Letter: Brookdale Cannot Be Saved Due To Politics And Corruption, Should Be Merged With Ocean C.C.

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:

Dear Editor,

Convicted Felon Peter F. Burnham, the former President of Brookdale Community College (Monmouth County) has now been released to serve out the remainder of his five-year sentence for felony official misconduct and theft by deception, for stealing college funds, under parole supervision.

Regardless of where Burnham is now, the county college has been faced with some pretty serious financial problems that likely would not be there had Burnham managed the public monies entrusted to his oversight properly, as he was well paid to do. The college is now facing a massive restructuring that would result in 210 employee positions being slashed.

Former Brookdale Board of Trustees Chairman, Howard Birdsall, who served 20 years on the Brookdale Board, is currently awaiting trial on criminal charges for violating the state’s pay-to-play laws in his role as CEO of Birdsall Engineering, a firm with major public contracts all over New Jersey.

The college’s building Larrison Hall is named after a Monmouth County Freeholder who died under indictment for taking bribes.

Brookdale suspiciously had a campus in Guayaquil, Ecuador during the 1980s and 1990s. Ecaudor is a country with a U.S. dollar banking system that has little anti-money laundering oversight and a massive amount of cocaine trafficking taking place within it's borders. Why a county-funded New Jersey Community College would seek to locate a campus there is highly suspect.

Brookdale is currently facing massive faculty and staff layoffs. The students and educators are the real victims of Burnham-Birdsall mismanagement that is typical New Jersey fraud and corruption.

Brookdale cannot be saved. Brookdale's executive staff should be fired and the institution merged into Ocean County College.

Eric Hafner
Toms River NJ,

Letter: Derailed Fiscal Policy, Empty Promises, Unfulfilled Expectations in Middletown

The following letter also appears online today over at the Atlantic Highlands Herald. This letter, written by Middletown Democratic candidate for Township Committee, Jim Grenafege, is an expanded version of the letter that I posted earlier today and appears online over at the Asbury Park Press.

This version of Mr. Grenafege's letter is much more hard hitting than what appears on the APP. Compare the two and let me know what you think, this newer version is much more hard hitting and has more specifics.

In his October 18, Atlantic Highlands Herald letter, “Real Solutions to Real Problems Needed to Put Middletown on Right Track”, Mayor Fiore admitted that Middletown government is derailed. I could not agree more.

True to form, he falsely blames years of excessive spending; unnecessary bonding; escalating taxation and debt, all cradled in Republican mismanagement, on the Middletown Democrats who somehow magically made elected Republicans spend our tax dollars. This is just more empty rhetoric to go with decades of empty promises, failure to openly communicate and thwarted taxpayer dreams: no flood control along the Bay Shore; no turf fields; a lake yet to be dredged; a $400 thousand master recreation plan gathering dust; high density housing zoned in Lincroft and planned development of open space at Bamm Hollow.

After Mr. Fiore strong-armed $500 thousand from library funds; took $350 thousand, for the second year in a row, from sewerage authority fees; used $1.3 million in public education funds; his so-called fiscal discipline required a 12% tax increase to cover $45 million of a $62 million budget. This lack of incumbent Republican fiscal discipline has Middletown looking at a projected $2 million shortfall for the 2012 Middletown budget.

Ask Mayor Fiore if he has a real solution. Past Republican practice points at raising taxes. During his term, he has contributed 22% to a 40% increase in taxes over the last five years. Past practice also points at adding to our $70 million in debt, which has increased 66% over the same five years.

Finally, at least $2.4 million of $4 million in “cuts” claimed by Mayor Fiore was onetime nonrecurring expenses that were never part of the 2011 budget.

In closing, Mr. Fiore notes that Middletown has been repeatedly named one of the Top 100 Places to Live by Money Magazine; but, Fiore fails to note that Middletown’s standing in the Magazine’s quality-of-life survey has eroded by 39% during the last four years.

Put a stop to over 30 years of poor fiscal policy and borrowing, empty promises and unfulfilled expectations. Please help our community get back on track: vote Grenafege and Fowler on November 8.


James Grenafege
Middletown Township Committee

Letter: Middletown Hides Mismanagement

The following letter was posted online at the Atlantic Highlands Herald

Mayor Fiore is good at one thing and one thing only---raising Middletown’s taxes. Since being in office he has raised our taxes 22.3%.

Municipal mismanagement is rampant in Middletown. Yet the Mayor has been effective in keeping all this from the residents. When asked repeatedly to have the Township Committee meetings televised, he refuses, saying he doesn’t want to spend money. Yet, his record of spending money is off the charts. Perhaps he wants to hide the truth about the state of operations in Middletown.

We need better leadership and management in Middletown. Let’s stop the escalating taxes and mismanagement. Middletown residents, please get out to vote and elect Jim Grenafege and Carol Fowler to the Middletown Township Committee. They are fiscal conservatives. They have proven methods to reduce waste and inefficiencies. They know how to set demanding goals to ensure that the township is managed both effectively and efficiently.

Marilyn Tuohy
Pt. Monmouth, NJ