On the ballot November 2: charter study commission candidate Mike DuPont. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank voters will have 11 candidates to choose from when they elect a five-member charter study commission November 2
Here’s what candidate Mike DuPont had to say in response to a questionnaire sent to all contenders by redbankgreen.
Mike DuPont, right, riding with law partner and former mayor Ed McKenna in the Red Bank centennial parade in 2008. (Photo by John T. Ward and Chris Ern. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
UPDATE: After publication of this article, redbankgreen learned that John Jackson filed a petition with the borough clerk for a candidacy Tuesday afternoon. This update also adds John Gosden as a resident known to be gathering petition signatures.
Former Red Bank councilman Michael DuPont has made the November election for charter study commission a race.
DuPont told redbankgreen he filed his candidacy petition Wednesday morning, making him the sixth declared candidate for a seat on a five-member body.
Councilman Mike DuPont, with his wife, Doreen, beside him, addresses Democratic supporters on election night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Republicans blasted incumbent Councilman Mike DuPont as a “sore loser” Thursday for seeking a recount of his apparent two-vote loss in last week’s election.
DuPont is scheduled to appear before a judge in Superior Court in Freehold Friday on his petition for a recount, which Republicans say would constitute an “unprecedented” fourth counting of votes from the November 3 squeaker.
Red Bank Councilman Mike DuPont was squeezed out of his post as Belmar’s borough attorney Tuesday, four days after a court ruling found shortcomings in his handling of a ballot question there, APP.com reported Tuesday.
The website of the Asbury Park Press reported that DuPont resigned at the request of Mayor Matthew Doherty, “after a Superior Court judge ruled that the borough didn’t properly vote on placing an explanatory statement for a bond question on the Nov. 3 ballot.”
Michael DuPont, Democrat. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
The balance of political power is at stake in the November 3 election in Red Bank, which features four candidates for two three-year seats on the borough council. All four have indicated they’ll participate in the West Side Community Group’s annual candidates’ forum at the River Street Commons at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 1. For more information about the event, take it here.
To help voters compare the contenders in terms of personal background and positions on key issues, redbankgreen emailed them identical sets of questions late last week. Here’s what Michael DuPont, the sole incumbent in the race, had to say in response.
The red clay courts, idled since Hurricane Sandy, as seen from the Monmouth Boat Club next door. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Mike DuPont has signaled he will oppose a proposal for a privately owned recreational center on the site of the borough’s riverfront tennis courts in Marine Park.
Calling the proposal, by Jetsun Enterprises, “10 pounds of potatoes in a 5 pound bag,” DuPont wrote in a letter that it “puts every imaginable use down at Marine Park with the exception of not having a ferris wheel” and could turn Red Bank into “Coney Island South.”
“I’ll take your offer. You tell me the time and place,” DuPont told a rep for the tolltakers’ union, which is fighting a move to privatize collections. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Red Bank commuters may encounter a familiar face as they slow to pay a toll on the New Jersey Turnpike one day soon.
Borough Councilman Mike DuPont could be in the tollbooth, making change.
The Asbury Park Press reports that DuPont, a lawyer who wears a third hat as a New Jersey Turnpike Authority commissioner, has accepted a challenge by the tolltaker’s union to walk – or stand still – a mile in their shoes.
Tim Zebo does some composting at his Red Bank home in 2008. (File photo. Click to enlarge)
By SARAH KLEPNER
Red Bank could become the first New Jersey town to recycle food, according to proponent Councilman Mike DuPont.
At Wednesday night’s council meeting, DuPont announced that he is asking the borough Environmental Commission to comment on an informal proposal for a municipal composting program.
Some of his colleagues were amused. DuPont is known for green initiatives he proposed banning plastic bags in 2008, though the suggestion was never enacted into law.
“You’re really becoming Farmer Brown, huh?” asked Councilwoman Sharon Lee.
This week’s edition of the TriCity News envisions a head-on political collision between two Red Bank residents Councilman Mike DuPont and former council member Jen Beck over the 12th-District state Senate seat she now holds.
But it’s not happening. Not this year, at least, DuPont tells redbankgreen.
Red Bank Councilman Mike DuPont at a council meeting last month. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
While Councilman Mike DuPont’s appointment as attorney for another town was the unmentioned reason behind his request last Monday that Red Bank change its bimonthtly meeting schedule, up in Sayreville, the appointment was an occasion for political theater.
In a dramatic council meeting in the Middlesex County town that same night, DuPont’s appointment prompted the mayor and two Republican council members to storm out because, according to local paper The Suburban, they wanted a different law firm representing the governing body and argued that the appointment circumvented the mayor’s authority.
That left the remaining four on the council to vote on whether to hire DuPont, who is a partner on Broad Street with former Red Bank Mayor Ed McKenna in the McKenna, DuPont, Higgins and Stone firm. Which they did, handing.
Can you say awkward?
“Yes it was,” DuPont told redbankgreen.
Councilman Mike DuPont at Red Bank’s government reorganization meeting on January 1. (Click to enlarge)
Red Bank’s borough council is mulling a change in its bimonthly meeting schedule to accommodate a recurring conflict on Councilman Mike DuPont’s calendar.
The problem? He has to be at another council meeting, in another town, at the same time.
Red Bank Councilman Mike DuPont says it may be time to end tax-exemptions for most non-profits.
In the latest round of verbal sparring between Red Bank officials and the town’s representatives in Trenton, Councilman Mike DuPont has floated what he hopes is a solution to the borough’s fiscal woes that all can embrace:
Tax non-profits.
It’s done elsewhere, and is under consideration in additional locales, DuPont says in a March 18 letter he sent to state Senator Jennifer Beck.
Today, redbankgreen kicks off a series of unedited audio interviews with each of the four candidates for two seats on the Red Bank Council up for grabs in the November 3 election.
Councilman Michael DuPont contends that this flier, distributed by Republican Councilman John Curley to Red Bank residents last week, is a smear on his wife. [Click on flier to enlarge]
In a letter to the editor published in the current issue of the Two River Times (print version only), DuPont says the handout printed on vivid green paper defames his wife, Doreen, who gave birth to twins earlier this year.
As evidence, Dupont cites the flier’s claim that “Our new Mayor [Pasquale] Menna appointed DuPont and [former Mayor Ed] McKenna’s wife to the Planning Board. How cozy.”
On his first day as mayor in January, Menna nominated Christine McKenna to serve as an alternate member of the planning board for a term that ends Dec. 31. The nomination was part of an omnibus reorganization resolution that included several dozen appointments. Curley voted no on the measure, which was passed by the Democratic majority. Download rb_appointments_10107.pdf
DuPont, however, is not on the planning board and has never been, he says.
Here’s an excerpt from DuPont’s letter:
Councilman Curley, your lime-green letter endorsing your colleagues defames my wife with falsehoods and insinuations. You owe her an apology and the truth to the residents of Red Bank. Your lime-green letter is simply political slime.
But Curley’s handout does not make any mention of DuPont’s spouse, unless it is interpreted as meaning DuPont and McKenna are maried to the same woman.
Red Bank Democrats swept the board in Tuesday’s election, led by mayoral candidate and Latin buff Pasquale Menna, who outpolled fellow councilmember John Curley by 101 votes in unofficial tallying to become the first immigrant Italian to win the borough’s top elected post.
Incumbent Councilman Arthur Murphy III won a clear victory over Republican rivals Grace Cangemi and David Pallister. Democrat Michael Dupont, however, won only after a review of absentee and provisional ballots gave him an unofficial 16-vote win to complete his party’s hat trick and preserve the 4-2 council majority.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I just got off the phone with Monmouth County,” an ebullient Mayor Ed McKenna told a crowd of several hundred gathered amid former clothing display racks and busted sheetrock at the former Garmany store on Broad Street. “They have Michael DuPont by a landslide 16 votes!”
The crowd, which had been waiting nearly two hours to find out if DuPont, a law partner to McKenna, would join his running mates on the governing body, erupted. DuPont appeared to weep.
A screengrab of Wednesday’s meeting, held via Zoom. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
An online public forum held Wednesday night by Red Bank’s Charter Study Commission was brief, as only two residents chimed in.
But more have weighed in by email, according several commission members. And one consistent theme is that residents don’t want an appointed mayor, they said.
Voters may get to decide in November on a new form of government. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
As the Red Bank Charter Study Commission heads into a public hearing on the first phase of its work Tuesday night, this much is clear: partisan elections are in the crosshairs.
Mark Taylor, center, grilled two sitting councilmen, including Michael Ballard, bottom right. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Aggressive questioning of two current council members by a former councilman marked a special session of the Red Bank Charter Study Commission Thursday night.
Appearing as the final witnesses for phase one of the commission’s review, both Ed Zipprich and Michael Ballard defended the borough form of government in place since 1908, and recent changes to shift power away from the town’s unelected administrator.
Michael Ballard and Ed Zipprich in 2015; Mayor Pasquale Menna is visible in the background. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Dumping a party stalwart after more than three decades in office, Red Bank’s Democratic regulars nominated Councilman Michael Ballard as their candidate for mayor Wednesday.
The move exposed new depths of a bitter split with 16-year incumbent Mayor Pasquale Menna, who told redbankgreen that party committee members had shown “their true colors” with their decision.
Mayor Pasquale Menna, top left, and Councilwoman Kate Triggiano, center bottom, participated in commission interviews via Zoom Wednesday. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Mayor Pasquale Menna on Wednesday joined a growing parade of current and former Red Bank officials who have identified “interference” by council members as one of the borough government’s foremost problems.
In stunning testimony before the Charter Study Commission, Menna also was one of three Democrats who laid blame for local government “dysfunction” squarely on their own party.
Ziad Shehady at borough hall in February, 2020. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See CORRECTION below
By JOHN T. WARD
Eight months after he ended a stormy stint as Red Bank’s top unelected official, Ziad Shehady is scheduled to offer his perspective on how well the town’s government works Wednesday night.
Joe Hartnett, right, with Ken DeRoberts at a Red Bank council meeting in 2018. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Whatever new form of government it might adopt, Red Bank needs a strong chief executive officer, a consultant who co-authored a critical review of borough operations said last week.
Attorney Michael Collins, left, on the dais with Chairwoman Nancy Facey Blackwood. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
After two preparatory sessions, the Red Bank Charter Study Commission expects to begin digging into its task on January 13.
In the interim, the five-member citizen’s body has a “homework” assignment.
Sworn in by Mayor Pasquale Menna, right, were commission members, standing from left: Nancy Facey-Blackwood, Kate Okeson, Mark Taylor, Mike DuPont and Ben Forest. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A study that could result in an historic overhaul of Red Bank governance, and imperil three decades of Democratic party dominance, got underway Tuesday night.
On the agenda of the newly empaneled Red Bank Charter Study Commission were nuts-and-bolts matters: requesting a budget, finding a lawyer and setting a meeting schedule.
On the unofficial agenda: learning to use the microphones.
Commission members, from left: Mike DuPont, Nancy Facey-Blackwood, Ben Forest, Kate Okeson and Mark Taylor. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Authorized by borough voters earlier this month, the Red Bank Charter Study Commission has scheduled its first meeting.