As The Township Turns

In the latest episode of the soap opera known as 'As the Township Turns", I got another piece of smear mail today ... the one I had heard last week was coming, and to which I've already responded in a mailer that dropped over the weekend.  Honestly, people, I didn't start this nonsense, but when attacked I will finish it. One only gets one reputation, and over the years I have been diligent in defending myself. This race has been no exception.

While it claims that I am saying anything to scare voters, this piece from opponent Sorgini claims all kinds of outrageous things, many of which were raised and responded to in the Spring before I won the primary.

To me, the most ridiculous ones - again ,from someone who never attended so much as one meeting or hearing that I participated in during all my years of service, so he has no personal knowledge as to whether what he's being told is true - were Sorgini's claims regarding the Zoning Hearing Board (ZHB), including that 'she exceeded her budget'.

While I served 5 years, and chaired for two, the ZHB has no budget to exceed (in any municipality). The ZHB cannot control who files challenges to ordinances passed by the supervisors, nor can it control who appeals their decisions. The Township is obligated to pay the ZHB's legal bills, whatever they are, and the individual zoning members have absolutely no control over nor say in how much is allocated or spent on conducting its business. It didn't help that our current supervisors' chairman saw fit to cause the Township to sue his own ZHB several times to help his political friends. We can't control that either.

There was also never a time I "voted" not to allow residents to speak. Questions from the public, and public comment periods, are by law a part of every public hearing conducted by any municipal board. The mailer doesn't even reference with any specificity within which  of dozens of hearings this allegedly occured. 

The rest is pure nonsense, again put forth by someone with no personal knowledge and who either doesn't understand legal process, evidentiary rules, when a party is considered to have standing or not,  or how municipal meetings and hearings are conducted, or is intentionally bending the facts to mislead voters. Either way, they're not qualities you want in your leaders.

The information we put forth about the landfill was fact checked by an MCRC attorney, appeared on the supervisors' most recent agenda  (for Nov. 3), and I stand by what it said. 

Curiously, that same meeting on which the landfill topic appeared was inexplicably canceled at the last minute. I can't remember the last time that happened, if ever, and it couldn't have been because they didn't have a quorum, because three of the five supervisors were seen by me and my family having dinner at a restaurant we were at, that same evening, during the time the meeting would have been in session. Things that make you go "hmmm"... perhaps they wanted to wait until after the election?

I have always been diligent about making my personal phone numbers available. Residents with legitimate questions are always welcome to contact me to get all sides of an issue. Otherwise, the nonsense on this mailer belongs in the circular file.