Politics & Government

Skibitsky and Brennan Spar Over Green Team Appointments

Council approves appointments by 7 - 1 vote.

The race for mayor took center stage at Tuesday evening's Town Council meeting as Democratic nominee Bill Brennan and Republican Mayor Andy Skibitsky debated appointments to the town's "Green Team," which were approved during the meeting.

The debate occurred when Brennan took to the podium to question Skibitsky's proposed appointments and ask about the qualifications of those on the list. The debate evolved into a partisan bickering match with Republicans siding with Skibitsky on the appointments and criticizing Brennan's arguments. Brennan and Republican Councilman Mark Ciarrocca had a brief debate over previous press reports of Brennan's remarks about Skibitsky's appointment process.

Brennan questioned whether the 15-person Green Team, which was established to oversee the town's environmental policy and participation in the Sustainable Jersey program, contained enough environmental policy experts. The group has representatives of various town boards, including the Board of Education, Board of Health, Board of Adjustment, Planning Board, Recreation Commission, Tree Preservation Commission, Downtown Westfield Corporation and Memorial Library. Three town employees, Town Administrator Jim Gildea, Town Engineer Kris McAloon and Town Planner Bill Drew are on the panel, along with Skibitsky. The panel also includes three members who are not representatives of any particular board in town. Brennan believes that the group should have more members who are not members of various boards appointed by the mayor.

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"They are people you have appointed to other boards or people you have control over," Brennan said during the meeting.

Brennan questioned Skibitsky about why a list of proposed names from Democratic Councilman Dave Haas was not used to form the team. He noted that Haas' team members included several with environmental backgrounds including a former staffer for the state Department of Environmental Protection and a former environmental policy staffer in Congress. Only one Green Team member, environmental consultant Tim Van Epp, appears on Haas' list. During last week's Council workshop meeting, Skibitsky said he was reviewing appointments, including names from Haas' list.

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Skibitsky said during Tuesday night's meeting that he had not seen the Haas list. Haas explained that the list was developed late last year as potential appointees to the proposed environmental commission and that he had provided the names to Gildea for forwarding to the mayor. Brennan also said that one of the members proposed by Haas, former Councilman Carl Salisbury, had informed Democrats that he had reached out to Skibitsky to serve.

"I have no recollection of Carl Salisbury reaching out to me on any issue," Skibitsky said.

Skibitsky explained that he made the appointments based on the criteria set by the Sustainable Jersey organization, which suggested appointees from the various groups from which he named representatives. He had said during a press availability after last week's workshop meeting that he was not naming Haas, who is seeking re-election, or another Council member because of the current election cycle, but would revisit the issue after November. He said he added the three non-board members based on environmental policy experience, calling them citizen representatives.

The term "citizen representative" became the first point of contention between Ciarrocca and Brennan, after Brennan questioned the appointment of what he deemed as "non-citizen representatives," which he later described as the board appointees. Skibitsky noted that all of his appointees, except for DWC Chairman Dominic Verdic, are Westfield residents.

"I'm really disturbed by some of the things I read that are attributed to Mr. Brennan followed up by who is a citizen and who is not a citizen," Ciarrocca said. "These are people who volunteer hundreds of hours. They serve as volunteers and to talk about them as they are members of a political establishment like other parts of New Jersey is frankly unfair and not right."

Ciarrocca was referring to a quote from Brennan in an article from Westfield Patch last week where the Democratic nominee said of the mayor's appointees, "he only appoints his own people." Ciarrocca referred to a characterization of the quote using the word "cronies." During Tuesday night's meeting, Brennan denied making any reference that could be characterized as the word crony. He accused Ciarrocca of making his comments to assist Skibitsky's reelection efforts.

"You are the campaign point person for the mayor," he said. "Don't get on your high horse."

When shown his comments from last week, which were made in an interview following the workshop meeting, Brennan agreed that he had said what was quoted. He indicated he would be calling Ciarrocca to apologize for how he could have thought he had used the word crony.

Brennan was not the only Democrat to raise objections to the Green Team appointments. Councilman Tom Bigosinski explained he would vote against the appointees, saying that while he had nothing against those on the list, he was concerned about receiving the list only hours before the meeting, without being given sufficient background information about the members. He also proposed that the Council delay the approval by two weeks to give Skibitsky time to consider the Haas appointees. Bigosinski, who is seeking re-election, was the only Council member to oppose the appointees with Haas joining his Republican colleagues to approve the members.

"I don't accuse the mayor for a second of being political," Bigosinski said when explaining his vote.

Democratic First Ward Council nominee Janice Siegel, who served on the committee which researched the environmental commission proposal, took to the podium after Brennan to remind the Council of why an environmental commission is a good goal, noting such a group would be more accountable than a Green Team by having legally open meetings and filing an annual report. The environmental commission issue has emerged as a key issue in the mayor's race.

Republican Council members expressed concerns about Siegel's statements about town environmental policy, which they interpreted as claiming that nothing is being done. Councilwoman Joann Neylan reiterated comments she made this summer, that the mayor has made the environment a top priority.

"Quite frankly I feel offended by the notion that nothing has been done," she said.

Other Republicans suggested that Brennan and Siegel have been making the issue too political and that they should stop campaigning during the meetings. Earlier this year, Brennan vowed to question the Council on a regular basis, saying at the time that he needed to do it because Skibitsky would agree to only one debate. This was the first meeting in months where Skibitsky directly answered Brennan during the Democrat's comment period.

"The time for politicizing this is over," Councilman Sal Caruana said. "It is getting very, very tiring."

While the meeting was dominated by the partisan debates on the make-up of the Green Team, Council members did agree the actual appointments were a benefit for the town.

"This is a tremendous step for, and a good step for, the town," Haas said.


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