Move against public safety director aimed at council’s Democratic majority. WRITTEN BY LISA MCCLAY, JOE PICARDI, RICK DELUCRY, TONY PULLELLA, AND FRANK KERN.
The most recent City Council meeting saw the defeat of an ordinance to immediately remove the position of public safety director from the City Code. This ordinance resulted from a petition signed by more than 500 registered Brigantine voters and will now proceed to a special election this spring.
It is our contention that the major motivating factor behind this move to remove the public safety director is an attempt to discredit the Democratic majority on council, along with a hardened resistance to change. Remember that the Public Safety Director position has existed for many years and was never contested while a Republican appointee held the position. These same attitudes were last displayed in the failed attempt to change the form of our government back to the old commissioner system. Again, there was never any attempt to challenge our council form of government while a Republican administration held power.
The position of public safety director gives the city a dedicated manager to deal with the challenge of introducing change aimed at maintaining our present level of public safety while reducing and controlling the unsupportable high costs associated with it. Without a public safety director at this time of intense focus, the city manager will have to deal directly, daily and even hourly with three large and complex departments who have to date dictated to the city. Members of these departments who have expressed themselves publicly have displayed a staunch resistance to needed changes.
We sincerely believe that we were elected to bring change to the way our city has been run in the past. We have instituted several changes already that have resulted in saving taxpayer dollars. We have worked hard to reduce the costs of Brigantine’s city government and we still face more challenges ahead, such as the large deficit of the golf course.
We have now seen two attempts by small groups of voters to overcome the results of the election that brought us to a Democratic majority on City Council. We need your support to continue forward or the city will fall back into the poor habits that have plagued us for so very long. We need you, all of you, to make the effort and to take the time to familiarize yourself with the issues and to vote in the upcoming special election to keep the position of public safety director.
Brigantine Democratic council members. Lisa McClay, Joe Picardi, Rick DeLucry, Tony Pullella, Frank Kern.