During the public comment portion of Tuesday evening's meeting of the Westfield Town Council, resident Greg Kasko began by noting that his speaking time at the last meeting was cut short leaving him unable to thank Council members Keith Loughlin, Mark LoGrippo, Vicki Kimmins and David Haas for treating him with "decorum."
Kasko, who regularly attends Town Council meetings to question not only the midblock location of the pedestrian-activated HAWK light on Central Avenue but also to ask how the light ended up at that location, has had his credibility called into question by both Town Administrator Jim Gildea and Mayor Andrew Skibitsky in recent months.
On more than one occasion, Gildea has referred to Kasko as “a disgraced former police officer.”
“Half the things you say aren’t true,” Skibitsky told Kasko at the meeting held on Sept. 18. “Don’t you have any conscience?”
Wearing a black t-shirt that displayed the address of his website, The Fact of the Matter, Kasko addressed the Council, minus Skibitsky, whom Acting Mayor JoAnn Neylan said was stuck in traffic on his way home from a business trip, and LoGrippo.
"Town Administator Jim Gildea claims that I have no credibility with him or this Town Council," he said. "I am not interested in his opinion, I am interested in facts, as, Mayor, you should be, with facts."
Kasko then said when he presented a letter from the State Comptroller's office that contradicted a quote from Gildea, is it Gildea's credibility that should be questioned and not his own.
"He attacks the messenger in order to evade the message," Kasko said. "Mayor Skibitsky said the town is fortunate not to have me as a police officer since my retirement. It would seem that the mayor overlooks my entire career as a police officer before I made a complaint against his then-Chief of Police Bernard Tracy. It would then seem that he ignores the protection the law gives to what has been designated as the whistleblower."
Kasko continued by saying "Mayor Skibitsky's police department is so taken" with his credibility that a 30-plus-point questionnaire was created to determine, which, if any, officers had had contact with him and could have given him information that appears on his website. Every police officer and civilian employee of the Westfield Police Department was required to fill it out and sign it, he said.
"The questionnaire was worthy of Senator McCarthy and resulted in nothing except the reprimand of a police officer who had the misfortune to copy that questionnaire. The investigation was a waste of taxpayer money that funded it," he said.
Kasko said the town is so taken with his lack of credibility "that it leaned on its friends at the Union County Prosecutor's Office" to have him subpoenaed to divulge the sources of information for the content that appears on his website. Kasko said attorney John Blake, who has also appeared at past council meetings, "used his influence with the American Civil Liberties Union to obtain a withdrawal of that subpoena." Kasko offered to produce the letter that states as much and referred to the subpoenaing as another waste of taxpayer money.
Kasko went on to discuss safety and the HAWK light, saying that he has brought accident reports with him to council meetings to prove that accidents did not occur where the Town of Westfield's report said they did.
"Mayor Skibitsky keeps saying that the Town did not put the light on Central in front of Mrs. Enculescu's home. Yet the County Freeholders and the County Engineer have specifically stated that the Town of Westfield requested the location of the light midblock. When the County told the Town that its engineer's location of the light did not comply with the rules set forth in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, this council had the ability to relent and move the light back to the corner of Central and Clover. This council insisted that it be placed midblock," he said.
After stating that he has a copy of the letter sent from the county engineer to Enculescu, Kasko said, for the second time, "This is a fact on which the mayor's credibility will be judged, not mine."
Kasko said he intends to continue to come before the council with facts and figures and if the mayor can't disprove those facts, that is no reflection of Kasko's credibility.
"The mayor's opinion or any other opinion concerning my credibility is irrelevant unless you prove my facts to be wrong," Kasko said. "Please remember that at one time, the official teachings were that the world was flat and the Earth was the center of the universe. At the time, the Pope had declared Galileo a heretic and excommunicated him. Mayor Skibitsky has accused me at the last Town Council meeting of giving a revisionist version of history. I believe, in the mayor's opinion, the pope would still be right and Galileo a heretic."
You are correct that Kasko is not Galileo but Galileo was right and the mosy powerful agency in the then world could not make him wrong. The present question is not about a light. It is about the refusal of government to truthfully respond to facts.It is the actions of the government to stifle those who produce proof of facts the government wants to ignore. Why not ignore the question of a light and voice your opinion on a police department conducting a witch hunt to try and find a leak? What opinion do you have when a subpoena is issued to determine the source of information of an administration critic? Why don't you forget Mr.Kasko for a moment and turn your attention on the substance of the story that there is an effort being made to stifle criticism and a concerted effort to attack the messenger rather than the message. A.John Blake
where in my reply did I infer that Mark C was granted his judicial role because of the traffic light situation. But if this floats your boat, go for it
If you think that Ciarroca was appointed to the superior court based solely on merit you are as dumb as a teachers union head that thinks teachers deserve tenure solely based on years served. Ciarroca has political backing from politicians just like a teachers union rep has the backing of teachers.
I could not care less about the light on Central. A proper venue for bringing out facts that have been avoided is the venue where the evasion takes place. It is easy, inexpensive for all concerned and easily ended. If the council dealt only in complete facts or pointed out where the critic was factually incorrect, there would be no problem. The problem is not with the critic. the problem is with the officials who avoid the facts and attack the critic. Evasions repeated often do not gain veracity. Facts repeated often do not lose veracity. Does it become tedious ? Yes. Would you rather have short concise Council meetings where your elected officials are comfortable knowing that no one will question them? Don't you think that elected officials have a duty to give direct answers to factual questions? A.John Blake
There are few people who write in to this site with the bitterness and venom with which you try to deflect the argument.You sound like an advisor to the teachers' union attempting to avoid a defense of high teacher raises by claiming that everyone who is opposed is against children. Would you kindly put aside your insulting musings and pay attention to the real questions at hand. Should public servants answer factual criticism or be allowed to avoid answers by insulting the critic? If the Public is bored with the subject matter, why shouldn't the matter be put to rest by the elected officials who could answer the facts with facts? As you are probably aware, the Board of Ed was just taught a lesson concerning the manner in which they treated the voter on the subject of "necessity" vs. " desirable". They are now facing a population who looks askance at the previous "holy cow". The Bd. of Ed. is now going to have to regain whatever credibility it had and can no longer count on the public swallowing the Teacher Union Kool-Aid that " It's for the children". Please stop the invective by which you wish to deflect the argument and stay on point. A.John Blake
I do feel sorry for the union which might have you as an attorney. Your lack of knowledge is amazing. Your revisionist history of the notices concerning the light on Central is pure fiction. Concerning Mr. C's support from Nick Scutari,a Demodrat, you must have missed the law school class that taught the N.J. Bench must be evenly split between the two political parties. If Scutari wanted support for his Dem. nominees, he had to support the Rep. Nominee. It certainly sounds like you drank some of that Teacher Union Kool-Aid but reading your alleged facts, it must have been laced with an hallucinogen . A.John Blake
Eventually all of you will wake the sleeping natives. Sooner rather than later.
Busted!....
@Sick of Kasko. After nearly two decades with the Westfield Police Dept., Kasko RETIRED. He was NOT fired. Be sure to check out the movie "Serpico" with Al Pacino (Frank Serpico was a NYPD officer who wanted to do the best he can as a policeman. He decided to expose what he saw, but was then harassed and threatened by his colleagues within the NYPD). Granted, the Serpico/NYPD comparison is a bit extreme but there are definite similarities, on a smaller scale, to what happened with Kasko and the Westfield Police Dept. Where there is smoke, there is usually fire. Kasko writes of the smoke. You may agree/disagree with his opinions and/or his facts but better that those opinions and facts are out there. You can bury your head in the sand if you want but I have to think that there must be at least some truth (probably more than "some") to most of what he writes.