Friday, April 19, 2013
The mayor and members of the township council exchanged emotional statements Thursday night after the council moved to formally investigate a question surrounding police overtime expenditures in 2012
Local politicians’ emotions were on high Thursday night as council members made moves to start a formal investigation to try to determine who approved a police overtime policy change that cost Mahwah $500K last year. At recent council meetings, members have questioned who approved a policy change in January 2012 that required police officers to attend court proceedings on Tuesday nights for the tickets they write out. At past meetings, Police Chief Jim Batelli, Municipal Prosecutor Dennis Harraka, and Mayor Bill Laforet all denied approving the policy switch. The questioning was prompted by an increase in police overtime costs in 2012. According to township officials, OT in 2011 cost the township $327,000, and $514,000 in 2012. After …
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The township is considering upping recycling pick-up to once-a-week
Mahwah is in the middle of the 2013 budget season, which means the mayor and town council are in the middle of deciding which services the township will offer residents this year, and which it will not. Part of the mayor’s 2013 budget proposal is privatizing the township’s recycling department. According to Mayor Bill Laforet’s proposal, hiring a private company to pick up the township’s recycling would allow for pick-up to increase from every other week to once-a-week, and save the township money. While an in-depth discussion of the proposal has yet to happen in front of the township council, Councilman Roy Larsen suggested at a meeting last week that a better alternative might be to return garbage pick-up to twice-a-week year round. In …
Friday, January 11, 2013
Town Council will send letters to the Governor, President and other state and federal lawmakers urging the ban of guns like those used in recent school shootings
Mahwah lawmakers made clear Thursday night that they believe “military-style” weapons, like the ones used in the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting last month, should be illegal. The township council passed a resolution Thursday night instructing the township clerk to send a letter to President Barack Obama, Governor Chris Christie, and other state and federal lawmakers urging them to pass legislation that would ban the sale, possession and use of “military-style high-capacity automatic, and military-style semiautomatic” weapons. Township attorney Andy Fede said he drafted the resolution carefully after being asked by the township council to create a formal statement about its stance on control of high-capacity weapons. “There is a…
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sbarra beat newcomer Jonathan Marcus by 32 votes, county results certified Wednesday
By a margin of 32 votes, candidate Steve Sbarra will officially be sworn in to the third seat up for election on the Mahwah township council this year. Certified county election results posted Wednesday afternoon verified preliminary results gathered in the township on Election Day, when Sbarra led first-time council candidate Jonathan Marcus by 37 votes. According to the official results released by the Bergen County Clerk’s office Wednesday afternoon, which includes counts of the absentee and provisional ballots cast, 2,131 residents voted for Sbarra. 2,099 voted for Marcus. The two were battling for the third council seat up for election this year, vacated by retiring councilman Sam Alderisio. The other two open seats were easily won by…
Friday, September 7, 2012
Council upheld department decision to suspend the worker for two days with no pay at a grievance hearing Thursday night
The township council supported a decision made by the Director of the DPW to suspend one of his employees for two days this summer after the employee admitted cursing at the Mahwah Police Chief. The five council members present at a meeting Thursday night voted unanimously to uphold DPW Director Keith Hallissey’s punishment after seeing written explanations and hearing testimony from Hallissey, Chief Jim Batelli, and DPW employee Marc Bracciodieta about the incident, which happened July 16. Bracciodieta, a township Department of Public Works employee, spoke out at public meetings in July against a plan to privatize the township’s recycling department. According to testimony from Bracciodieta, he was confronted about his comments at that …
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Sports Clips owner will be vying for one of three seats up for election
Mahwah resident Steve Sbarra will be running for a spot on the township council this November, he confirmed Wednesday afternoon. Sbarra, who has lived in Mahwah for the past 20 years, spent the majority of his over 30-year career working as an executive at FedEx, and in the human resources departments of banking companies like Wachovia. Last year, Sbarra said he “left the corporate world to become a small business owner.” He opened a Sports Cuts location in Wyckoff’s Boulder Run Shopping Center. Sbarra made an unsuccessful run for one open town council seat last year, losing a head-to-head election against now Councilman Chuck Jandris. He said he wants to run for a spot on the council this year for many of the same reasons he wanted to run…
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Jonathan Marcus says he plans to emphasize the future during his campaign
A Ramapo College alum who says he plans to raise his family in Mahwah for “many years to come,” will be running for township council in November’s election. According to Jonathan Marcus, his petitions to run were filed last week. The Wyckoff native moved to Mahwah 14 years ago, after graduating from Ramapo College and Seton Hall Law School. “At first, I lived in Franklin Heights, and once I got married my wife, Tammy, and I knew we wanted to settle down and raise our family here,” Marcus said. “It has always been my dream to do that, and I’m so pleased I’ve been able to.” The family now lives in the Fardale section of town. Marcus, an in-house corporate attorney for a Big 4 accounting firm, has kept close ties with his undergraduate alma …
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
With less than a week to go until the filing deadline to run for government office in Mahwah, the field of council candidates is just taking shape
Councilwoman Lisa DiGiulio, who has served on Mahwah’s township council for the past 24 years, will seek reelection this November. So far, DiGiulio is one of only two council candidates to submit petitions to the township to officially run for a seat on the legislative body. “I just enjoy serving the people in this town,” DiGiulio said in a phone interview Tuesday night. “And, if they will let me, I’d like to continue to do it.” In her 24 years on the council, she has served as both president and vice president, a member of the township beautification committee, and a member of the Mahwah Ambulance Corps. DiGiulio said she has been involved in the planning stages of both national and local programs and facilities, ranging from DARE and the…
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Council didn't take action on a resident complaint; Patch wants to know your opinion
Is summer synonymous with sloppy piles of grass clippings lining Mahwah streets? At least one resident thinks it is, according to a discussion at last week’s town council meeting. The council considered a resident complaint about bags of grass clippings that line Mahwah streets from Saturdays, when many homeowners mow their lawns, through Mondays or later in the week when the bags get picked up. The council considered the resident’s request that a township ordinance be changed to disallow people from leaving grass bags out days in advance of their pick-up. Council members decided not to take action on the request, since only one complaint on the matter had been filed with town hall. “Is this a township-wide issue, or just an isolated …
Saturday, June 23, 2012
So far, four residents have picked up petitions to run for three spots on the town council
Mahwah Councilman John Roth will run for reelection this November, he announced in a release Friday. Roth has served on the township’s governing body since 2004, and will run for one of three council seats up for election this year. Roth, a retired international marketing executive, has lived in the township with his wife and two sons for 19 years. According to the release, Roth made the announcement at a campaign kickoff event earlier this month. “Public service is a way I can give back to the community that has given so much to me and my family,” he said in the release. “I find it rewarding and fulfilling to be of help to others by finding solutions to problems that help make our community a better place to live and ultimately make a …
Gottardo DiGiacopo
10:29 pm on Wednesday, April 24, 2013
J P i and others like me don't bow to abstracted phrases like "private capitalism" as if they're almighty absolutes that deserve our blind worship. Remember "greed is good"?, well i've always disagreed JP... and i'm also opposed to backroom dealings among the connected, and especially at the expense of my people and my peers. But i did get your didactic message fine sir; in this case i continue … more ›