The Asbury Park Press has an article today on the Red Bank Borough Council’s formation this week of a committee on education and technology, and how Councilman John Curley’s vote on the matter may have backfired against him.
Curley’s was the lone ‘no’ on the vote to create the committee, the brainchild of Council President Pasquale Menna, Curley’s Democratic rival to succeed Ed McKenna as mayor. And Curley’s opposition apparently took McKenna by surprise.
“I was going to put him on [the committee], but he voted no,” McKenna told the Press’ Larry Higgs.
Menna’s two-part proposal called for a council liaison group to facilitate better relations between the borough school system and its spinoff Charter School, an idea that Menna said had wide support at both. Separately, the committee would explore ways to keep the borough government up on the latest communications technology, such as wi-fi, or wireless Internet services.
What was Curley’s beef with the idea? From the Press:
Curley said his “no” vote was because some council colleagues joked before the meeting that appointing him to this committee would “get me out of their hair.”
The vote came moments after the vitriol-filled shouting match reported on here yesterday.
Curley has been without a committee assignment since the infamous “take me down to Broad Street and hang me” episode in August, when McKenna rousted him from the finance committee, blaming Curley for the need to raise property taxes this year. Ever since, the Republican has been grousing about his desert-island status, and has repeatedly asked McKenna, in public, for a new assignment.
Curley told the Press he would serve on the education and technology committee if reconsidered.
