Local News

‘Unusual’ State Senate Debate Between One-Time Running Mates Reveals Where Addiego and Stanfield No Longer See Eye-to-Eye

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD—An “unusual” 8th Legislative District debate between a Democrat and a Republican who were once running mates, the result of threeterm state Senator Dawn Marie Addiego (also a former eight-year freeholder and two-year assemblywoman) deserting the GOP in 2019 for the Democratic party and now being challenged by Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield, a former 18-year GOP sheriff in Burlington County, played out on the evening of Oct. 24.

The 9 p.m. Sunday night, all-virtual oneon-one debate between the state Senate candidates in a district of some 220,000 residents with 175,000 individuals who are of voting age, was the only one in the state’s “most competitive” and “maybe most expensive” race of the 2021 election cycle, according to lead debate moderator David Wildstein, editor of the New Jersey Globe, which hosted the event.

Decision to Switch Parties

It was the elephant in the room and the first topic tackled.

And Addiego had no choice but to confront questions head-on about her January 2019 decision to part ways with the GOP and become a Democrat.

“I wanted to have a seat at the table,” she said of the reason behind her decision, given that Democrats are currently in control of all three branches of state government.

Addiego added another reason for making the switch was that “let’s face it,” the makeup of the district and state “has changed.”

“My constituency has changed,” she maintained. “And I think I can better serve my constituents as a Democrat. I have proven that.”

By now having a seat at the table, according to the state Senator, she has not only been able to get “increased property tax freezes and retirement deductions for seniors,” but also more aid for local school districts that saw it reduced through a revised school funding formula (implemented by Senate Bill S-2, signed into law by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy). It has also allowed her, she said, to “fight the governor” to give up “bridge money for children with special needs who aged out in schools because of COVID.”

“I think I did the right thing for the people and that is all I can do,” declared Addiego of her decision to leave the GOP.

Stanfield, however, called the state Senator’s decision to switch parties “reprehensible.”

“She gave a seat away that wasn’t really hers to give away,” Stanfield maintained. “It belongs to the supporters and the people who helped get her there. And the people who voted for her.”

Addiego’s “change in values,” according to Stanfield, is what compelled her to come out of retirement and “jump in” to the Assembly race in 2019 with Assemblyman Ryan Peters, who was a running mate of Addiego’s on the district GOP slate in 2017 and purportedly did not receive any advance notice of the state Senator’s decision to part ways with the GOP prior to it being announced.

“She also left one of my heroes, Assemblyman Ryan Peters, a Navy Seal, high and dry,” Stanfield pointed out.

As for Addiego “‘wanting a seat at the table,’” Stanfield called that “very ironic” considering “time-after-time the state Senator doesn’t vote,” pointing to bills such as one that banned the use of plastic bags beginning in 2022 as an example.

But the most “disturbing” of the state Senator’s decisions to not vote, according to the assemblywoman, was one for a bill that had made it illegal for police officers to notify parents that a juvenile belonging to them was caught in possession of marijuana or alcohol (see separate story).

The state Senator, in response, accused Stanfield of “misleading” the electorate “because it was my legislation that I coprimed that required police officers to notify parents when their children were caught with drugs or alcohol.”

But Stanfield countered that Addiego was a major sponsor of a cleanup bill “to cure the embarrassment she caused to begin with.”

“She’s lying!” declared Addiego, maintaining there were procedural requirements that had to be followed.

Addiego, during her opening statement, maintained that she was an “independent voice for South Jersey,” who is “unafraid to stand up to any party’s leadership.”

“I put the needs of my constituents first,” she maintained.

School Masking Mandates

When it comes to masking kids in schools due to the Coronavirus pandemic, as is currently mandated by Murphy through a highly controversial executive order, Addiego said she “supports whatever the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says we should do.”

“We have done well as a state by following the CDC,” the state Senator contended. “If the CDC says we should do it, I think we should. If the CDC says we don’t have to, I certainly would support that as well.”

Stanfield, however, retorted that “the parents need to make these choices for their children.” She suggested that masking was not necessary for the teenagers in high school who have already been vaccinated.

“We need to start using commonsense and empowering parents again,” Stanfield asserted. “My child is my choice … I don’t want someone else telling me what to do with my child.”

State Aid Cuts to Schools

Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, co-moderating the debate with Wildstein, pointed out that half the districts in the 8th District received increased school funding under the revised school funding formula, while “half of them have lost it (aid) by double digits.”

Addiego, in response, was quick to point out that she “did not vote for S-2.”

“I don’t want to hurt any school that benefited from S-2,” she declared. “I just think we need to do it fairly and we need to relook at it.”

The state Senator called for the school funding formula to be “reviewed more often” and maintained she has proposed legislation to create a “task force” to conduct such reviews.

Stanfield noted that she and Peters also submitted a bill to review the school funding formula, claiming that was done “way before” the state Senator submitted one.

She noted that a “pause” on the funding cuts was requested by the 8th District GOP delegation because they felt Murphy could have used federal COVID relief monies to avert having to cut aid.

“He just turned a deaf ear,” Stanfield maintained. “Everything that could be done hasn’t been done for our schools.”

Addiego pointed out that Stanfield “voted twice against passing the state budget,” which contained the school funding, but Stanfield countered that the budget was full of “wasteful spending.”

“Yes, there were some good parts to it,” Stanfield said. “But there were some parts of See DEBATE/ Page 8

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Candidates for Position Explain Its Role Often Mistaken for Another

Photo By Thomas Valentino

GOP surrogate candidate Deborah BuzbyCope, mayor of Bass River Township, explains that she would like to educate people on the importance of having a will.

Photo By Thomas Valentino

Democratic surrogate candidate Brian J. Carlin, mayor of Burlington Township, points out he has written over 750 wills during his some 35-year law career.

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

SOUTHAMPTON—Control of the Burlington County Surrogate’s Office, with the top, elected post in it currently vacant, is up for grabs on Nov. 2.

Up until the resignation about a year ago of Mary Ann O’Brien, a Medford attorney elected county surrogate in 2016, the post had been the last one in county government that remained under Republican control after Democrats previously swept races for county commissioner and sheriff.

O’Brien, according to Burlington County Spokesman David Levinsky, was confirmed as a Superior Court judge after Democratic Governor Phil Murphy nominated her for the judgeship. Her nomination was then confirmed by the state Senate last October, and she had to resign immediately from the surrogate post upon her confirmation.

“Only Gov. Murphy has the authority to appoint an acting surrogate and he has not done so,” Levinsky told this newspaper on Oct. 26. “This year’s election will be for a full term.”

According to the website of the county surrogate’s office, Deputy Surrogate Bonnie Nutt Madara is currently leading the office.

And as GOP surrogate candidate Deborah Buzby-Cope pointed out during a LeisureTowne Candidates Forum on Oct. 20, the position of county surrogate is not one where “you are carrying a baby for somebody,” which she said is often the biggest misconception about the post given it is confused with being a “surrogate mother,” but rather one that handles “estates, trusts, adoptions, guardianships and the probating of wills.”

“A lot of people, when I am talking to folks, they have no idea what a surrogate does,” she said. “When somebody passes away, folks would come to that office.”

And for that reason, according to Democratic surrogate candidate Brian J. Carlin, “while you have to carry out the judicial function” of the position, you also “have to be sympathetic and empathetic.”

“And you have to handle people in every different way,” he said of the circumstances that often present themselves given the range of emotions people experience during the handling of such delicate matters by the surrogate, who under state law, serves as a constitutional officer.

The surrogate is empowered to qualify executors and trustees named in wills, to appoint administrators for those who die without wills, and to appoint guardians for minors and legally incapacitated persons, according to state administrative code.

The surrogate, it states, is also responsible for overseeing the procedure in contested estate matters, in the declaration of incapacitation, in appointment of guardians, and in the granting of adoptions in the Superior Court.

Carlin, a 35-year attorney who practices law in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, told forum attendees he has written more than 750 wills over the course of his legal career.

“I never had one turned away by a surrogate or register of wills office when they have been taken for probate,” Carlin contended.

See SURROGATE/ Page 14

Lieutenant Governor Candidate Makes Appearance in LeisureTowne, Criticizing Murphy for Long-Term Care Deaths, Early Prisoner Release

Burlington County Favorite Diane Allen Says Government Should Be ‘of the People, by the People, and for the People,’ Not ‘for Murphy’

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

SOUTHAMPTON—There was only one moment during the LeisureTowne Candidates Forum on Oct. 20 – in one of the largest retirement communities in Burlington County, with a sizable veteran population – that provoked loud clapping from the audience during an attending candidate’s stump speech (besides when a candidate for local school board declared she was fighting for parents to have a seat at the table in student decisions).

And that was when Diane Allen, GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, a former prominent state Senator from Burlington County who came to power after a career in television news, and served stints as majority whip and deputy minority leader during her legislative tenure, pointed out that the “federal government is “looking into what went on,” or is investigating the deaths of some 8,000 people at nursing homes and veteran homes statewide during the past 18 months of the Coronavirus pandemic, all of which were attributed to COVID-19 complications.

The audience’s reaction signified why the topic, as another statewide media outlet put it, is central in Democratic Governor Phil Murphy’s fight for re-election, with more than 40 percent of the Coronavirus deaths in the state tied to the long-term care settings.

“COVID patients were put in nursing homes and veteran homes, and 8,000 people died,” Allen said. “And here is the thing, he was told by folks who run the nursing homes that people will die. We have recordings of those telephone conversations. People died and he did it anyway.”

Allen, running mate to Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, was referring to a conference call in which a nursing home operator warned state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli that “people will die” if long-term care facilities are forced to comply with her controversial March 31, 2020, memorandum directive.

That directive stipulated, “No patient/ resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the post-acute care setting solely based on a confirmed diagnosis of COVID 19.”

“Persons under investigation for COVID-19, who have undergone testing in the hospital, shall not be discharged until the results are available,” it added. “Post-acute care facilities are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized patient/resident, who is determined medically stable, to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”

Allen, during the LeisureTowne forum, maintained that, “If someone says, ‘people will die,’ to her or Ciattarelli, “you better believe we will listen to that.”

Persichilli has since maintained state health department officials were “able to do as best we could” and that they “were very clear that the facilities could only readmit residents if they could separate them from other residents, maintain proper infection control and had sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) and staffing.”

Murphy, pressed repeatedly by reporters about the directive on a number of occassions, has also contended state health officials ordered patients to be separated on “their own floor, their own wing, their own building, and staff as well,” adding that the instructions given were “explicit, black-and-white.” He also has maintained that nursing home operators were told that if they can’t separate patients, “come to us and we’ll find another alternative,” with “many” doing just that.

“If they didn’t take our advice, they deserve to pay a price for that,” Murphy has said.

Allen, during the LeisureTowne forum, also took issue with another Murphy administration directive, which released some 3,000 prisoners beginning in November of last year as part of the governor’s COVID-19 prison initiative to help protect inmates from contracting the contagion in a confined setting.

Statewide media outlets have since reported on several instances in which

Photo By Thomas Valentino

Diane Allen, GOP candidate for lieutenant governor and a former prominent state Senator from the 7th Legislative District, discusses how New Jersey is broken and her and her running mate’s plan to fix it.

See ALLEN/ Page 10

Proposal to Merge School Systems of 4 Towns into New District Projected to Save Taxpayers $2.4 Million Annually

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

LITTLE EGG HARBOR—A feasibility study of a proposal to consolidate all the existing schools in the four communities served by the Pinelands Regional High School District into a comprehensive new district that would encompass pre-K classes through 12th grade has culminated in a recommendation that moves toward such total regionalization.

The proposed merger could have substantial advantages for both residents of the districts affected and the school systems at issue, according to the extensive analysis performed by the Morristown-based law firm of Porzio Bromberg & Newman and three professional consultants who took part in a special meeting to announce the results on Oct. 18.

But perhaps the biggest benefit, as explained by financial expert Steven Cea, would be an estimated annual collective savings of approximately $2.4 million for the taxpayers of Little Egg Harbor, Bass River and Eagleswood townships and the Borough of Tuckerton, based on a 100 percent equalized property value formula rather than one involving enrollment figures.

Combining the five school districts (Bass River, Eagleswood, Tuckerton, Little Egg Harbor, and Pinelands Regional) into a single entity, which would be contingent on first getting the approval of the elected officials of the communities involved and then their voters via a special referendum, could also expand their access to resources that aren’t now available to them, noted former state Education Commissioner Richard C. Espey, one of the consultants on the study, the results of which have been summarized in a 160-page report.

While praising the job local districts have done in educating students with the resources available to them, Espey, who participated in the session remotely, maintained that “there is a limit to what you can accomplish without regionalization.”

“It Iets you put in place the last pieces you just can’t get to through shared services,” he maintained, describing that as being very important in putting together certain aspects of a curriculum, creating programs for special education students and serving those who are struggling academically due to family issues or limited English proficiency.

Another effect of consolidating would be the disbanding of not just the local school boards, but the existing Pinelands Regional Board of Education, Kerri Wright, a principal with the Porzio law firm who helped chair the meeting, subsequently told the Pine Barrens Tribune. It would be replaced, she said, by a new nine-member board initially named by the executive county superintendent with input from the participating municipalities, until its members could be chosen by their voters, three at a time over the succeeding three years.

In turn, the new board, Wright said, would have the responsibility of selecting a new superintendent, who could either be the current one of Pinelands Regional, Dr. Melissa McCooley, or someone else, since, unlike other administrators such as principals, the superintendent does not have tenure under a provision of a state law.

In August the Pinelands Regional board awarded McCooley, who first assumed the post in 2018, a new five-year contract, but should a new regional district be formed, that agreement would no longer be valid, Wright said.

One factor that helped the study group arrive at its recommendation was its expectation that the school-age population in the affected municipalities will undergo no significant growth and, if anything, will likely decrease in size, leading demographics consultant Dr. Richard Grip to conclude that “there is really no need for expansion.” The capacity of current educational facilities, he noted, “is projected to be adequate in each district,” so that students in each community can continue attending existing schools.

The recommendation of the consultants to move ahead with the proposal was by no means a foregone conclusion, noted the session’s co-chair, Vito A. Gagliardi, Jr., a managing principal of Porzio, who explained that it was one reached only after careful analysis “as opposed to a conclusion someone told us to reach and then write 150 pages to justify it.”

“There are times when our recommendation is not to go forward with what you initially thought might be a good idea,” he contended.

Later in the session, he provided several concrete examples of instances in which the firm had actually ended up discouraging such initiatives in answer to a question from Sue D’Ambrosio, vice president of the Eagleswood Board of Education, who asked whether it could cite any studies it had done “where you thought it wouldn’t work,” as opposed to a recent successful consolidation process it had stewarded in Hunterdon County, which Gagliardi said was most similar to Pinelands in terms of the districts involved.

D’Ambrosio also indicated she was not necessarily convinced by the group’s decision to support consolidation.

“We’ve got a lot more homework to do before we can even come up with the slightest

Photo By Andrew King

Participants in the special meeting on the results of a feasibility study on consolidation of Pinelands Regional sending districts, from left, are consultants Steven Cea, Dr. Richard Grip and Porzio law firm principals Kerri Wright and Vito Gagliardi, Jr.

See CONSOLIDATION/ Page 15

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