About 60 people attended tonight's Republican Town Committee (RTC) meeting where the highlight was either the announcement of candidates for the upcoming fall election, or possibly the surprise ending in which Catherine Johnson stated “I didn't know I had to sign the letter” while expressing surprise that she was not being nominated to serve another term on the Planning and Zoning Commission. This came about when, after all the nominees were announced, Mayor Giuliano attempted to take a moment to thank Ms. Johnson for her years of service on Planning and Zoning. He was unable to finish his statement of appreciation when he was interrupted by Ms. Johnson herself, who stood up and claimed not to know that she was not going to be running again. Ms. Johnson also said, "If something changes you are welcome to put my name down. … I have done my very best to make a cross-connection between the sides, but the side that sits on this side wants to stay that way, and it's just a damn shame." After Ms. Johnson spoke for a moment, a few supporters called out solemn-sounding Thank You's to Ms. Johnson, the mood shifted from awkward back to celebratory, and the meeting ended shortly thereafter. Ms. Johnson declined to talk about what had happened saying she was “shell-shocked.” Ryan Kennedy, the Recruitment and Nomination Committee Chairperson, when asked for comment, said “It is the first I heard of it.”
As to those who are running, the candidates are:
Mayor Sebastian Giuliano will run for a fourth term as mayor.
Deputy Mayor Joseph E. Bibisi, incumbent council members David Bauer, Phil Pessina, Deborah Kleckowski and Earle Roberts are running for Common Council, as are new Common Council nominees Linda Salafia, Matthew Fraulino, and Edward Dypa.
Nominees for Board of Education are Callie Grippo, Cheryl McClellan, Kevin Kelly, Alexander Mac Levin and Tami Kapacziewski. For the Planning and Zoning Commisssion, nominees are William Gregorio, Kenneth McClellan, Molly Salafia, and Fred Terasi. Alternates for Planning and Zoning are Ronald Borrelli and Corrine Dorsey. The Board of Assessment and Appeals nominees are Laura Gionfriddo and William Wilson, and finally, Jonathan Pulino is the Republican candidate for city Treasurer.
Of the nominations and upcoming campaign, Councilperson Deborah Kleckowski said, “We have a solid ticket. We will work to move the city forward with the community as a focal point rather than politics as a focal point.”
Ryan Kennedy said, "It was my honor to ...lead the Recruitment Committee once again, and I'm very proud of the fact that we have excellent candidates. We have an entire slate ready to challenge our opponents. We're happy again to have Mayor Giuliano at the head of our ticket."
Prior to the nominees being announced by Ryan Kennedy, some quick business was conducted. Two new members were approved to join the RTC, an invitation to the Italian American Civic Order's 50th anniversary on October 1st was announced, and a proposal from Molly Salafia to have a community outreach bulletin board and local charity boxes at the Republican Headquarters was voted on and approved.
In video below: Mayor Giuliano, with the nominees at his side, accepts the nominations on behalf of all nominees.
5 comments:
Thanks for this succint & swift coverage, Karen, and for the videos.
I am so glad they didn't bump David Bauer. He has been the Jimminy Cricket of the Common Council.
Re the ceremonius dumping of Ms. Johnson; another example of "no good deed goes unpunished".
Ms. Johnson - ThanX for trying to keep these cowboys on the straight and narrow.
Claiming she had no idea she had to respond to the nominating committee is silly and impossible- she has run for office before and should have known she had to submit a letter. She claimed to never have received chairman Phipps memo at the last p&z meeting and now claims to have not received this notice. How could she not have known? Why should a party she does not support support her?
“We Republicans seek elected office in order to serve and govern effectively,” Mayor Giuliano said. “Our opponents seek office so they can reward the constituencies that elected them and use the public assets to purchase new constituencies to assure their own reelection.”
Mayor Giuliano is talking nonsense. All politicians say this that they are there "to serve & govern effectively...Our opponents seek office so they can reward the constituencies that elected them and use the public assets to purchase new constituencies to assure there own reelection." Mayor Giuliano does this too; it's not just the Democrats that do it but Republicans as well. The Republicans try to make you believe that they are above party lines and that they put the public first. This is not true. All politicians whether they are at the local, state & federal levels say things that will get them elected then once they are elected they get amnesia. They will do the exact opposite of what they said they will do during the campaign and then say they never said that. Don't believe any politicians regardless of party affiliation they all lie.
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