At last night’s first council meeting of 2013, Mayor McCarthy declared the long-awaited downtown redevelopment has officially begun, starting with the construction of the parking garage that is a central element of the project. He said the garage is due to be completed by the end of next month.
He also lauded the performance of the township departments during and after Superstorm Sandy, pointing out that the DPW had removed over 100 fallen trees, 25 of which had fallen on residents’ houses.
He thanked Municipal Clerk Louise Palagano for responding to numerous OPRA (Open Public Record Act) requests during the past year, some of which, he said, were made “for all the wrong reasons,” apparently referring to the many requests that had come in over the past months pertaining to the Health Department.
He praised the police and fire departments for their performance during the past year. In addition to responding to fires during the year, he said members of the fire department made 6800 visits to provide fire safety inspections and education to prevent future fires. The police responded to more than 25,000 calls for service, which translates to about 70 responses per day.
Each department was cited for various accomplishments, including the library, which served more than 240,000 people during 2012.
Referring to the tragic shooting in Newtown, CT, McCarthy said “we need to protect our children” and that there are school resource officers in both the Middle School and High School. In addition, he said officers had undergone two training sessions in 2012 to train them to respond appropriately to any attacks that might occur.
McCarthy finished by stating that the members of the governing body must work together for the betterment of the community, saying, “There is only one boss that we answer to, and that is the people of Bloomfield.”
A number of local political leaders were present at last night’s meeting, including State Senator Ronald Rice, Assemblyman Ralph Caputo and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, and Essex County Freeholders Brendon Gill and Rufus Johnson.
Anthony Nardiello is sworn in by Mayor McCarthy.
In other business, two new police officers, Glenn Capito and Anthony Nardiello, were sworn in, and Michael Sceurman was appointed to the Bloomfield Cultural Committee.
Councilman Bernard Hamilton read a proclamation declaring January 21, 2013 as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Mayor McCarthy read a proclamation designating January 11 as Human Trafficking Awareness day.
During the public comment period, Pat Gilleran reminded the mayor and council that she had submitted a list of alleged ethics violations made by the Health Department and the Bloomfield Animal Shelter and asked if they had read them yet. Mayor McCarthy said they had not yet investigated the concerns. Gilleran also urged the council not to allow the Board of Health to avoid New Jersey “pay to play” rules by turning management of the animal shelter over to the nonprofit organization, Neighbor to Neighbor Network, without a public RFP. The BOH had voted to turn over shelter management to the NTNN at their December meeting.
The next meeting of the Bloomfield Council will be a conference meeting to be held in the second floor conference room in the Law Enforcement Building at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 14, 2013.
It takes true bravery to stand before the public and cite accomplishments. Any a$$hole can tell self-deprecating jokes.
OPRA requests made for all the wrong reasons Mr. Mayor? Really? Care to elaborate? When faced with the lack of transparency by the government that we tax payers deal with every day, not to mention the (I’ll be kind) misinformation spewed by some department heads on a regular basis, what recourse do concerned, informed and interested taxpayers have other than OPRA?
As for answering to the people of Bloomfield, I beg to differ. This morning I received confirmation that your secretary finally(maybe) read over 10 emails sent to your office over the last few months. Is that you you call ‘answering to the people of Bloomfield’? You have consistently turned a deaf eye and ear to what the taxpaying residents want on a number of issues for all 4 of your unfortunate administrations. Who do you think you’re kidding? Not those of us who are paying close attention.
If Mr Hamilton had not declared Jan 21 MLK Day would it not have been celebrated?
Who is the Mayor or anyone to considered the motivation behind Open Public Record Act requests? Seems like they were requested as part of the whole “Open” part in the title and they need to be respected and the information provided.
When your enemies stop hissing, you’ll know you’re slipping.
Did you know that you can OPRA the list of OPRA requests. I did and so I have OPRA’d the list. This should be interesting…anyone want a copy. I figure we can see what people are asking for and demand that it be placed on the township website
Black History Month was not celebrated in Bloomfield last year. There was no proclamation- it was never put on the agenda and so it didn’t happen.
Funny Pat