Thank goodness our council stopped him from privatizing. His attempt to demagogue won't be met with silence. The push to privatize everything is a terrible direction for us. We should find more ways to enhance the public sphere - not sell off all the parts for other people's profits. Bravo to the council!

Mayor Laforet mask's his low understanding for our townships operations with a blue ribbon panel who know's marginally more than he and can act as a scape goat for his unfortunately uneducated decisions.
To run an ad airing his disdain for the councils decision shows the mayor has no interest in reaching decisions together with the council. The vote from the council to not privatize the recycling department was not a "common response from the old guard when presented with doing things in a new way." It is called checks and balances. The councils decision was the right decision.
If what you say is true and "We are in a budget crisis," then why not release a public proposal with several avenues to save money starting with some of the largest budgetary items not starting at some of the smallest budget items (ie. volunteer EMS and the recycling department). I would have a lot more respect for Mr. Laforet if he acted like the business man he says he is. Develop a plan to save taxpayer dollars while maintaining the high level of services that encompasses all of the townships budget expenditures. Instead every few months he picks out one department from many to try and an look like a hero doing his job and saving the town minuscule money in the big picture.
Put your overwhelming public allegiance to the police department aside and start to save big money from the bigger departments.

I see not privatizing the recycling department as a win for the tax payer. Privatized town aspects such as this often end up costing the same or more when compared to the way they used to be, and the quality of work done goes down not up. Just take a look at Ramsey's water department. Bill Laforet never had my vote and he has certainly lost any hope of getting it, not only has he angered the council through his recent actions but i know several of his voters who want him out. He is ridiculous, has no experience, and frankly is a disgrace to the Township of Mahwah. His ad was unjust, the town council was doing their job based on their EXPERIENCE., Laforet makes these articles as a way of backing himself up due to his childishness and lack of experience.

Seems like the mayor just wants to create his own crisis where none existed before. We do NOT have a budget "crisis" as mentioned above. The 2% cap is not law. It's a Republican governor's fantasy. What is it, 74 more days to make your vote count?

I'm new to thinking about these things, so please forgive me if I'm rustling any feathers, but does anyone know what the budget is for the police? I heard they got $250K from Homeland Sec. Is that true? I for one notice so so many more police now than when I was growing up - and I wonder if they really need all those cameras now. I'm just asking if this has concerned any one else?

This isn't about the outsourcing issue as it is about the appropriate politcal process. You can certainly dissagree with the Mayor but his efforts in communicating to the public his disagreement and the rational for this initiative is appropriate and a good thing. TOO MANY TIMES we complain about leaders making decisions without adequate public view - there is NO PROBLEM seeing a leader push his opinions in a public forum. This isn't China. The opponents of the Mayor need to explain what they fear from the airing of public discourse on this. The council here in saying they were offended by the ad is odd and wrong.

Election time is nearing.

At least ordinary township people know what is actually going on in Mahwah now,
unlike before, where the powers that be just did whatever they wanted, and the townspeople found out about it later when it was too late. I appreciate knowing both sides of the story.

CENSORSHIP?? Seems like when you post here you now get a message "Pending Approval" before it gets posted. Last message has been pending over an hour and still not posted.

Hey Pete what was in your envelope from the "Mayor",you call him a leader,wake up and smell the roses Sir,you can't bully intelligent people that know all about your Mayor.

Lets see how many more things he will try to mess up before the election

In my opinion the Mayor posting this ad was very poor judgement on many levels. I was at the public meeting on this issue and there were numerous suggestions on how our town could create more revenue from our recycling dept. and how it was actually more cost effective to keep it as it is rather than privitize. (Case in point they used gas prices from 2006 for privatizing, but they use 2012 prices for the DPW to do it, which of course shows that his numbers were quite deceiving) In addition I couldn't help but notice that the Mayor didn't write down any notes on the ideas that the concerned citizens were making or even comment on them. (For example the amount of overtime for the police dept. in two weeks was almost $40,000..most of these DPW workers don't make that in a year) Mayor Laforet putting this ad out unfortunately shows me that he spent more time putting this ad together than he spent exploring the ideas that were presented to him, this to me is very worrisome and puzzling. Then again the citizens who made these valid suggestions probably weren't members of the "blue ribbon panel". Why is our Mayor so determined to cut jobs rather than exploring other options? Lastly the one comment that sticks out in my mind is when the Mayor said that privatizing the recycling was just a "matter of a different sticker being on the truck". Wow! Was he listening at all during the meeting? Thanks members of the council for doing the right thing. Is it November yet?

The next thing you know the mayor will try and get his kronies to run for council so that he "GOD" can dump his madates on our town and us as tax payers.

I never met the mayor or even heard of him before the election. I voted for DaPuzzo mainly because he was my kid's T Ball coach and he was a good guy in my book. After the domain issues and the Ambulance, the whole DPW thing with Roth....and now fighting with the council.....I just don't like the guy personally just from what I read and I still never met him...he is kind of creepy. Why didn't he just lay low until the election was over. No one would have known his personality and he would probably be re elected

Well, ref you are a soothsayer, Billy was seen handing out petitions from his gas station for 2 off his Blue Ribbon panel members. The same Blue Ribbon panel people who were volunteering their time for the town, Right!!!! Now guess what ladies and gentlemen these same people who were sacrificing their time want to be your new councilmen? Is it just me that finds this odd that Billy is now talking out of 2 sides of his mouth on this item too. Sounds like all he really wants is his Blue Ribbon Panel to be his new Council.

As for Billy's ad, it is just this person's opinion that Billy has been trying to buy this town. He has tried and tried to raise lots and lots of money so he can buy all the ads in the Villadom Times and Suburban News and the Patch. He is trying to limit Free Speech of the people along with his new henchman the former Chief Sam Alderisio with the ridiculous sign ordinance. When you see someone who is so willing to spend so much on a campaign, the big question that should be asked is why?The last politican in NJ who spent oodles of money to get elected in NJ was Jon Corzine. I ask you all how did that turn out? Billy is out for Billy not this town, his self-serving ads and his forcing Dan W. out of the race because he was a liability to his campaign tells you all you need to know about the man. If Billy gets his way we will soon be calling Mahwah, Billyville. People are starting to realize who the guy behind the phony smile really stands for, which is not much.

The numbers that the mayor used for recycling were so false. For example when the seven employees are gone during snow season the estimate was $11,000 to hire someone for plowing Fardale. Fardale has 33 miles of roads and the average snow season coat per mile of road is $5,800 using real math that is $191,400 not $11,000. The salary savings pee employee was $85,000 each once again a made up number it is more like $45,000 to $50,000. Lies and more lies.

Why do the 4 or 5 people who write on this Patch always want to be negative? I would love to hear why the Mayors opponent Mr. Sinclair should get my vote. I read everyday the things that the current Mayor is doing ( good or bad) so I would like to see an article on Mr Sinclair and what his plans are for the town. What would he do to get the budget under control. I know it would be hard for him to comment on the DPW since he is a DPW worker but we should know his ideas. Lets look at the merrits of a person and not have 5 people bully other people from a good debate. I think it's better to make a choice of who to vote for by listening to the person running then to listen to unnamed snipers who could be working for either campaign or DPW works looking to keep thier jobs by attacking the current Mayor to get people to vote for their fellow DPW worker Mr Sinclair. In closing please try and respect your fellow Patch readers and let them have open discussions with out feeling that they will be attacked for having an opinion. Also a note to Patch I think these polls should be more about what the people want in town like: What do you think the biggest issues will be over the next 4 years in Mahwah or Why did you choose to live in Mahwah? A. Low Taxes. B. The Parks. C. It's location to my work. D. The Schools.

Thanks Steven, this is what I think the patch forums should be more about not all the bashing from anonymous people. Are you running for mayor also?

I heard that Mr Sinclair had an idea to have the dpw do the towns regular garbage pickup along with recycling do you know if this is true? I think its a great idea for him to try and save peoples jobs and maybe even put a few more to work. If you know him please ask him to respond on Patch if he can.

Mr. Sabarra,where have you been the last 8 month's seem as soon as you take out a petition to run for council you show up with comments sir,just saying

Mayor Laforet's Ad Attacking the Twp Council ......Patch Poll
Was he wrong? 68%
Was he right? 25%
Other 5%

Not even close although the numbers were under 100. Just the same this is a continuing trend/poll results of bad choices.

Hey look. You worry about a mayor that is making waves. What do you want? A mayor that just makes believe all is right and just sweeps everything under the rug for the next guy in that office. If you don't like his proposals, do you job and counter propose. A monkey can sit back and just criticize. It takes a real person with a set and brains to come up with stuff to make things better.

Thank you Councilmen Williams, Larson and Roth. You had our backs and proved once again the trust we placed in you.

Hey looking good,why do you think we are trying to get rid of your Mayor,for all the reasons you suggested,no brains,no stuff,no set,oh and do you want anymore peanuts