At tonight's meeting of the Middeltown Township Committee, the long anticipated replacement for Steve Massell will be appointed to finish his unexpired term.
For those not familiar, Committeeman Steve Massell, a realtor by profession, accepted an appointment as a Commissioner of the Monmouth County Tax Board a few months back, but didn't officially resign from the Township Committee until last month. His new job is a paid position and reeks of patronage and cronyism.
The Middletown Republican Executive Committee presented the names of Patricia Snell, Anthony (Tony) Perry and Chris Aveta to the Township Committee, for consideration to replace Steve Massell, at the meeting tonight.
Who are these people you ask?
Not much is known about Patricia Snell other than she is a local realtor who seems to be relatively new to Middletown. Voting records indicated that she's only lived in town since 2012.
People familiar with the Middletown Board of Education, will recognize the name of Chris Aveta. Aveta is a longtime friend of Tony Fiore and both moved from Carteret to Middletown around the same time. He served 1 term on the board of education before being voted off by residents. He then spent the next two election cycles trying to get reelected to no avail. He was seen by many to be divisive and counterproductive. He wasn't an advocate for the students, rather he was a proponent for cutting the school budget under the mantra of "taxpayers" first. Sound familiar?
Anthony Perry's claim to fame according to his LinkedIn profile is that he is currently the Chief of Staff of State Senator Joe Kyrillos as well as being a member of the Middletown Planning Board. Not listed on LinkedIn, but I believe it's so, he is also a member of the Middletown Library Board.
What I see however, as Tony Perry's biggest accomplishment and advantage that makes him the front runner in replacing Steve Massell as a member of the Township Committee, is that he married Gerry Scharfenberger's daughter! That's right, he is the son-in-law of current mayor, Gerry Scharfenberger.
Talk about cronyism with a sprinkle of nepotism thrown in. It's truly outrageous. Should Scharfenberger to even vote on this? Isn't it a conflict he should abstain from? Seems a bit unethical if he doesn't.
It just goes to show you that the Republicans in Middletown have been unchecked and in charge for far too long here in town. To even consider this, is to spit in the face of residents and shows that they feel entitled to do whatever they want whenever they wish to do it.
Out of the three choices, I vote for Patricia Snell. Sometimes the less we know about a person the better.
Here is the Agenda for tonight's meeting.
