Your vote this November has never been this important...

When I envision most politicians speaking, I often laugh at the fact that they never (actually) say anything. They speak in circles and with a lot of energy, typically resulting in thunderous applause! A few years back, I was binge watching an old NBC TV show, 30 Rock, and in one episode, Queen Latifah played a Congresswoman, campaigning for her candidacy. I literally hit the floor from how fantastically perfect and hysterical this episode was in depicting the nonsense, politicians spew, 99.999% of the time.

But there is also another reason political candidates spew such nonsense...they have no idea what they're talking about. I was reminded of this fact after watching both Susan Steinberg and Vicky Galow speak before the Town Council a few weeks ago.

Both running for Town council, these two candidates were likely attempting to impress Mahwah's residents. Well, here were my takeaways. They both-

1. lacked even the most fundamental understanding or knowledge as to the differences between the Town Council's and Administration's responsibilities.
2. failed to execute any amount of legitimate research to prove their arguments.
3. were seeking for a 'gotcha' moment where they could gain political ground. In attempting this, they fell flat.
4. pushed their way to the front of the line to speak before the Council, in a way that was reminiscent of Veruca Salt trying to make it to the gate at the Wonka factory before anyone else. Selfless people care about having a voice but do not insist on being the first to be heard.

I have since visited their official campaign website, makemahwahstronger.com, and learned a lot more about these two candidates. First and foremost, the biggest warning came when Laforet began to put his name behind them. Laforet has used this tactic before where all he is really doing is helping himself achieve his ulterior motives. In 2016, he pushed Wong to run for Mayor only because he knew it would help him take votes away from Roth (Laforet beat Roth by 92 votes, with 2,531 votes going to Wong). In this case, Laforet only wants Steinberg and Galow to get elected so he can have two puppets on the Town council. This would bring the Mayor, Todd Sherer, and everyone else in that crew, one step closer to achieving the demands that have been bestowed on them by their bankrollers.

Steinberg and Galow either know the reality of their situation and don't care or are just flagrantly naive. Based on what they said at the Council meeting and have written on their website, I'm not really sure if it isn't the latter.

Let's start with their slogan- "Mahwah is a great town - let's make it even stronger! Transparency. Integrity. Service." Hello Queen Latifah! This literally, tells us nothing. There's a term in entrepreneurship called Unique Value Proposition, defined as, "a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer, how you solve your customer's needs and what distinguishes you from the competition(1)." There are no benefits listed here...just buzzwords with zero substance.

In the News section of their site, they have one headline that reads, "Women Run for Mahwah Council." I'm sorry but this is a prime example of what we are fighting against, in Mahwah. Do I think we need more women on the Council? No. I think we need qualified, honest, dedicated, focused, hard-working leaders who have our best interests at heart, on our Council. People who aren't bought and sold to the highest bidder. Whether they are black, blue, green, male, female, gay, straight...I could not possibly care less. And with that, I don't see a single example that would lead me to believe either of these two candidates are qualified to earn a spot on our Town Council.

"About Susan"

Susan states "I am a smart, determined woman who gets things done by discovering opportunities, setting goals, developing action plans, and working hard to execute those plans." Susan has certainly worked with some great organizations, including the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, has supported the Drama Booster, and I applaud that. But she doesn't cite a single example that would qualify her for Town Council.

In the Why I'm Running section, Steinberg discusses her belief that Mahwah's government needs more "transparency" and man...I couldn't agree more. The problem is that the examples she cites ignores the fact that it is within the Administration where more transparency is needed. Instead, she states, "Despite years of public demand, our council has not prioritized open communication with residents in its budget. It has not allocated resources to fund the televising of council and committee meetings, nor to maintain a user-friendly town website that is always up-to-date." For someone who cares about transparency and integrity, it is rather concerning that she would make such an assertion when, in fact, both Steinberg and Galow attended a meeting together, with the Town Council, where it was explained to them that it is the Business Administrator's job, who, by the way, works as part of the Administration- not the Council, to get quotes on the equipment and other requirements to facilitate the airing of Council meetings on TV. Further, the primary reason they aren't yet airing these meetings is because there is a pending payment coming from Cablevision this year back to our town. Both the Administration and Town Council agreed it was worth waiting for these dollars to pay for this rather than force the tax payers to foot the bill- Steinberg and Galow knew this already, as well. Steinberg, nonetheless, proceeded to write what she did on her website. Let's also add the point that while the Council does retain the authority to reallocate funds, budgets are created and set by the Administration. To make statements, such as "our council has not prioritized open communication with residents in its budget" and "not allocated resources to fund the televising of council and committee meetings..." is, at a minimum, misleading.

Steinberg continues by stating "when a broad range of interested parties are included in the decision-making process, we all benefit from better ideas and more effective plans." First...this isn't always true. Sometimes, you have corrupt politicians in the way, protecting their interests and those of their 'owners' thus making their involvement a complete burden. Second, she states that we benefit from better ideas and more effective plans, yet, hasn't cited any of her own.

In the Smart Spending section, Steinberg, again, makes statements without sharing a single proposed solution. In the Community participation section, she shares an observation that is fair but reflects an utter disregard for prioritizing the needs of our community. Volunteering is great. We also have the MMA, which functions on its own. If she wants to expand volunteering, she can become a member of their Board. Despite, again, not sharing a single, actual idea or potential solution, she then states, in the section titled, Guard against overdevelopment[sic] a whole bunch of nonsense without addressing the actual problem we're facing- corruption in the town's Administration.

"About Vicky"

I will admit, Gallow's profile is less concerning. However, the fact that she has been endorsed by Laforet and working with Steinberg, means there is no chance I can trust her. I will chalk up anything I liked about her profile as nothing more than her knowing the 'right' things to include. She stated "we need to increase access to the process of government and provide more information about the issues being considered by our elected representatives." There is nothing, necessarily, wrong with this statement...except that when I saw her approach the microphone at a Council meeting, she lacked even the most fundamental understanding of the Council's process. She's running for Council...that's a bit odd to me. Why would you run for something and not know what it is you would need to be doing?

I could write more but the fact is, nothing more is really needed. Simply stated, Laforet's support for these two candidates tells me everything I need to know.

In this year's election, we must put partisanship aside. We must come together and understand that honesty and integrity must come before anything else, in my view. Please try and get registered voters to remember to vote and to be certain to NOT choose either of these, Laforet pawns.

Please also consider printing this article and sharing it with someone who might not be online.

Thanks!

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