Millville Partisan Politics

                                                                         JANUARY 2018

Santiago, Parent, Udalovas, Pepitone, and Cooper were sworn into office on January 2, 2018 promising to “stop partisan politics at city hall” and “increase transparency of local government”.

So how is the Santiago team doing so far?

Partisan politics is: exhibiting blind, prejudiced and unreasoning allegiance to a political party. The opposite of “partisan” is open, receptive, reasonable, honest, and independent.

The first act of the Santiago team was the award of several professional service contracts: the city solicitor, labor attorney, insurance broker, special project engineer, and public defender. The common qualifications were campaign contributions and party affiliation.   

The bids awarded were not in the City’s best interest, but rather were in the best interest of those who contributed to the Santiago team. The solicitor award is the leading example of the paybacks. The new solicitor is James Schroeder. He is from Atlantic County.  His office administrator is the organizer of South Jersey Stands Tall. The organization that paid over $20,000 for a negative commercial campaign on national TV. The commercials were misleading and negative. Never in the history of Millville had such an ad campaign been used. Also of note is Mr. Schroeder previously worked for Doug Long's law firm.

For the first time in the city’s history the city solicitor does not live or have his law practice in Millville. The city solicitor for the past three years was a Millville resident and native whose office is in Millville and who submitted a lower hourly bid, won two landmark cases for the city, and was highly recommended by the staff.

For more information on Mr. Schroeder check out these websites:

https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/08037-nj-james-schroeder-1942480/aboutme.html

http://observer.com/2015/10/source-schroeder-huddled-with-levinson-a-day-before-aborting-his-campaign/

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/schroeder-iii-still-on-ballot-in-atlantic-county-after-dropping/article_c5a0300e-5cc7-11e5-8ddc-8398037d0b20.html

The labor attorney contract went to Doug Long’s firm, Grace and Marmero. Doug Long is the Cumberland County Democratic Chairman. Mayor Santiago tried in 2015 to have Long appointed but the appointment was ruled illegal and Long did not get the job. However, Mr. Long used the opportunity to make disparaging comments about the  commissioners that were in office at the time. Of note is that Mr. Long and his firm have a history of ethical violations with more pending. Mr. Long’s firm was also fired from several municipalities for overbilling. But most importantly for the taxpayers of Millville, Mr. Long’s firm was not the lowest bid.

For information on the ethics complaints past and present use the following link:

https://njrandomgovt.blogspot.com/2017/12/cumberland-democratic-chairman-fined.html


For information about being fired from Trenton use the following link:

http://www.trentonian.com/article/TT/20140904/NEWS/140909819


For Mr. Long's disparaging comments use the following link:

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/story/news/2016/01/06/outrage-over-democratic-official-comments-millville/78351692/

For article regarding illegal appointment:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2016/01/06/meeting-issues-continue-millville-commission/78314796/

Another interesting fact is that Mr. Grace of Grace and Marmero, was a partner in another law firm that is presently suing the city on behalf of  an employee. How can the labor attorney for the city, sue the city in a labor dispute? The firm failed to mention this in their proposal to the city. This is a stated requirement in the proposal documents.


Click on the links below for the supporting documentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BV1WGbHYCKCVM7nrkZzVjgZfuTjOZBUx/view


http://gracelentilaw.com/about/


http://www.gracemarmero.com/about/

The insurance broker for the city is no longer the local firm, Mints insurance. Even though the bids were the same, Mints Insurance has the experience representing Millville, and as a Millville company has the knowledge of the town, Hardenberg Insurance was given the position. They are from Haddonfield.

The  special project engineer position was also taken away from the Millville resident who had the lowest bid. This appointment was given to an outside firm and campaign contributor, Pennoni.

The public defender position was given to an attorney who bid $400/ session versus the present public defenders bid of $295/session. There are 96 sessions per year. This costs the taxpayers over $10,000 more per year. 

So what do all of the above appointments have in common? They all contributed to Mayor Santiago’s team campaign directly or indirectly through South Jersey Stands Tall.

Hardenberg Insurance contributed $5500, Pennoni contributed $2500, and the public defender gave $1240.

So has Mayor Santiago’s Team kept their promise? From the Millville Insider perspective, Michael Santiago, James Parent, Asleigh Udalovas, Joseph Pepitone, and Bruce Cooper have opened the doors wide and welcomed partisan politics into Millville. Why? Because partisan politicians poured in over $60,000 into the Millville City Commission election to elect the Santiago Team. What do the contributor’s get: power and money. The power to control the city of Millville for 4 years. The money from the appointments. Time will tell what each professionals grand total will be as most will be billing hourly.  For example: if it is $100,000/year for four years that’s $400,000! That is a great return on a campaign contribution. So unfortunately partisan politics are alive and well in the city of Millville thanks to Michael Santiago, James Parent, Ashleigh Udalavos, Joseph Pepitone, and Bruce Cooper. The appointments speak for themselves and the cost to local taxpayers remains to be seen.

The ability of Santiago and Parent to make the following statements with a straight face is truly remarkable:

At the swearing in Commissioner Parent promised that “no political party, no special interest group” would run the city.

“Some people are going to question people we hired, that we brought on to the city,” Santiago said. “Well, gosh. Give us a chance."

The disturbing part of these appointments and the conduct of the commissioners in their first couple of meetings is their failure to explain or attempt to justify their actions. They have failed to offer any reasons for awarding contracts the way they did and to whom they gave those generous awards. So much for transparency!