From The Sidelines: Time For The People to Elect Their Own Mayor

The Charter of Montville Township allows the five Township Committee people to choose one of their own to be the chairperson, now commonly called the "Mayor of Montville Township." The charter doesn't use the term mayor. The charter also says that the only power of that person is to bang the gavel at meetings.

The charter requires that all decisions be made as a body and gives the "Mayor" no particular extra weight. So why have the Republicans, time and time again, blocked an elected mayor and not allowed the voters of Montville Township to elect a person of their choosing ?

What is it about that position that causes the five to negotiate deals in the back room away from the public eye for the purpose of being selected. It becomes essentially a swap meet about one person wanting the position and what they will give to get two more people to vote for them.          

This past year, for anyone who was paying attention, Jim Sandham had a 4-1 majority against him at what committeeman Gallopo called a straw poll and yet on reorganization day the vote was 5-0 to choose him as mayor.   

How did that happen? Tim Braden has now revealed in a letter that he had a meeting with Mr. Sandham and asked him to change his behavior and Sandham agreed. What other promises were made?

Now Sandham has asked Art Daughtry to come out of a self imposed retirement to help him defeat Braden's favored candidate, . Sandham stated that he didn't know her very well when he ran with her (twice) and voted for her to be mayor. It seems that, Ronald Reagan's eleventh commandment be darned, he says her behavior is bad and warrants her replacement presumably by someone who will agree with him all the time.   

This matter of who is mayor is never about good government. For years I was able to be the deciding vote because of this particular fight and, in fact, I was even offered the position myself as a lone Democrat, because two Republicans wanted to keep another from being mayor.

If they thought I was going to jump at being mayor and give up my position as an independent Democrat they were wrong. Besides, why would the only Democrat want to sit there and run meetings with four people trying to defeat him? No, I liked my position of not being run by party politics.

It is time now to end this farce and let the people of Montville elect their own mayor.