while ago. After reading Melissa's report,I found the facts to be  much worst then expected.

It seems that Fiore, who stated in Melissa's original interview, that he had a "solid history" in recreation spent only the summer months of June-August of 1999 employed by the recreation department of Linden. His position there was as "playground director" which paid him a whopping $11 an hour and it seems that the only qualifications needed to hold this position is to have attended high school gym class or to have participated in little league.

As for Carteret, he spent a few weeks of the summer of 2000 working for the Department of Recreation there, however he had no job title and earned about $104 - after taxes- for the whole summer! And according to the assistant municipal clerk, there is no employment file for Mr. Fiore because he was only considered temporary summer help.  

Did the Middletown GOP know any of this before they made Mr. Fiore, Deputy Mayor Brightbill's running mate for reelection this year?  Who was responsible for screening his candidacy? This situation is certainly a black eye for the Middletown Republicans and I can't wait to see who is going to take the hit on this one.

Anthony Fiore should do the noble thing, stop the bleeding before it is to late and resign as a candidate for Township Committee, as well as his seat on the Planning Board.

Click here to read Melissa's original Courier interview 

Photo courtesy of the Courier

Middletown GOP Candidate for Township Committee- Tony Fiore caught in LIE

Melissa Gaffney is reporting on her blog this morning that Middletown Republican candidate for Township Committee Anthony "Tony" Fiore lied to her while being interviewed for an article that was published in the June 5th edition of the Courier.

It seems as though Mr. Fiore lied about being the Director of Recreation for both the townships of Carteret and Linden while attending college.

Melissa did some background work and found out that while working as summer help in Linden, Fiore was given a title of "Playground Director", not the title of Director of Recreation. In Carteret he had no official title at all.

So why would Anthony Fiore feel it necessary to lie about his experiences to a reporter, conducting a rather softball interview for the Courier? Who was he trying to impress and did he think that he could really get away with such a thing?

If Fiore is willing to pass along false information about himself in such away, how can the residents of Middletown trust him to sit on the Township Committee if elected in November?

Mr. Fiore needs to end his candidacy for the Township Committee and explain to us what he was thinking when he thought that he could pass these falsehoods off as facts.  

Anthony Fiore should also step down from his position on the Middletown Planning Board

Click on the headline to read Melissa's Sable Minded post about Anthony Fiore 

Grenafege Responds to Fiore Letter

Jim Grenafege has responded to Middletown Republican Candidate for Township Committee Anthony Fiore's charges that he called for the reduction in the Middletown police force in todays Letters section of the APP.

Read the letter here and be sure to leave your comments.

APP Letter Forum Uproar

Whoa !!
What a fire storm my letter (See last post) to the APP caused today on their forum. There have been a few heated exchanges between a few of the responders. Please check it out for a good laugh.

I have audio clips of the exchange between Jim Grenafege and Mayor Scharfenberger as it pertains to his alledged suggestion to lay off Middletown police officers. It never happened.

The reporter from the Independent got it wrong when he wrote that Mr.Grenafege suggested to lay off members of the police force and you will be able to hear for yourselves after I post them on this blog in the next few days.

Until then keep checking in

Grenafege Did Not Call for Police Lay Offs

There has been a lot of talk around Middletown that Democratic candidate for Township Committee James Grenafege suggested that the number of police officers be reduced. This is wrong and completely off base and is just another example of how low the Middletown Republicans will stoop to smear anyone who disagrees with their positions.
During Mr. Grenafege’s time to speak, he made a number of suggestions such as combining the Library system with the Arts Center in order to save money because similar services are at times provided by both, such as, art and photography shows, music and dance programs. Deputy Mayor Brightbill could not grasp this idea or see that certain services overlap each other, so she dismissed the idea.
Mr. Grenafege then went on to ask if a productivity study was ever done across the township workforce, to determine if township personnel were being used efficiently and appropriately. If not, then maybe the workforce could be trimmed through layoffs. It was at this point that Mayor Scharfenberger and Township Attorney Bernard Reilly mentioned that the police department was the largest sub-group of employees in the township and began twisting Grenafege’s intentions into the apparent support of the reduction in the number of township police officers. When Police Chief Robert Oches spoke soon afterwards, it wasn’t so much of a condemnation against Mr. Grenafege’s comments, but more against the notion that his leadership was in question.
It should be stated that Chief Oches does a great job managing the police force. He was correct in stating that Middletown has the “lowest officer – per capita in the surrounding counties”. If anything, Middletown needs more police officers not less.
It was never the intent of Mr. Grenafege to suggest that the number of Middletown police officers be reduced through layoffs. If people attending the meeting that night came away with that feeling then they were wrong. Jim Grenafege is a thoughtful, passionate an honest resident of Middletown, who only wants the best possible service for it citizens.

Republican Candidate for Middletown Committee Interview

I just pick up a copy of this weeks Courier and was surprised to see that Republican Candidate for Township Committee, Anthony "Tony" Fiore submitted to an interview. Why am I surprised you ask? I am surprised because the Middletown GOP considers the Courier to be a rag and not worth the paper that it is printed on.

It is a standard, run of the mill, softball interview with the normal "Get to know you background stuff" written by the Couriers Melissa Gaffney, it's worth checking out the video.

It seems that Mr. Fiore grew up in Carteret, went to Carteret High School where he on the baseball and football teams, then attended Rutgers University where he received a degree in Political Science. Currently Mr. Fiore works for Prudential as a group benefits specialist. He moved to Middletown several years ago, is married and has one child. Anthony Fiore is currently a member of the Middletown Planning Board.

I am sure that you will be hearing a lot more from me in the future about Mr. Fiore and his run for office.