Timing of New Jersey mayor’s robo call is questionable

BY MICHAEL MORRIS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

Much like receiving a knock on the door after midnight, getting a phone call after nine o'clock at night is a matter of concern. So when phones started ringing across Middletown Tuesday night Oct. 12th, some as late as 10:30 pm, many were upset when to their disbelief, on the other end of the phone was none other than Gerry Scharfenberger, Middletown's acting Mayor, extolling the virtues of recycling. This unnecessary "Robo Call" sparked an outcry from those that received it.

The following morning residents either called or went to Town Hall to complain and were told by Heidi Blunt the Twp Clerk, that she had received many complaints that day from people being called late at night. Blunt told them that an outside company was outsourced for this process and that they (township) were looking into the "glitch" that caused the late night call.

This late night incident was considered so outrageous by some, that it warranted an article that appeared in the Oct.15th edition of the Asbury Park Press as well as a follow-up APP editorial the following day. In the Oct. 15th article, some residents that received the late night call questioned whether or not the call by the mayor was politically motivated, seeing that Scharfenberger was seeking re-election three weeks later and notices of the new recycling program had been given several times previously since it was first announced back in August.

I heard from one resident that was mentioned in the article, Carol Stiglin, that on Saturday the 16th ( the day of the APP editorial), Mayor Scharfenberger called her to offer his apology for the lateness of the robo call and tried to explain that a "glitch" was ultimately responsible for the timing of it. When she questioned the mayor about the need for the call, he said that it was decided by the Committee to make the call around the same time as Middletown Matters (the Township's newsletter) was mailed to households so that they (the Committee) could reinforce the importance of recycling. When questioned still further by Stiglin about the need for the robo call, Scharfenberger immediately placed blame on Sean Byrnes, his opponent in this year's election, saying that Byrnes sent an email back in August stating that it may be a good idea to call residents and notify them of the change to the recycling program, to which she replied, that August may have been a better time to place calls to residents rather than in October 3, weeks before an election.

According to Stiglin she wasn't finished with Scharfenberger, she wanted to know if the Committee had agreed to the initial time that the call was to take place (6:45 p.m.). She said that the mayor then replied "'It's just a quick notice...I just had a minute and went ahead and recorded it," which implied to her that the Committee didn't need to approve the call or the timing of it and that he acted unilaterally in having it made. Soon afterwards they said their goodbyes and ended their conversation.

After learning this, I was interested in hearing from Sean Byrnes to get his take on being blamed as the source of inspiration behind the robo call.

Byrnes stated that he went back through emails in the Township email system and found a message from August. He stated that the Committee had received an email from Ted Maloney, the Director of Public Works, advising them of a message he intended to send residents regarding leaf and brush pickup, via the reverse 911 system. Included in the email was the text of what the message was to say, to which Byrnes responded as follows:

"...At some point, maybe not so close on the heels of this announcement, we should also do that for the recycling pickup. You may have done it already, but we will probably need to push this pretty hard to get the word out and start getting compliance..."

Committeeman Byrnes stated that he was unaware that Gerry Scharfenberger planned to make an announcement about the recycling program using robo calls and the reverse 911 system, he stated that an email from Cindy Herschaft, the Public Relations Officer, was sent to Committee members about an hour before the announcement started and advising them of the content of the call, which Byrnes stated he would never have approved due to the content of the text.

Apparently it would seem then that the timing of the robo call may very well have been politically motivated so that residents could hear and place a name to the recycling program that mayor so wished to notify residents of three weeks before re-election.

Unfortunately for Gerry Scharfenberger, who once again took a good idea from Sean Byrnes and attempted to pass it off as one of his own when he saw an opportunity to use it to his advantage. He then hid the fact that he was doing it until just before the messages went out.

When it didn't work as planned, he then blamed Byrnes as the source. No wonder why he called Carol Stiglin to apologize, he finally got caught taking someone else's idea and passing it off as his own. He should have called Byrnes to apologize. I know I would have.

Michael Morris is involved with the Democratic Party in New Jersey. He is the author of MiddletownMike.blogspot.com.