South Orange BOT election

How was the forum? Read it was SRO. Can anyone give a review/recap?

Also - Carlos Estrella works for Carlos Estrella LLC which has the same address as the individual. Is there a way to find out what that company is? There doesn't seem to be any internet footprint.

OhHenry said:


How was the forum? Read it was SRO. Can anyone give a review/recap?

There was a very large crowd (standing room only) for the forum.  It is my understanding that it was videotaped and should be running on local cable in the next day or two.

Personally, I didn't think the format was nearly as effective as the Academy Heights forum which was closer to an actual debate.  The forum last night consisted of about 45 minutes with the 2 VP candidates and then about an hour with the 9 Trustee candidates.  They were all asked about 3 questions, which they were provided in advance, followed by about 3 questions that were chosen from questions submitted on index cards by the audience.

I'm sure VG will have an article up shortly.

ETA: For me, the 3 line C Candidates (Zuckerman, Coallier and Jones) presented the most informed and realistic answers and seem most qualified to represent the widest spectrum of residents and issues. 

I appreciated last night because I think I have decided about my trustee votes.  

Although the allotted time for each candidate was short, for both President and Trustee, I was able to get a sense of who each person is and what he/she might bring to the table.  As you might expect, everyone has the same perspective on South Orange issues: lower taxes, fix roads, educate the police, have affordable housing, figure out how to do shared services, manage development, etc.  By watching and listening to each person, I was able to make a solid decision on two Trustee candidates, with a toss-up between two more for my third vote.  It was a good session. 

I think it's worth noting how Sheena continued to take the high road throughout the forum, despite the barrage of negative mailers from DDF.  There was even one question asked to DDF about whether she would have a conflict working for the County if she was elected as VP.  DDF, yet again, inflated her position*, now equating herself to a Chief of Staff (she is the Clerk to the Freeholders) and of course deflected the question.  When Sheena was asked the same question, she had a big opportunity, but literally said she chose not to respond and to not disparage her opponent.

* There is nothing wrong with DDF being a Clerk, but at the prior forum she said she "managed a legislative body" and last night she said she was "equivalent to a Chief of Staff".  She's the Clerk to the Board of Freeholders - the equivalent to Robin Kline or Kevin Harris in the Village.  Nothing wrong with that, but stop over-inflating the role!

Here's the video from Somatv 

Thank you, Joy.  You perform an invaluable service to the community. 

The tactics employed by DDF in this campaign are very sleazy and dishonest.  I hope the South Orange voters respond that SOMA does not welcome this kind of campaign.

yahooyahoo said:
The tactics employed by DDF in this campaign are very sleazy and dishonest.  I hope the South Orange voters respond that SOMA does not welcome this kind of campaign.

Amen!

sac said:

yahooyahoo said:
The tactics employed by DDF in this campaign are very sleazy and dishonest.  I hope the South Orange voters respond that SOMA does not welcome this kind of campaign.

Amen!

Another mailer with blatant lies arrived today from DDF today.  This is the dirtiest campaign in the history of South Orange. DDF has the Joe. D. machine working for her and many voters only know what they have seen in the DDF mailers and been told at meet and greets. Many of us have lost all respect for DDF, but she doesn't care - she just wants to win. 

This is Sheena's response to the latest mailer: 

"Trustee Deborah Davis Ford, the consolidated fire department would have 14 firefighters responding to any issue in town... but you already know this. I’ve said this, every elected official from South Orange and Maplewood have said this and our valuable local press have refuted your scare tactics every step of the way. The politics of fear has no place in our community or anywhere else. Not to mention, the issue of staffing was discussed publicly over 18 months ago. What is going on here? You were at the meetings and our internal budget workshops on this subject matter where you know what you just mailed to every voter is a complete falsehood. Let’s have a real debate on real issues and not manufactured fear for the purposes of an election. I know you want to win (I do too!) but this is so wrong...

You’ve sat on the Public Safety Committee for over 10 years as an elected official and during your tenure many changes have been made in both police and fire to improve efficiencies, reduce cost and deliver better outcomes to our residents. Let’s focus on how we move forward as a community."

https://www.facebook.com/sheena.collum/posts/10101643977423129?comment_id=10101643996265369¬if_id=1556903117782596¬if_t=feed_comment_reply

cramer said:
Another mailer with blatant lies arrived today from DDF today.  This is the dirtiest campaign in the history of South Orange. DDF has the Joe. D. machine working for her and many voters only know what they have seen in the DDF mailers and been told at meet and greets. Many of us have lost all respect for DDF, but she doesn't care - she just wants to win. 
This is Sheena's response to the latest mailer: 
"Trustee Deborah Davis Ford, the consolidated fire department would have 14 firefighters responding to any issue in town... but you already know this. I’ve said this, every elected official from South Orange and Maplewood have said this and our valuable local press have refuted your scare tactics every step of the way. The politics of fear has no place in our community or anywhere else. Not to mention, the issue of staffing was discussed publicly over 18 months ago. What is going on here? You were at the meetings and our internal budget workshops on this subject matter where you know what you just mailed to every voter is a complete falsehood. Let’s have a real debate on real issues and not manufactured fear for the purposes of an election. I know you want to win (I do too!) but this is so wrong...
You’ve sat on the Public Safety Committee for over 10 years as an elected official and during your tenure many changes have been made in both police and fire to improve efficiencies, reduce cost and deliver better outcomes to our residents. Let’s focus on how we move forward as a community."

Just been told this guy is behind the negative mailings DDF has been sending out: http://www.lenoxconsulting.com/about/steve-lenox/ - a fee of $45K was also mentioned...

This is crazy for a local election!

louie said:
Just been told this guy is behind the negative mailings DDF has been sending out: http://www.lenoxconsulting.com/about/steve-lenox/ - a fee of $45K was also mentioned...
This is crazy for a local election!

Agreed...but just think of it as a move by the state fire union to show what it does to anyone who advocates for consolidation.  Lots of non-local money, seemingly being spent on her behalf rather than donated directly, so that it stays murky.  I never expected to see a dark money campaign in our small town.  Our local politics have become part of a larger game.

And I believe Lenox has some connection with the “NJ Globe” website, source of the “news” quote on DDF’s latest mailer.  Does anyone have investigative reporter contacts at the Star Ledger?  Heck, this might make a good small politics dirt story for the NYTimes (a girl can dream).

Imagine for a moment that this VP election was happening in Maplewood.   Regardless of the language in the third party merger report, does anyone believe that these outside forces (developers, unions, county) would be supporting the incumbent candidate?  

The point is that these outside forces have their own agenda, they are not supporting DDF.   

louie said:
Just been told this guy is behind the negative mailings DDF has been sending out: http://www.lenoxconsulting.com/about/steve-lenox/ - a fee of $45K was also mentioned...
This is crazy for a local election!

 He has a globe in his logo, the classic sign of not knowing much about local politics.

Thought Sheena did a great job at the library. Very professional of her to refuse to use an opportunity to criticize her opponent. In her shoes, I don't think I would have been able to resist at a minimum one passive aggressive comment. But hopefully she will have a long political career ahead of her so why squander good will for the satisfaction of disarming an opponent. Actually by taking the high road, I guess she did disarm her opponent.

 I've only picked 2 BOT candidates so far, from different slates. I can't help wondering if the 3 candidates that have attached themselves to the DDF slate, are in agreement with the negative advertising strategy. Unfortunately because they are selling themselves as part of the team, I'm reluctant to chose anyone from that group. So, my 3rd pick will be from one of the other 2 slates.

Red_Barchetta said:
Imagine for a moment that this VP election was happening in Maplewood.   Regardless of the language in the third party merger report, does anyone believe that these outside forces (developers, unions, county) would be supporting the incumbent candidate?  


The point is that these outside forces have their own agenda, they are not supporting DDF.   

 When public employee unions get involved in local politics, they are generally in favor of whichever candidates have promised them the best deal in their next contract.  This is not necessarily in line with the best deal for the local taxpayers.  Politicians have bought votes this way for years and years.  I hope the local voters can see through it.

The firefighters won't quit en-masse if Sheena is re-elected.  Their union just wants a different outcome.

Rob_Sandow said:
 When public employee unions get involved in local politics, they are generally in favor of whichever candidates have promised them the best deal in their next contract.  This is not necessarily in line with the best deal for the local taxpayers.  Politicians have bought votes this way for years and years.  I hope the local voters can see through it.

 Agreed.  And we should all understand that this is only the beginning of fights like this.  The unfortunate reality is that all of the low hanging cost savings fruit has been consumed.  Time will come when Police Departments will need to be merged.  And the mergers will extend beyond Maplewood which South Orange already has relationships, familiarity, and (dare I say it) some level of trust.  

The Steve Lenox connection is well-established. His firm does PR and consulting for FMBA NJ. He owns two TapInto franchises, Bayonne and Patterson and for one of them, he authored a sycophantic article about Fred Smith, who lives in Gaslight Commons, is the owner of the SOMA TapInto and is a member of the SOMA Chamber of Commerce. And that's just what is easily searchable on the web, surely there are more connections and motives.

Red_Barchetta said:
 Agreed.  And we should all understand that this is only the beginning of fights like this.  The unfortunate reality is that all of the low hanging cost savings fruit has been consumed.  Time will come when Police Departments will need to be merged.  And the mergers will extend beyond Maplewood which South Orange already has relationships, familiarity, and (dare I say it) some level of trust.  

 Completely agree.  In South Orange alone, last year we spent $500k on overtime. It's my understanding that eliminating much of this overtime is one of the main benefits of consolidation.  I also understand that this reduced spending will come out of the pockets of the firefighters. Especially with the increased taxes coming down the line from the new school bond, we have to be looking everywhere to eliminate inefficiencies in our local governments -- and this overtime pay is just one of them. The lost overtime will hurt the wallets of our firefighters, but it's been hurting the wallets of their neighbors for years. Something has to give. 

louie said:
Just been told this guy is behind the negative mailings DDF has been sending out: http://www.lenoxconsulting.com/about/steve-lenox/ - a fee of $45K was also mentioned...
This is crazy for a local election!

 Steve Lenox is a consultant to the NJ FMBA. The latest DDF mailer says "Want more info?  Visit sofirefacts.org. Sofirefacts.org says "Paid for by the NJ FMBA."  Lenox did the work on the website. In this way, DDF's financial disclosure forms on NJ ELEC won't have to disclose that payments were made to Lenox. 

This, plus the attempt to hide the contribution to DDF by the largest developer in town. That was just the last NJ ELEC reporting period. There will probably be more in the next reporting period, or most likely, the final reporting period which is after the election, so that it won't even be necessary to try to hide it. .

We've all heard of politicians that are bought and paid for. There couldn't be any clearer case of that than what is happening in South Orange. It's unbelievable - and disgusting. 

DEBORAH DAVIS FORD - BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

Here he is.

cramer said:
  
DEBORAH DAVIS FORD - BOUGHT AND PAID FOR
 

 ^^^This is the underlying theme of the campaign 

(In addition to - when you cant’t run on your record, you run on misinformation)

Building directory of 10 Ridgewood Rd. (not any kind of official document, note) shows Carlos Estrella living in apartment 101.

Apartment B1 belongs to Leon Bolieu, who may be completely unrelated to any of this. Unless the name means something to you. Nevertheless, that is the address listed on DDF's list of contributors.

ETA: (Estrella's address is listed as apartment B1 on DDF's form, not apartment 101.)

Grist for the mill, or red herring.

deleted because it was redundant

Well the sample ballot came yesterday. SOForward is the "A" line. Sheena by herself on "B".

I'm not sure that will matter in this election, but I'm guessing ballot position can give an edge. I think this is about Sheena getting enough supporters to the polls to counter the scare tactics from SOForward. As has been pointed out before I think the biggest threat to Sheena's reelection is a large group of people who don't know a lot about recent township governance. They could be swayed by the dishonest scare tactics and firefighters knocking on their doors to say the SO Fire Department is disappearing because of Sheena.

The last thing S.O. needs is another VP like Torpey.  
Please vote for Sheena.

yahooyahoo said:
The last thing S.O. needs is another VP like Torpey.  
Please vote for Sheena.

 And Torpey recently endorsed Sheena. 

jedben said:

yahooyahoo said:
The last thing S.O. needs is another VP like Torpey.  
Please vote for Sheena.

 And Torpey recently endorsed Sheena. 

I saw that.  Hopefully not the kiss of death.

It’s pretty interesting that of people that have worked directly with both Sheena and Deborah, they have all endorsed Sheena - Torpey, Karen Hilton, Walter Clarke, Vic DeLuca, as well as Doug Newman, who ran and served with Deborah, yet endorsed Sheena.