Local News

Stanfield Votes to Confirm Addiego as Elections Superintendent, Despite Having Joined in GOP Attack on ‘Patronage’ Nomination

Aide Claims Approval Was Due to Her Inclusion with 2 Other Nominees

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

MOUNT HOLLY—When former Democratic state Senator Dawn Marie Addiego, representing the 8th Legislative District, was unanimously confirmed at the end of last month by the New Jersey Senate as Burlington County Superintendent of Elections, one of the senators who voted in her favor was the ex-political rival who not only unseated her in last November’s election, but had three weeks earlier decried her nomination by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.

But Addiego’s being given a thumbs up for the post by Republican Senator Jean Stanfield was simply the result of a “very smart move by the Senate president (Nicholas Scutari)” to combine the former’s nomination with two others, including that of a Republican, according to Stanfield’s chief of staff, Brian Woods.

“I don’t know if it was a quid pro quo,” said Woods in response to a query to that effect from the Pine Barrens Tribune during a Feb. 15 phone interview about the confirmation process.

Back on Jan. 11, Stanfield, a former assemblywoman and longtime Burlington County sheriff before that, was quoted in a press release issued by the county GOP, in the form of an email to constituents bearing the headline “Addiego Takes Final Swig from Taxpayer Trough,” which contended that Addiego’s being given the $94,320-a-year position amounted to “one final parting gift from taxpayers” after her bid for re-election was rejected by voters.

“Dawn Addiego lost and is rewarded with a patronage job of running our future elections,” went a statement attributed in that release to Stanfield. “If Burlington County Democrats continue to hand out jobs to their politically connected friends, then they will go down the same losing path as Addiego. Voters have had enough of this.”

The release also asserted that Addiego, an Evesham Township resident and one time councilwoman, had “flipped political parties in 2019 in an attempt to preserve her political future and form an alliance with (former) Senate President Steve Sweeney and the South Jersey Democratic Machine” – a move it claimed had “backfired when voters from all parties were turned off by her blatant attempt at selfpreservation and voted her out of office.”

But Murphy, it maintained, “in recognition of her efforts on behalf of the Democratic party,” went ahead and nominated her for the job, which it described as “crucial in providing free and fair elections.”

“We always knew Dawn Addiego’s party switch had nothing to do with her values and everything to do with personal gain,” Burlington County Republican Committee Chairman Sean Earlen was then quoted as saying. “The voters saw through her blatant self-serving move and now she is cashing in her 30 pieces of silver.”

In assuming the post, Addiego replaced another political appointee and partyswitcher, Westampton attorney George Kotch, a former county surrogate who was nominated to be election superintendent in 2017 by former Republican Governor Chris Christie.

Repeated messages left with Addiego’s assistant and on her phone asking if she wished to respond to the GOP’s allegations See SUPERINTENDENT/ Page 11

‘Consultant’ Suggests to Bass River That Retail Cannabis Dispensaries for Non-Medical Uses Are Beneficial, Though NJ Doesn’t Have Any Yet

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

BASS RIVER—As Bass River Township explores the feasibility of allowing cannabis “dispensary development” along the Route 9 corridor in municipality’s Commercial Zone, the township’s solicitor, JoAnne O’Connor, has reported back to the Bass River Board of Commissioners that she has gotten in contact with a “consultant,” who reviewed with her the “pros and cons” of having cannabis dispensaries for nonmedical uses, but seemingly suggested they are an overall benefit to a community.

But the “problem” encountered by O’Connor in further researching the issue and being able to make a recommendation to Bass River is that “we don’t have any legal retail shops in the state” as of yet, she said, making it difficult for her to both ascertain their true impacts on a community and craft local rules and regulations.

O’Connor, however, maintained that she will continue to do further research in the coming weeks. This newspaper previously reported that according to the meeting minutes for a Dec. 15, 2021, joint Bass River Township Planning and Zoning Board meeting, Board Member Robert Neuweiler stated that Bass River “would be missing out on an income opportunity” if “dispensary development” is not pursued by the municipality.

Planning Board Attorney Chris Norman then pointed out that “recreational use” of cannabis, unlike medicinal uses, “can be charged an enhanced 2 percent tax” under the state’s recently enacted cannabis legislative package. Norman also said that he anticipated “future recreational sales have the potential to be large sums of money.”

Following the joint planning and zoning board meeting this past December, Mayor Deborah Buzby-Cope, also a member of that board, during a January commissioners meeting, pointed out that Norman was looking into the “pros and cons” of allowing for cannabis dispensaries, before asking O’Connor to also “look into it” and “do a case study” to “see what the pros and cons are,” as well as the benefits of “having one versus not having one.”

“The commissioners asked that I look into the pros and cons of having a retail cannabis store in the township,” said O’Connor during the Feb. 7 commissioners meeting. “That was a little bit difficult because we don’t have any legal retail stores, in the state, as of yet. All the retail in New Jersey is (for) medical (purposes).”

However, O’Connor said she spoke to a “gentleman who is a consultant across the country” and reportedly helped to establish cannabis entities in both Colorado and Massachusetts (some of the first states to decriminalize cannabis and allow for cannabis businesses) and is now “helping people across New Jersey get their (cannabis business) licenses established.”

“What he told me is that he found across the country the two most disputed types of (cannabis) businesses are the retail and cultivation ones,” O’Connor noted. “Cultivation, because of the odor, and retail, because of the concern about traffic, space and parking issues.”

But the consultant, she said, pointed out that all the retail stores he has dealt with are “high-end” and “state-of-the-art.”

“He described them more like a spa,” she maintained, noting that he also contended See CANNABIS/ Page 9