Be Our Guest???

On Sunday January 3rd the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders held the county’s annual reorganization meeting and swearing in ceremony at the county seat in Elizabeth. Taking the oath of office that day were two of the stalwarts on the on the board, Al Mirabella and Deborah Scanlon as well as one new comer who’s name escapes me at the moment. Truth be told who he is not important as nothing will change anyway.

The newbie replaces long time freeholder, Chester Holmes of Rahway who opted to retire and not to serve another term. An attorney and actual county employee, the “new kid on the block” had to relinquish his day job in order to serve on the freeholder board and it is almost as though our tax dollars were used to train him about the “ins and outs” of manipulating county government before he took his place on the dais. One has to hand it to Charlotte DiFilippo the chair of the Union County Democratic Committee who it is said hand-picks the candidates herself for recognizing that the county personnel bench is deep with Dem party loyalists from which she can choose the best candidates just waiting there to be plucked. But is she actually robbing us of the brightest stars we have in our employ with county government when she summons them to do her bidding? Further, one has to wonder why someone would give up a decently paying job to be a freeholder pulling down only about $30,000 a year, we can only surmise that this individual has other sources of income leading us to ponder how busy he actually was at his “county tax payer funded job”. Or, is joining the Board of Chosen Freeholders at lesser pay better than no job at all?

Besides being the county chair of the Democratic committee Charlotte herself is also a county employee holding a position which was created just for her, Director of the Union County Improvement Authority. What started out as a part time job for DIFillippo’s predecessor blossomed into a full time gig with full benefits and is currently paying Charlotte $147,000 per year. Though we are not exactly certain what her job description entails we do know that it does not officially include that of mistress of ceremonies presiding over even the opening gavel of the county reorg meeting. When she stepped into this additional role went widely unnoticed however we are fairly certain that she did not perform these duties when there was a mixed board of Democrats as well as Republicans.

For the past several years the Republicans have stayed away from what could be referred to as a Democratic Love fest preferring to attend and participate in the swearing in of municipal level officials thus allowing the D’s to bill and coo at each other to their hearts content all the while heaping praise on Charlotte as though she walks on water. Even the state legislators, such as Assemblyman Joe Cryan and Senator Ray Lesniack appear to take a back seat to her as they watch and listen while the party loyalists take turns kissing her ring including the newly installed chairs of the board who sing DeFilippo’s praises in his/hers annual message to the county residents. However things changed a trifle this year because there were interlopers present in the audience as “Horrors!!” some Republican Legislators actually showed up.

Sixteen of 21 Union County Municipalities make up the 7th Congressional District, and these municipalities are actually those who’s residents bear the greatest county tax burden. The seventh is Represented by a new Republican congressman, The Hon. Leonard Lance who hails from Hunterdon County where the reorganizations of county government are presided over by a judge. As a show of support for his Union County constituents Lance attended the ceremony in Elizabeth that Sunday, also in attendance were state legislators from the 21st district. Republicans, Assemblyman Jon Bramnick and State Senator Tom Kean.

While the Republicans were all surprised to learn that Charlotte would be opening the first meeting of the year they in turn must have surprised her by even showing up and crashing the party that day because not prepared for proper introductions Charlotte simply announced “We have guests.”

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The following is DeFilippo’s guest list as it appears on the Union County Freeholder website included in the reorganization agenda, it is easy to see who was conspicuously missing:

Charlotte’s Expected Guest List

HONORED GUESTS
The Honorable Frank Pallone, 6th Congressional District
The Honorable Raymond J. Lesniak, New Jersey Senator, 20th District
The Honorable Annette Quijano, New Jersey Assemblywoman, 20th District
The Honorable Joseph Cryan, New Jersey Assemblyman, 20th District
The Honorable Nicholas P. Scutari, New Jersey Senator, 22nd District
The Honorable Jerry Green, New Jersey Assemblyman, 22nd District
The Honorable Linda Stender, New Jersey Assemblywoman, 22nd District
The Honorable Joanne Rajoppi, Union County Clerk
The Honorable Ralph G. Froehlich, Union County Sheriff
The Honorable James S. LaCorte, Union County Surrogate
The Honorable J. Christian Bollwage, Mayor, City of Elizabeth
The Honorable Colleen Mahr, Mayor, Borough of Fanwood
The Honorable Sharon Robinson-Briggs, Mayor, City of Plainfield
The Honorable James Kennedy, Mayor, City of Rahway
The Honorable Jamel Holley, Council President, Borough of Roselle

http://www.ucnj.org/freeholders/agendas/Reorganization%20Meeting%20010310.pdf

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