Letter: Is Murray Qualified to be WLB Borough Administrator?

The following letter appears online at the Atlantic Highlands Herald:

Dear Editor:

The West Long Branch Website (westlongbranch.org) lists among the duties of the Borough Administrator “[s]tudying and making recommendations to the chief financial officer regarding the financial procedures and policy of the Borough and its departments and assisting the chief financial officer with the preparation of the annual capital and operating budgets.” The newly appointed Borough Administrator of West Long Branch Stephanie Murray has never served as a chief financial officer of a public entity, has never worked in finance, and did not earn a business degree in finance. According to her resume, her financial credentials are that she “performed financial duties” for a small publishing company that is out of business. One financial credential that she did not list on her resume is that she has had her home go into foreclosure as a result of an IRS tax lien for unpaid income taxes.

I surmise that Ms. Murray was not appointed Borough Administrator because of her financial credentials and skill but because of political patronage. Plain and simple, Ms. Murray has landed a plum government job where she can continue to feed at the public trough because she is an elected official in Middletown. If we ever really want to protect taxpayers, abuses like this must stop.

Very truly yours,


Michael M. DiCicco
Red Bank, NJ

Fiore “the Fibber” Once Again Has Integrity Issues: Deny, Deny, Admit, Delete

2 weeks ago I asked if Middletown Committeeman Tony Fiore might Have Women Issues  after allowing a person to post a derogatory picture towards women on his Facebook page and hitting the “Like” button back on September 14th.  The picture depicted Peanuts character Charlie Brown kicking Lucy in the head while exclaiming “Not this time Bitch!” as she attempted, once again, to pull a football away from him as he tried to kick it.

I stated that the image was offensive and inappropriate for an elected official to display so proudly on his social media page and thought that Fiore would be smart enough to understand how inappropriate and degrading the image was to women. Especially after all the media attention that former Baltimore Raven's running back and Rutgers’s University alum Ray Rice received after video of him surfaced knocking out his then fiancée – now wife- Janay Palmer Rice, in an Atlantic City elevator.

As a result of the post and screenshot that I took of Tony Fiore’s Facebook page, Fiore “blocked” me from seeing his personal page, then changed the privacy setting on his account from “Public” to “Private” so that others couldn’t see it unless they were “friends” with him on Facebook.  He then went to Facebook and denied that he ever had the picture posted to his page or that his personal page was ever public after my initial post was shared by others on Facebook. 

Good for me I have a screenshot of his denials.

Which lead to this rebuttal from a moderator from the Middletown Smart Growth Bloc Facebook group:

After being confronted Fiore, in what can only be explained as a moment of introspection and clarity, actually admitted that yes, he did indeed have the picture on his page even though he didn’t like it. He used the classic defense ‘most of my friends are…’ to justify the picture that was posted.

His admission however was short lived. He deleted it from the thread of comments sometime after the below comment was posted (but not before the above screenshot was taken). 

Why did he delete his admission? I have no clue. Maybe he was afraid to have others see it and view it as a weakness or something that could later be used against him (he would have been right about that).

Back in 2008 when Fiore first ran for Township Committee, he earned the moniker of the “Fibber” from the now defunct Middletown weekly newspaper, the Courier and myself, for his embellished resume that he submitted to the Township’s talent bank when he wanted to be considered by the Middletown GOP for an appointment to one of Middletown’s many boards and commissions (he was eventually appointed as an alternate to the Planning Board). His resume stated he was a member of Recreation Commission for both Carteret and Linden. In an interview with then Courier reporter Melissa Gaffeny, he stated that he served as the "Director of Recreation" for both. This didn’t sit well with Gaffney, how could a college kid in his late teens or early twenties possible be the Director of Recreation if he only had a part-time job during summer recesses while a kid in college?  When Melissa Gaffney, did a little digging into his resume and made a couple of calls to both towns asking about Fiore’s claims, no one in either town knew who he was or if he ever worked for either recreation departments. It was later learned in a follow-up phone call that Fiore actually earned $104 from the Carteret as a summertime playground director or something to that effect. He was not however, at any time, Director of Recreation during his time spent in Carteret or Linden.

I'm sure that if he could delete that history, he would.


**************

Here are a few links that you might find interesting concerning the Fiore's resume story from back in the day:

http://www.sableminded.net/2008/07/fiore-caught-in-fibs.html
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2008/07/fiores-fibs-worst-then-expected.html
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2008/07/fiore-resum-surfaces.html
http://middletownmike.blogspot.com/2008/09/middletown-gop-trying-to-make-honest.html

Tony "The Fibber" Fiore Is At It Again: Letter To Shadow Lake Residents Is Filled With Falsehoods

Middletown's acting Deputy Mayor, Tony "the Fibber" Fiore is at it once again. You would have thought that after being caught fabricating portions of his resume that was submitted to the Township (which was presented for consideration for the Township Volunteer Bank) shortly after he moved here from Carteret, he would have learn his lesson. You can't make false and misleading statements about yourself or others and expect to get away with it.

In this latest case "the Fibber" authored and sent to resident of Shadow Lake Village (on his own dime supposedly) a letter accusing the lone Democrat on the Township Committee, Sean Byrnes, of begin an obstructionist against the rest of the Township Committee's efforts to dredge Shadow Lake and accused him of "...cutting secret deals to line the pockets of private contractors to pour chemicals into Shadow Lake that will never solve the problem...".

Fiore actually insinuated that Byrnes was a lair by including in this letter "Sean Byrnes says he wants to bring the Army Corp of Engineers into help the Township with Shadow Lake. There are a few problems with this. First, as State open waters, the NJDEP's permission is still required for the Army Corp to dredge the lake. Second, the Army Corp only dredges navigable waters-Shadow Lake is not a navigable waterway."

This letter makes Fiore out to be the buffoon and partisan politician that he is and demonstrates that Fiore and the Middletown Republicans are only out for themselves and not interested hearing from others on how to fix problems. You can see the letter for yourself >>>Here

In response to his colleague on the Township Committee, here is what Sean Byrnes has to say about Fiore's claims and accusations:

"... First, he suggests that I did not vote on dredging for Shadow Lake. That’s correct, because when the ordinance was voted on I was not yet elected to the Township Committee. His letter would lead you to believe I voted against dredging. This is not true. Second, he claims that the Army Corps of Engineers does not have jurisdiction here and cannot take on this project. Here, Mr. Fiore should have checked his facts. While the Corps has traditionally handled the maintenance of navigable waterways, they do now have a responsibility for Ecosystem Restoration. You can check this link on the web for more information:

http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/ecosystem/index.html.

I don’t think these representatives would ask for a meeting if they did not have a program that might address the problems with the Lake.

Lastly, and most disturbing to me, Mr. Fiore contends that I am “lining the pockets” of a contractor to treat the Lake. For the record, this “contractor” has had a contract with the Township for 15 years. The Township, unbeknownst to me, reduced the scope of this contractor’s contract limiting his treatment of vegetation to the most Western portion of the Lake. This may explain the rapid growth of vegetation of the last few years. My request to him to submit a contract for 2011 designed to attack the vegetation growth was an effort to address this problem while we wait for dredging. While Mr. Fiore appears to oppose this treatment of vegetation, I believe it is necessary and his characterization of it as “pouring chemicals” into the Lake is misleading..."

Well then, so much for the final attempt at an "October Surprise" from Fiore and the Middletown GOP, they have shown once again with this letter, that they can not be trusted with telling the truth to residents and are desperate to retain as much power in town as possible.

It seems as though Sean Byrnes is the only one representing the best interests of Middletown, whether it be not voting to support this years budget that included a whopping 13.8% increase to the Municipal tax rate or here in this instance, providing a common sense solution to a problem that has been lingering under Republican rule for 3 years now.