Menza and clerk butt heads on eve of swearing-in ceremony
By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter
When Joe Menza defeated Councilman Jerome Jewell by fewer than ten votes to become mayor of Hillside, he did so as a perennial challenger to the local Democratic Party machine, and he remains an outsider even on the day of his swearing-in ceremony tomorrow.
"By law, I have to be appointed by noon," said Menza. "It's 12 o'clock every year, but they made it very clear they want the council re-organization meeting and the mayor's swearing-in separate."
So the council re-organizes at 6 p.m., six hours after Menza takes the oath.
Menza's team blames Clerk Janet Vlaisaljevic, an ally of local party Chair Charlotte DeFilippo, for chopping the ceremonies in half and leaving Menza in the unadvertised early slot without the benefit of a re-ordered local legislature and official town infrastructure to lend support.
"It's her (the clerk's) fiduciary responsibilty to make sure the mayor gets sworn in, and she's disrespecting the position," said Menza campaign advisor John O'Shea, who said Vlaisaljevic told him to deliver an affadavit to her office proving that the judge swore in Menza, who ran as an independent with the support of GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie.
"We picked substitute Judge Geoffrey Gechtman to perform the honors," added O'Shea, who also extended an invitation to Christie to attend the mayor's swearing-in ceremony.
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