2/19/19 Tony Fiore & 911 Safety: What Price Should We Put On Life?

How much does a life cost and what price would you put on it?

I'm asking this question because after viewing the video from Tuesday night's Middletown Township Committee meeting, I was left slightly stunned after hearing Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore's public comment regarding a recent stabbing that took place in North Middletown at McMahon Park.

During Committee Comments, Tony Fiore addressed social media criticism about an alleged delayed  response time by Middletown police after the stabbing in McMahon Park last week. The delay was blamed on the Monmouth County 911 dispatch operator not being able to identify the location of McMahon Park. Fiore then assured those listening that there really wasn't a delay and that police were on the scene in less than 4 minutes after the call came through.

Fiore then continued to state that he asked for some statistics and found that since Middletown turned over it's own 911 system to the County in 2016 via a shared- service agreement, the township had saved a "few million dollars". He said that since that time there has been 101,000 calls to 911 that the County dispatch had received, of those calls, 93,689 were actual emergencies and of those calls, ONLY 16 were delayed due to a wrong address or the need for additional information or clarification from the 911 dispatch operators. He then stated that those 16 delays represented  less than .07% of all calls and gloated, saying that he thought that it, turning our 911 call center over to the County,  has been a good deal.

I say Bullshit!

If 1 life was lost or 1 person suffered unnecessarily due to delayed response times from a 911 call center, which resulted in a  life long complications, than it isn't worth the money saved.

How can you look into someones eyes,  who lost a loved one or suffered needlessly, with a straight face and say it was worth it? You can't ... but I'd like to see our deputy-mayor attempt to explain it to someone who has experienced such a loss or tragedy.

I'm sure that if he or someone he cared about, was affected by a delay in response time after calling 911 for help, because the dispatcher on the other end of the phone was unfamiliar with an area or gave first responders the wrong information, he'd be the first to want answers and accountability from those involved. And I bet afterwards, he wouldn't think it was such a good deal.






Update 2/27/19:

It was brought to my attention last week, that the incident that I had mentioned above, the stabbing at McMahon Park,  may not have been the social media incident that lead Tony Fiore to make his comments that have been posted in the video. More than likely it was a different account of a recent event that taken place at McMahon Park a day or so prior to the reporting of the stabbing by the Asbury Park Press, which had a delayed response from 911.  The social media post was apparently
taken down sometime after initial posting but thanks to a forward thinking individual, there was a screenshot taken, which I have posted.  I apologize for any confusion.

Two be fair to the 911 operator who was involved in this incident, I will give the benefit of doubt to them, the name of McMahon Park was misspelled in the social media post as "McMann". If the caller spelled out the name of the park to the 911 operator wrongly,  then I can understand the confusion but not necessarily the delay. Any police officer or dispatcher in Middletown should know where a McMahon/McMann park is without hesitation. The name of the park is pronounced, as far as I know and others are concerned as, McMann, there is only one.  If that was the case, then all the dispatcher needed to do was inform local authorities of the incident at "McMann" park and send the help that was requested.

 

Board of Education Voting Meeting - 9/26/18: Tony Perry Tries and Fails To Make A Deal And Shows How Little He Understands

I just finished watching the video from this past Wednesday night’s Middletown Board of Education (BOE) Meeting. What started out as a nice night of recognition for teachers and administrators involved in the school district being awarded 'Future Ready Silver Certification' (a distinction, given to only 35 schools in NJ, 17 of which Middletown is one), ended in what can only be characterize as a desperate attempt to gain some recognition as a candidate for Township Committee by the school community, from Middletown Committeeman Tony Perry, who is up for election this November.

It seems Middletown’s Board of Education isn’t the only entity in our community not immune to political stunts this election season.

When the meeting was opened for Public Comments, the unelected Committeeman and Candidate, Tony Perry (who, by the way was appointed by his Father In Law, Gerry Scharfenburger to the Township Committee), took to the microphone 'On Behalf of the Township Committee' to address the BOE regarding a possible agreement to take over the maintenance of 'Bayshore Elementary'.

A couple of quick notes before moving on; First, wasn't there just a conference held by Mayor Kevin Settembrino, where he proclaimed that he alone spoke for the TC, which would mean that either Settembrino sanctioned Mr. Perry's visit to speak on behalf of the committee and make an offer or Tony Perry was going rogue,  trying to make deals on his own, even though he is not a member of the joint Shared Services Committee. Later in his comments, he seems to back away from this statement and declared he 'doesn't speak on behalf of anyone, but himself'. Secondly, there is no 'Bayshore Elementary ', he would know that if he lived in Middletown for more than 5 minutes before becoming a Township Committeeman and not attempting an obvious political stunt, so I will assume he is referring to Bayview Elementary School.

Moving on ... Perry made reference to the potential Stevenson's Park Sports Complex, which in his words, 'is a political football' and 'not an honest discussion of how many fields would be placed there.' He goes on to accuse others (presumably, his opponents, one of which is Board Member Danielle Walsh) of 'intentionally misleading the residents of Shady Oaks and Shadow Lake'. Honestly, I'm not sure what these statements were meant to accomplish at a BOE meeting other than an attempt to garner votes by driving a wedge between the BOE and the parents of a few sports kids.

You can call me crazy if you want, but according to the plans for the sports complex that I and others have seen, they clearly show a plan to create a total of 9 multi-purpose sports fields beginning with a Phase 1 start of 2 fields.... Again, call me crazy, but how does informing residents living adjacent to Stevenson Park of plans for a potential Sports Complex by others 'intentionally misleading' or relevant in any way to the BOE?

He then offered to propose on 'behalf of the Township Committee' to take over control and maintenance responsibilities for Bayview Elementary Fields. In return, the Township Committee would decide which entities are entitled to use of the fields, with the school events getting priority. Not a bad deal for the BOE, right? Except, Board President Joan Minnuies pointed out, the Township Committee already decides who gets priority over these fields. He went on to refer to Bayview as an 'unknown and treasured part of Middletown.' Unknown? Really? I’m sure thousands of Belford residents would be shocked to know their elementary school was unknown to a candidate for the Township Committee.

Committeeman Perry also asserted that in the arrangement, the 2 baseball fields presently there (albeit without pitchers mounds because they are multi-purpose fields) , would be torn down to make room for the maintenance of soccer, flag football and lacrosse fields. When BOE member Michael Donlon questioned this, Perry inferred that it would be fine because there were no issues with lack of field time for baseball in Middletown.

BOE member, Danielle Walsh questioned his political motivations for addressing the BOE, since he 'had never been to a Board of Education Meeting before tonight' and 'suggested what would amount to an agenda item for Shared Services'. And further took issue with Mr. Perry's accusation that the BOE 'ignored' their fields. It was at this point that Mr. Perry changed his tune and insisted he was there speaking 'on behalf of himself', then went on to say 'I don't have the ability to have my voice heard to the School Board on my opinions about Shared Services decisions that occur. Unfortunately, that is why I have to come to these meetings.'.

BOE member Nick DiFranco also took issue with some of Mr. Perry's assertions regarding Shared Services and the extent to which the BOE was involved in addressing issues with field usage.

The bottom line here is that Mr. Perry, accompanied by another unelected Committeeman, Rick Hibell (who did not speak) seemed out of his depth of knowledge when it came to not only how the BOE works, but how to effectively communicate within the boundaries of his own Township Committee. But this is what you get when you have a Township Committee where there is no accountability to the point of blatant nepotism. Watch the exchange in the video for yourself and decide (I’ve queued it to the start of Perry’s comments).

Other than what I’ve mentioned above, the Voting Meeting was relatively uneventful (with the exception of Board Member Leonora Caminitti referring to another BOE member as a 'sissy'), but you should still take the time to watch the entire meeting, which you can access …. HERE

And while you’re at it do me a favor, consider asking the BOE to work on their video sound quality. I appreciate the transparency of the taped meetings, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

BOE Workshop / Voting Meeting - August 24, 2016

It took me a few days to get through this video of August 24th, Middletown Board of Education (BOE) meeting. The video is a little more than 2 hours long and kept freezing up on me during playback.

The video is pretty standard stuff but an interesting discussion peaked my interest concerning shared services. It seems from the 25 minute conversation that took place between the 1:31 - 1:55 mark of the video, that information isn't being disseminated properly between board members.

Board members, Sue Griffin and Joan Minnuies questioned why they weren't informed about the Board being approached by the Township Committee about potentially leasing classroom space at Croydon Hall (presumably in the vacated building that was the temporary home of the all girls school Trinity Hall), for market value or near market value. Minnuies questioned why the Board would be interested in such a lease? She added that she hoped that if the Board was interested in such a lease, now or in the future, that the lease arrangement would be more favorable seeing how the Board of Education currently leases one of it's buildings, the old Lincroft Library, to the town for $1 a year.

Vinnie Brand, the Board Chairman of the Shared Services committee, with added input from Board President Jim Cody and School Superintendent Dr. George, insisted that there was nothing of significance to report to the rest of the board. The topic was brought up nonchalantly and in passing by Township Committeeman Tony Fiore ( I believe), a few weeks prior and was turned down due to the fact that the Board wasn't interested in leasing any space at Croydon Hall, now or in the future. The point and discussion therefore was moot.

The discussion then turned towards the potential of a new sports field at Thorne Middle School, where again, Joan Minnuies stated that she knew nothing about.

From what I gathered, the Board has ~ $60K leftover from the work done on the fields over at Nutswamp School and wants to use that money over at Thorne.  Apparently, during discussions with the Township Committee and Town Administrator Tony Mercantante, it was mentioned that the township had some fill material from some dredge project that the school district could have in order to raise the level of the fields, which would help offset the costs of the new field.

After going back and forth on the subject, which left me with more questions, it was decided that the Shared Services committee would do a better job of informing other board members of future discussions.

Here are my thoughts on the whole discussion.

As for the potential of the Township looking to lease available classroom/office space at Croydon Hall to someone is troublesome. The Croydon Hall complex is deemed as a Green Acres site and open space. The DEP was/is withholding nearly $1M of Green Acres funding from the Township due to issues surrounding the lease of one of the buildings to house Trinity Hall and other unrelated issues. The school district is wise to stay clear of that situation.

As for the field over at Thorne School, it's no secret that the BOE and Township Committee, has been hot and heavy to spend $800K - $1M on a new sports field for Thorne, even though the field abuts up to wetlands and is deemed environmentally sensitive by the DEP. Approval for permits on a such field improvements would cost thousands of dollars and take a few years to get, in which case, the $60K that the BOE has leftover from the Nutswamp project would be better spent elsewhere in my opinion.
 
 See what you think, watch the video and form your own opinion.

Middletown Township Committee Meeting 5/7/12

This video is of the May 7 2012, Middletown Township Committee Workshop Meeting. At this meeting discussions took place regarding the capital budget and some upcoming shared services.

Other discussions that took place concerned an new ordinance governing the Historical Commission and the planning for the upcoming 350th birthday of Middletown in 2014, the establishment of an Econonic Development Committee, the tightening up of the standards that governs the establishment of fast food restuarants in town enlight of the recent planning board decision to turn down the White Castle application along route 36 in Port Monmouth and the Ideal Beach Improvement Project.





As a companion to the video, you can download a copy of the meeting agenda that contains the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.

Independent: Twp. and BOE begin to discuss shared services; Middletown and school district form committee to explore opportunities

Hmmm, this sounds vaguely familiar.

Wasn't it Former Committeeman Sean Byrnes that championed the idea to form a committee to between the Middletown Township Committee and the Middletown Board of Education for the purpose of finding areas in which the two could share services? I'm just saying....

MIDDLETOWN — A collaborative committee between the township and the Board of Education that would facilitate shared services has begun to take shape.

The Township Committee approved a resolution establishing the new commit- tee’s members at its March 7 meeting.

Mayor Anthony Fiore, Committeeman Steve Massell and public member Judy Benedict will serve on the committee along with Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante.

Board members Vincent Brand and Michael Mascone, Interim Superintendent Thomas Pagano and Business Administrator Amy Gallagher will represent the school district on the committee.

The committee aims to identify areas of overlapping expenses and investigate possible shared or consolidated services between the two entities.

“A lot of those discussions happen already; however, we’re always more than willing to comply with trying to find every idea that we can to share resources with the Board of Education and other entities,” Fiore said in an interview.

“Hopefully, that committee will allow us to explore other and every avenue that we possibly can with the Board of Education to share services as much as possible for the benefit of the taxpayers of Middletown.”

Board President Michael Donlon expressed similar sentiments, but stressed that the committee is still young.

“Our Board of Education is looking to get a better understanding of the benefits that shared services may bring,” he said.


“We sincerely believe that collaboration is a win for both parties, and the board will continue in our efforts to work side by side with the township as we both proceed through these very interesting and changing times,” he said....

Read more >>>> Here

It's Your Town Newsletter Volumn 2, Issue 22, 10/4/10

It's has finally arrive, the new edition of "It's Your Town" newsletter has been issued and sent out to subscribers just in time to get caught up on what happened at the Middletown Township Committee Workshop meeting on Oct.4,2010, before tomorrow nights regularly scheduled Township Committee meeting.

Discussions regarding shared services with the BOE, the dredging of Shadow Lake, televising Township meetings and parking at the Municipal Complex dominated the meeting.

Read the newsletter to find out more.