Integrity and Truthfulness Count from Our Mayoral Candidates
Varnerin’s Misinformation Uncovered When it comes to the position of mayor, honesty and integrity matter. I served with Mayor Angie Devanney on Council for three years from 2019- 2021 and I know first-hand her veracity and commitment to the Township is beyond reproach. When applying the same moral measure to Councilman Jeff Varnerin, I have my doubts. In a recent...
Vote For Sai Bhargavi Akiri (Column 7-2)
I recently met Sai Bhargavi Akiri and have started to follow our local BOE and have seen how the individuals on our BOE interact. Sai is polite and articulate. She is courageous in the face of group-style bullying and overly-obvious and dramatic disrespect. I give her a lot of credit to be able to absorb the scowls and maintain her...
Unnecessary “Lawsuits” and The Blame Game
In what has to be the most brilliant irony of the year, Berkeley Heights BOE Member Angela Penna penned a candidate statement which included the following: “Board members are engaging in their own forms of political posturing and grandstanding; particularly when they disagree with their fellow board members.” “We see statements in social media suffixed with “This is my personal...
ANGIE DEVANNEY; THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB!
I met Angie in 2016, as I walked into my first PTO meeting at Mountain Park. During her time as President she ran organized, detail-oriented and engaging meetings. There was not a hurdle she did not surpass or a task that was “too much.” She made time for every person and addressed every comment, question and concern with care and...
BHCW Position Statement on Article Submissions
Residents and Candidates on all sides will continue to be allowed to submit articles to BHCW for free as long as they meet our terms and for as long as I manage the site. Resident names and email addresses will of course continue to be redacted from documents upon their request as our focus is not to talk about residents...
Retrospective on the October 20th BOE meeting
I attended the October 20th meeting in person. It was nice to see some of the other candidates as well. I want to share some observations and questions regarding what was discussed and on the proceeding itself. The presentation on the NJSLA results had some positives and some negatives. Based on the results, it seems that our kids are performing well...
A Statement from Candidate Hemann Regarding the Most Recent BOE Proceedings
In the past months, during which I decided to make a run for one of the open seats on the BOE, I have chosen – likely to the detriment of my “campaign” – to remain quiet, especially in the public sphere, on many of the topics washing across this page. I never wanted my candidacy to be centered on what...
Challenger Champion Sai
John Leo Jr. Endorses Sai Akiri I love disagreements. Nothing could be more fruitful than that middle ground where two people don’t completely agree or vehemently disagree. Disagreement can yield results. It’s the playing field of productive discussion. The people I support for leadership roles usually fall in this category. Because I know I can challenge their ideas and they...
Angela Penna’s Candidate Statement v. Reality
I recently published a piece titled People Before Politics. In the spirit of meaningful slogans, I feel the need to discuss the misnomer of another slogan, “passion for education,” recently coined by a BOE candidate running for re-election. It’s a great slogan, don’t get me wrong – but it’s been three years, and I haven’t seen any passion for education...
OPMA & OPRA: WE SHOULD FEARLESSLY DEMAND TRANSPARENCY
After listening to the BOE meetings in the first quarter of 2022, I was curious to learn more about the discussions in the Board’s Executive Sessions. So I sent an OPRA request for the Executive Session minutes from Nov 2021 to March 2022. The documented minutes from January to March 2022 are virtually identical and without any detail of the...
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