Serving a Divided Union County by Carole J. Rafferty (Belle of Liberty Blog Founder)

As New Jersey’s Union County all-Democrat Freeholder board turns, it takes a new turn of direction. Former Freeholder Daniel Sullivan resigned his position on the Board to head the Union County Improvement Authority.

“This is a total waste of money;” Ira Geiger, Republican candidate for Union County Board of Freeholders, states, “we don’t need this agency.  Union County needs more assistance with Weather Disaster, Employment, and Property Tax assistance. As a Freeholder, I am in favor of eliminating this agency as it is just squandering money on a hopeless cause in Union County.”

During his term as both a Freeholder and Chairman of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, Sullivan has been more of a bully than a public official that is supposed to serve the residents of Union County.  During his time as Chairman he had people that disagreed with him thrown out of the Freeholder Meeting and called them losers in the process.

“If you are supposed to represent people as a public official, you don’t refer to them as “losers,” Geiger says.  “People in this County are fed up with the disrespect and wasteful spending of the current Board of Union County Freeholders. As a result of this, people are moving out of Union County because it too expensive to live here and they see it as a “fat cat” elite that don’t care about the culture that is created in Union County.

In addition, Berkeley Heights, one of the 21 municipalities in Union County, is threatening to secede from this county to go to Morris County, with other municipalities considering similar moves to other counties as well.

“As a Freeholder,” Geiger pledges, “I would make County government more transparent to residents in Union County. I intend to represent everybody, not a select few.  The result of such cronyism back door dealing. The current board doesn’t support redistricting the County Freeholders.  I support this great idea.  Everyone who lives in Union County will receive fair representation instead of the current body that represents only 11 of the 21 municipalities. I believe that the people should decide their own path not, not a privileged elite that promise to represent us only up to the day we elect them.”

Sullivan, who had been a freeholder since 1995, said  that county lawyers advised him that he could not remain on the freeholder board while overseeing the improvement authority.  To fill Sullivan’s freeholder seat, the Union County Democratic Committee will submitted a list of candidates to the freeholders  The Democrats appointed Sergio Granados, 26, of Elizabeth, who was nominated in the June primary as one of the candidates along with incumbents Linda Carter of Plainfield and Bette Jane Kowalski of Cranford to the Freeholder seat.

The problem with that is he hasn’t served on the Board or been elected to this position or served in any public service capacity. The questions Geiger and his running mates to Granados are:

 “What qualification do you have to serve on this board?”

“Have you been to other parts of Union County to listen to residents with legitimate concerns they have?

 “Are you going to be an independent voice on the board or simply a “yes” vote for the rest of the Freeholders?”

Geiger’s questions and challenges resonate with the part of the public that is beginning to not just seriously question and doubt politics as usual, but actively do something about it.  A one-party system can never justly serve the public; it will only serve itself.