Mehrotra and Montes Criticize Council’s Backroom Deal to Appoint Pater

MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ—Candidates for Mountainside Borough Council Anjali Mehrotra and Ileana Montes today criticized Council’s backroom deal-making surrounding Councilwoman Wendy Fech-Caccamo’s resignation and replacement with Councilwoman Rachel Pater. Pater was sworn in during the Council meeting on Tuesday, September 18 and voted on resolutions brought to the floor during that same meeting. When members of the public asked why they had not been notified about Fech-Caccamo’s resignation and the plan to replace her with Pater earlier, they were told Fech-Caccamo had resigned on Monday, September 17, just one day prior to Pater’s appointment.

“The idea Council just learned that Councilwoman Fech-Caccamo planned to resign one day before Tuesday’s Council meeting is laughable,” said Mehrotra, “If that were true, it would mean they identified and vetted three potential replacements, arranged to have Congressman Lance in attendance, and prepared statements for their supporters to read in less than 24 hours. That would be incredible productivity from the same Council that did not get around to posting the minutes from their July meeting until this morning after we pressured them to make their discussions and votes public.”

Borough Council has already come under fire for making decisions behind closed doors. In addition to its failure to post minutes from the July meeting in a timely fashion, Council also raised eyebrows when it voted in a work session to approve settlements for Mountainside police officers who retired after a lawsuit in May made public allegations that they engaged in pervasive sexual harassment and racism in the office and repeatedly left duty to work side jobs. Work sessions are not televised and, while Council published the minutes after significant public outcry, they have not publicized the terms of the settlement they approved for the retiring officers.

“This is just another example of Borough Council sweeping things under the rug, hoping that residents do not notice everything they are doing to help their friends at taxpayers’ expense,” said Montes, “We cannot let our leaders continue getting away with making decisions in back rooms with party bosses without giving us any opportunity to make our voices heard. These are critical expenses that increase our property taxes and our representatives are hiding their votes from public scrutiny. We need new leaders who will bring honesty and integrity back to Council.”