Democrats vs. Republicans
Substance vs. Unfounded Accusations 

 Where is the Republican Plan?

As in past years, there has been no substantive platform offered by the Republican candidates. The East Brunswick Democrats have a clear platform as well as record of accomplishments. The Republicans, on the other hand, have no stated platform. No one seems to know what they propose to do for the betterment of East Brunswick. All they offer is negative criticism of everything that the Township Council is doing and has done for the Town.

The Republicans have chosen to take the ‘low road’ and try to discredit the accomplished Democrats with false charges of ethics, improprieties, huge tax increases and outright lies in their literature. Let’s look at some of their claims as stated in their campaign pamphlet.

Attorney General Investigation 

This year the Republicans, in their campaign mailer (which is also posted on their website) simply states “Attorney General Investigation.” They intentionally leave out the details with the intention of misleading the reader. But here are the facts. 

This claim is centered on the redevelopment of the Township-owned property on which Sam’s Club and the Transportation Center are located. This is also known as the Golden Triangle – the area bound by Rt. 18, Tices Lane and Old Bridge Turnpike.

Frank Coury, a former Republican Council candidate and constant critic requested the Attorney General to investigate because he claimed the Township did not request bids for the property.  

Because this was a redevelopment project of property already owned by the Township, it is subject to State redevelopment statutes and the process is very different than simply selling a piece of land. 

Frank Coury, in a letter to the editor of the local papers, later conceded that he misunderstood the process, so his accusation of improper handling of the sale of the property was false. However, the Republicans are still trying to imply that something is wrong, simply because the Attorney General acted on the request of a citizen. To date, there has been no finding of any improprieties relating to the Golden Triangle. 

The truth is that the Township carefully followed all State laws regarding redevelopment and even went beyond what was required to select the developer for the site. This included sending out a “Request for Proposals” and independently evaluating the submitted responses. There were several respondents, but only four met the proper criteria which was established for submitting a proposal. Subsequently, the Township chose to use a bi-partisan committee to evaluate the proposals in two areas – purchase price and initial concept plan. The committee did this without knowing the identities of the developers associated with each price offer and concept plan. After the committee selected the best price and best plan, it was discovered that Toll Brothers had submitted both of these offers and that was the developer that was recommended by the committee. 

Democratic-controlled Council voted “yes” without seeing final plans 

This is a very vague and misleading statement. The Republicans attempt to imply that the "final plans" exist and have been approved by the Democrats on Council. The truth is that the final plans for the redevelopment of the Golden Triangle have not yet come before the Council for a vote.  The developer has not submitted their application to the Planning Board yet. Only after the Planning Board has its hearing on the application, will it then come before the Council for further action.

The Golden Triangle redevelopment project has been a long and slow process with careful review and analysis along the way. At various times, the Council has voted on resolutions and ordinances related to this project and has provided ample opportunity for public comment and well as Council discussion. Some of these actions were,

• Requesting that the Planning Board review the property to determine if it is suitable for redevelopment

• Declaring the property in need of redevelopment

• Authorizing the Mayor and Administration to negotiate a redevelopment agreement

• Designating the developer with whom the Administration is authorized to negotiate

• Appointing an attorney with redevelopment expertise as special counsel to assist with the negotiations

• Rezoning the property to eliminate "big-box" retailers, gas stations and other uses which would be inappropriate for the project

• Approving the redevelopment agreement with the developer

Even at this point in time, there are still many other votes to be taken by Council before the “final plans” are presented for a vote.

Toll Brothers contributed thousands of dollars to Democratic campaign coffers

While this is true, it does not apply to the East Brunswick Democrats. Any contributions from Toll Brothers has occurred at State and national levels. Neither the East Brunswick Democratic Organization nor any of the East Brunswick Democratic election committees have ever accepted donations from Toll Brothers. 

By the way, what the Republicans conveniently omit is that Toll Brothers has contributed considerable money to various Republican campaign coffers as well.

more to come ...