Subject: RG and Gov't Transparency: RG, I agree that some things cannot change overnight while other things will never change...say like the nature of man. However, with all due respect, things like keeping your own personal campaign promises are things that should represent an immediate change. Graebener and St. Amour ran a campaign that promised to keep mullica green and rural. From all appearances, they have kept this campaign promise by their various actions to do away with the illegally formed, developmentally-minded consolidated board that was acted upon by Kathy Chasey prior to her losing power. Graebener and St. Amour acted immediately to dissolve this board and follow the wishes of the voters who elected them as their representatives to keep the rural look and feel of Mullica. Graebener and St. Amour made it clear that they did not support a new law (zoning ordinance change) to benefit Waszen and his band of developers. For this, all Mullicans, except those who only care about personal financial gain with regards to this project, should be thankful to these gentlemen. However, as I recall, the other major campaign promise of these gentlemen was to have an open and honest government. They promised transparency in government. Graebener and St. Amour, prior to being elected, complained often that our town council voted on and passed ordinances continuously without any input from the public. The public was in essence, shut out. The public did not even know what the ordinance was, its impact on the community, the cost of such legislation or anything. I was a witness to this as well. It was very alarming. Now that these gentlemen have been in office for about 3 months now, I am hearing that they are participating in the same sort of elite behavior that these very men despised. Remember, open, honest and transparent government was a cornerstone of their campaign. What some people may not realize is that all council people have a right to speak the public, make their case for a proposed ordinance, state their positions on a particular subject, etc. The Mayor cannot gavel them down and silence them. The Mayor does not have the authority. However, the Mayor does have the authority to gavel down the public...which unfortunately, has been done all too often by Mayor Kennedy. I suspect that you are exactly right when you state that Mr. Kennedy lacks the sophistication and competence to engage the public in any sort of meaningful discourse. I don't think he is evil, just horribly inarticulate and incompetent. The taxpayers of this town deserve better. As far as Larry's paraphrasing of Mr. St. Amour's position that, "the people elected me to think and decide for them what is best for the community.", well, I find this a bit disturbing and alarming, if indeed its accurate. Mr. St. Amour is a bright guy, perhaps he misspoke or perhaps Larry misunderstood what he actually said. In any event, if Mr. St. Amour did say something like this or didn't, but thinks this, let me attempt to dispute this notion by saying that all of our elected officials are empowered by the people to carry out the people's agenda, not their own. Too often, we have seen the likes of the Formans, Chasey and others who place their own personal self interests ahead of their constituents. Its like these people have no idea as to what they are suppose to do and to whom they are beholden. We see this same mentality in our police force, to a large extent and we see it by the actions and inactions of our Mayor. Whether he is gaveling down a constituent to silence descent or he fails to oversee and provide much needed leadership in the police department, our Mayor continues to serve his own self-interests and in the process acts to disenfranchise, demoralize and disgust those officers on the force that actually serve our community as well as those citizens that care enough about our community to show up for town council meetings or view them on TV.

RESPONSE: The point you make here which seems lost on St Amour and Graebener … is that it is NOT a Mayor/Council form of government in Mullica…it is a Committee form of government. That means that the vast majority of decisions that are made need the consent of three of the five members. The position of Mayor in this form of government gives some minimum appointment powers and is the person who chairs the meeting. As the writer points out…the Mayor can gavel the public into silence, but cannot do so to other members of THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US.

The silence of the other four IDIOTS when the present Mayor, bill THE INVERTABRATE TOADY kennedy in his un-sophistication or intellectual inadequacies … actually, it is his CORRUPTION and lack of honesty and ethics…makes them coconspirators in these actions. Respectfully, I would think that one would want to distance oneself from that which seems to border on criminality.

Again, I remind all of what happened here; THE INVERTABRATE TOADY kennedy, apparently acting in the interests of his Svengali, the Mullica Chief of Police, joe THE LANDLORD barbera committed in the name of THE 5 IDIOTS to first give the newly hired Prosecutor, $$$ jeff THE PORCINE waldman $$$ at the expense of the Mullica taxpayers a pension and when it became evident that would not happen due to change in the State Pension Law that made it illegal…he apparently offered THE PORCINE waldman more money. These actions are at best unethical and seem more than questionable and possibly illegal…and the actions were done in the name of at least two other of the IDIOTS.

The public might wonder what is the quid pro quo … that at a time when Mullica taxpayers lose $207,000 from their budget as a result of cuts in State aid, someone is offering more money to an individual who is being paid and had accepted the position of Prosecutor for $7,100 … more money…HUH? That is $7,1000 to appear in Court for two half days a month…a total in hours worked of less than 12 days for the year. That is a damn handsome salary…even for a scum-bag lawyer. One finds it hard to believe that if THE PORCINE waldman refused -- after having agree to take the job to continue without more money…the Township could easily have found a more than competent replacement. Gee, we might have even found a Lawyer who knew that the State Pension Law had been changed and thus demonstrable more astute in terms of the Law, than THE PORCINE waldman.

Again, the public is left to wonder, what was the quid pro quo that THE LANDLORD & TOADY were getting here? We know THE TOADY kennedy is a cheap buy…that a polo shirt that says ‘Mullica Police Dept.’ will do. Can we expect to see THE TOADY kennedy sartorially decked out in a Mullica Police sweat shirt and a blazer embellished with a ‘MULLICA PROSECUTOR’ crest? How regal! Someone needs to tell the truth, THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES ON…and it is not a pretty sight. Or is it THE LANDLORD barbera who is the real player here who is getting something in return for manipulating the not very bright TOADY… into first making commitments he lacks the authority to make … and then dipping into the wallets of Mullica taxpayers yet deeper … all to assure the backroom quid pro quo? Again, ethical elected officials would want to distance themselves from this matter…one might hope. Silence makes one a co-conspirator.