BRIDGEWATER COUNCILMAN PEDROSO HAD HIS COMMENTS DELETED AND HAS BEEN BLOCKED FROM COMMENTING ON CANDIDATE MAYOR HAYES’ POLITICAL FACEBOOK PAGE

BRIDGEWATER, NJ, April 18, 2019 — Bridgewater Republican Municipal Committee endorsed candidate Council President Matthew Moench has challenged the incumbent Mayor Daniel Hayes in the Republican primary. Mayor Hayes has an official mayoral Facebook page where he provide information to the public about government functions and campaign updates.

On the evening of April 17, Councilman Filipe Pedroso was blocked from commenting on any post made on the Hayes’ Facebook page. The Hayes’ page also deleted the two comments that Pedroso made on two separate posts in the page during the day.

“What a disgrace that the Mayor is censoring my comments on his political page simply because he doesn’t like what I said. From what I understand and have been reading on other Facebook pages, Mayor Hayes has been deleting and blocking comments from other Bridgewater residents if you post or say things that he doesn’t like,” said Pedroso, “The Mayor has been running the dirtiest and sleaziest campaign that I have ever seen, and painting a policy picture of himself that is extremely dishonest.”

Pedroso commented on two posts that resulted in Hayes’ reaction by blocking Pedroso from having any commenting ability on the Hayes’ page.

In the first post, Hayes’ posted a picture of a trophy labeling himself a “tax cutting champion.” Pedroso saw the post when it appeared on the Hayes’ Facebook feed as a sponsored paid advertisement, and Pedroso wrote the following comment in the Hayes’ post:

This made me CRACK UP! My 1st yr on Council, Hayes proposed 6.5%!!! tax hike —Council had to cut your budget. Mayor, but for the Council keeping you in check, Bridgewater residents would be paying much more in taxes. I’m sorry to say, but this trophy thing is a joke. This year your budget proposes 6.7% SPENDING increase. Councilman Norgalis, Moench and I have cut your budgets, several times, and pushed for 0% tax increases — while you opposed us cutting your budget. 2 years ago, you came to the Council meeting protesting that we were cutting your 2% tax increase to 0, saying it would basically paralyze the town. We did anyway, and did just fine. This is such a dishonest post. And, oh, I hope you’ll have the courage to have a dialogue and not delete my post.

In the second post, Hayes’ posted a picture of himself with his running mates, with a statement that included: “[They] delivered the lowest municipal property tax rate in Somerset County, preserved hundreds of new acres of open space”. Pedroso states that this comment is disingenuous, and commented on the post:

I have served on the council for 7+ years with Ms. Rose and during Hayes’ entire term, so I have a question… If you guys campaign on this message (and therefore agree with Councilmen Moench, Norgalis and I) then how come you DON’T ACT the way you TALK. Ms. Rose, you have been a supporter of increasing taxes, and just last year said, on the record, said “taxes should go up every year, just because.” Mayor Hayes, you propose a 6.5% tax increase (only to be [cut] by the Council) in your first term, and 2 years ago when you wanted to increase taxes again 2% and the Council said NO and voted to keep taxes flat, you showed up at our Council meeting and voiced your opinion on the record that the Council was making a mistake and that our tax cuts would jeopardize the government –and, of course, it didn’t. Mayor and Ms. Rose, you both were strong voices against buying the Wemple open space property, and now campaign in favor of open space. [Ms. Rose flipped on the vote because it was 4-to-1 against her position.] These are just some examples, but my question, sincerely is, if you guys campaign on the principles and philosophy of Councilmen Moench, Norgalis and I, how come you don’t actually DO IT???

Pedroso commented, “I had been staying off his page, but I am just tired of all the lies that the Hayes’ team is pushing on the Bridgewater residents. I don’t know anything about Ms. Arvind, I think she’s relatively new to Bridgewater and only voted once in her life, so my comments are really directed at Mayor Hayes and Councilwoman Rose. Both Hayes and Rose are tax and spend politicians. They both support big government and higher taxes. Someone needs to make these people accountable for what they actually did, not fluffy lies and fake images to fool the public. It’s simply outrageous.”

“Of course, the bigger story here is about a Mayor who censors comments based on his likes and dislikes. He’s doing this to members of the community and now he’s doing it to me. This doesn’t appear to be someone who believes in free speech and our democratic principles of questioning government officials. If you’re running for public office, there needs to be openness, dialogue and discourse, it’s an important bedrock to our democracy,” said Pedroso.

“Hayes is supported by an out-of-town PAC group calling themselves Protect Bridgewater, funded by out-of-town developers and special interests, who only care about their big development projects and don’t have a care in the world about our quality of life. Ron Gravino, its treasurer, was already found in violation of election laws. They say they’re going to spend $100,000 in dumping garbage, fictitious messages onto the voters. Don’t you wonder why?” asked Pedroso.

Bridgewater’s Planning Board is currently considering the approval of the township’s largest redevelopment project in its history. The site, located at the former Sanofi-Aventis property on 202/206, is proposing to host a 80,000 square foot supermarket, 6-story hotel, four 5-story apartment buildings, 2 free-standing restaurants, a wellness center, and several multi-use commercial, retail and residential buildings in a cityscape format, with 400 apartments.

Pedroso answered the question: “Matt Moench is against the overdevelopment and urbanization of Bridgewater that will happen with the Center of Excellence, while Mayor Hayes strongly supports the Center of Excellence and has a vision of urbanizing the town. The mayor appoints all the planning board members, except for one council liaison. That means if Council President Moench becomes Bridgewater’s next mayor, he can appoint new Planning Board members, and the Center of Excellence will likely be scaled back in magnitude or cancelled; if Mayor Hayes wins, the Center of Excellence will go forward and destroy our quality of life and change the character of the township forever. This is a project with hundreds of millions of dollars at state for the developer who owns this. There are other large development projects in the pipeline. I believe that developers are funding the largest smear campaign against Matthew Moench for no other reason but to protect their pocketbooks. Hayes is backed by these groups, lying to the public about who Matt Moench really is in order to keep their mayor in office.”

“Sure, Matt voted in favor of the redevelopment ordinance and to send the project to the Planning Board for review, but that was before two main things happened. One, when the project came before the Council, we weren’t provided traffic studies and were promised that traffic would be made better by this project on 202/206. Now that the traffic studies and their plan has been made available, Council President Moench is against the project basically saying it’s too big and massive for the site because it can’t handle the traffic. And, two, I think we all now realize that the Planning Board is rubber stamping the Mayor’s vision to urbanize Bridgewater, and it needs to stop,” said Pedroso, “Mayor Hayes has doubled-down his support for the Center of Excellence even though the public doesn’t support it, while Council President Moench has publicly said he doesn’t support it.”

“Meanwhile, the Hayes’ team keeps feeding out lies, and it’s not right. Besides lying on the Center of Excellence, the Hayes’ campaign is a conglomerate of misinformation. First, on taxes. The only reason why Bridgewater has the lowest tax rate in the County is because Councilmen Norgalis, Moench and I kept him in check by not allowing his tax increases. Hayes proposed tax increases several times during this tenure as Mayor, and Moench fought him on it every time. Second, open space. Councilmen Moench and I worked closely with residents, such as Bob Vaucher, to save the 31-acres of Wemple property for open space preservation. Mayor Hayes and Councilwoman Rose would try very hard to persuade us not to purchase this property for open space, now they want to paint a false picture of being open space champions. I was just calling them out on facts, and they didn’t like it, so I was censored,” added Pedroso.

“And calling Matt Moench a liberal is like calling Bernie Sanders a right-wing conservative,” stated Pedroso, referencing the PAC flyers targeting Republican voters “Matt Moench is a fiscal conservative, as conservative as they come. I know because I sat with him for over 7 years on the Council. Moench was key in the introduction and adoption of an Ordinance that makes the sale of recreational marijuana illegal in Bridgewater, while Mayor Hayes felt otherwise. Moench has for the past 7 years while I’ve been on the Council voted consistently against the Mayor’s tax increases.

Consistently! Meanwhile, Mayor Hayes was the one who pushed for higher taxes and spending, and Councilwoman Rose always supported the Mayor’s tax and spend philosophy.”

Pedroso concluded, “The public needs to know! They are being lied to and fooled. This is Bridgewater’s most important election in its history. I moved to Bridgewater when I was 7 years old in 1978 and have lived here since. I know these individuals. I have been on the Council for over 7 years during Hayes’ entire term as mayor. A vote for Matthew Moench is a vote for a true fiscal conservative, open space advocate, and fighter for our quality of life; a vote for Dan Hayes is a vote for tax and spend policies, overdevelopment, more traffic, and worse quality of life. The future of the character and direction of Bridgewater is on the line. I hope and believe that the Bridgewater electorate take the time to truly understand what is happening. Bridgewater needs someone who will protect their town, budget, and quality of life. Bridgewater needs Matthew Moench for mayor.”