How Did We Get Here: Part 2

In Part One of “How Did We Get Here”, I looked at how the effort to change our government began. Now we'll get into how it was executed.

The Faulkner Act requires candidates seeking to become Charter Study Commissioners to submit a petition signed by at least 100 registered voters. That petition must be filed with the municipal clerk “not less than 60 days prior to the date of the election.” With the general election date set for November 2, 2021, potential candidates had to submit their petitions by September 3, 2021.

At this point, it should be obvious that virtually no Holmdel residents were aware of the Charter Study candidate process. Nobody sought volunteers from the public. And no communications were made by our political leaders. But, somehow, five politically-connected Holmdel residents knew exactly what to do. Between them, these five candidates were members of Holmdel’s Environmental Commission, Green Team, Planning Board, and Finance Advisory Committee. One serves as President of Preserve Holmdel. Another founded the Monmouth County Independents PAC and has run or advised numerous Holmdel political campaigns. Most also had working relationships with Mayor Buontempo, Deputy Mayor Santhana, former candidate Ron Emma, and former Deputy Mayor Nikolis.

The five future Commissioners worked closely together to collectively place themselves on the November ballot. They collected the same signatures, from the same people, at the same locations, and in many cases, the signatures were even in the same order. In fact, the final petitions that each candidate submitted to get on the ballot were virtually identical to each other.

How did it work? Let’s consider one example.

Commissioner Buffalino submitted a total of 149 signatures on his petition, which he submitted to the Holmdel clerk on August 30, 2021. Buffalino collected just 20 of those 149 signatures himself. His remaining 129 signatures were collected by others. Who were those others? Commissioner’s Berk, Gee, Gilstein, and Kastning, with a little help from three of their friends.

This was repeated for each of the remaining four Commissioners and they worked locations where they could harvest the most signatures rapidly, with just four Holmdel developments accounting for 50% of their signatures!

When you actually see the five identical candidate petitions side by side, it becomes obvious. The five commissioners urgently sought to work together, run together, and get elected together, so they could implement their shared political objectives. There were no other candidates and there were no independent voices to represent all of Holmdel’s voters. The fix was in.

With their candidate petitions submitted and certified, it was off to the November election races…

YOU MAY ASK YOURSELF, "WHERE DOES THAT HIGHWAY GO TO?"

The November 2, 2021 ballot was crowded. It featured gubernatorial, state, county, and Holmdel municipal races. It also featured the public question regarding the establishment of a Charter Study Commission and provided voters a chance to “vote” for five of the five candidates who somehow figured out how to get themselves onto the ballot.

Now, think back to that day. If you submitted a vote for the Charter Study question, did you truly understand what you were voting for? Most folks I’ve spoken to did not.

• Did anyone tell you about non-partisan elections?
• Did anyone tell you about voter initiatives and referendum?
• Did they mention anything about previously elected candidates losing their seats?
• How about roughly 75 appointed officials from Holmdel’s boards and committees being terminated if the form of government changed?
• Did you hear anything about 4-year mayoral terms?

You did not. But they and their collaborators knew about each and every one of these issues.

Voters approved the Charter Study Commission by a margin of 322 votes, with 3,222 residents voting yes and 2,900 voting no. Note, however, that the Charter Study Commission was approved by only 23% of Holmdel’s registered voters. This election clearly illustrates how small factions of motivated activists and voting blocs can impose their will upon a majority of residents, despite representing only a fraction of our population.

With the Charter Study question approved, the only five candidates who appeared on the ballot automatically became your Charter Study Commissioners! And they got right to work…

PLEASE BE SEATED. THE KANGAROO COURT IS IN SESSION…

Holmdel’s Charter Study Commission was officially formed on November 23, 2021. The five Commissioners were sworn in and officers were elected that day. At their next meeting, the Commissioners appointed Kevin Starkey, the municipal attorney for Tinton Falls mentioned in Part One, as their legal counsel.

The next three meetings were deemed “Phase I”, and Commissioners discussed the Township Committee form of Government with a series of invited guests.

But, virtually all of their hand-picked guests were allied with the obvious goals of the Charter Study Commissioners. And they were more than happy to vocally support those goals during their interviews, including directly electing the mayor, implementing non-partisan elections, and allowing voter initiative and referendum. Several shared their disdain for the Monmouth County Republican Organization. The list of friendly guests included: former Holmdel mayor Larry Fink, former Millstone Township mayor Nancy Grbelja, former Holmdel Deputy Mayor Michael Nikolis, Chairwoman Barbara Singer of the Holmdel Democratic County Committee, former Hazlet Township Committee member Scott Broschart, and former Holmdel Township Administrator Cherron Roundtree.

It was interesting to note that, like Holmdel, none of the three Townships discussed during Phase I of their process (Millstone Township, Hazlet, and Colts Neck) elect their own mayors, and none of them utilize non-partisan election structures. Yet, the Charter Study Commissioners wound up recommending that we do exactly the opposite of what these Townships are currently doing!

To wrap up their Phase I process, the Charter Study Commission hosted a “public comment” session on February 3, 2022. Fourteen members of the public spoke, and the Commissioners proudly proclaimed in their final report that almost all of the public comments echoed the same views as the Commission. But they neglected to mention that virtually all of those fourteen speakers were allies or supporters of the Commissioners. One commenter was the wife of a Commissioner. And six of the speakers signed all five candidate petitions for each of the five Commissioners! This was not some a random, independent group. While there is nothing wrong with having friends and family support the Commission, it is deceitful to Holmdel’s residents not to disclose it.

Tomorrow, during Part 3, we’ll walk through the final phase of their plan.