Remember all the controversy
that surrounded former Middletown Parks and Recreation Director Gregg
Silva that lead to his termination
retirement? If you remember there was speculation that former Deputy Mayor Pam
Brightbill was interested in snagging herself a plum township job upon stepping
down from the Township Committee and she had her sights locked onto the Parks
and Recreation job being vacated by Silva. Of course at the time, she denied having any interest whatsoever in succeeding Silva as the head of the
soon to be reorganized Department of Recreation, saying at the time the she preferred to continue volunteering on one or more advisory
boards.
At the time of her denial, I thought it unlikely that Brightbill would
take over for Gregg Silva. After all, she wasn’t qualified in the first place
to assume the job but more importantly the job as Director of Parks and
Recreation was (is) classified as a civil service position and from what I was
able to gather at the time, Pam had never taken the civil service exam. Not
that it ever mattered, in the past Middletown has changed many ordinances or
resolution so that favored people could get a job, you only need to look at the
lawyer sitting up on the dais next to the mayor, for a perfect example of the
cronyism that I speak of.
So now it’s been six months since Gregg Silva
stepped down and the department that he headed has now been downsized,
reorganized and renamed as the Department of Recreation and Janet Dellet (Adams), who was the director of the
Tonya Keller Community Center in North Middletown, was promoted to lead the new
recreation department for the township and Pam Brightbill has been busy on the
Planning Board and a few committees such as the Middletown Day Planning
Committee. Her volunteerism has kept busy and floating around the hallways of
Town Hall and Department of Recreation complex over at Croydon Hall, driving
people crazy. So much so, that Janet Dellet’s job performance as head of
Recreation is now being scrutinized after only a couple of months into the job
and much of what she does is questioned by township administrators.
Do you think it could have anything to do with
the fact that Janet Dellet is pregnant and will be going on maternity leave
next month? There are some that think
so. Especially since administrators won't tell anyone what the plan is for
coverage while she is on maternity leave.
So why do you think people
are so tight lipped and won’t give Janet Dellet or anyone else, any clues as to who will be
taking over her duties as the Director of Recreation in her absence? The reason
being I’m told is because Pam Brightbill will be covering for Dellet while she
is on maternity leave.
It has been said that Pam is
persistent when she wants something and eventually gets what she wants and she
really wants to head the Department of Recreation; she has wanted to head the
department for a long time.
I was told that she is the
one responsible for talking the Township Committee into laying off all the
employees in the Parks and Recreation Department last year because she didn't
care for Gregg Silva, even though the programs sponsored by Parks and
Recreation kept the department in the black and paid the salaries of its employees. Brightbill couldn’t
rightfully get him fired so she made his job as difficult as possible and
waited for him to screw up so that she could take over for him one day.
Now that Janet Dellet will
be leaving on maternity leave soon, Pam will have her chance to head the
Recreation Department just like she has longed for. The only question is will her reign be short lived and over
as soon as Dellet comes back from her leave or will it be extended for some
unforeseen reason? For Dellet’s sake, I hope that it is the latter.
