Menza steps into divided town hall drama as he assumes office in Hillside

HILLSIDE - This little, oft-dispected town practically buried under a criss-cross of highways in the muscled-up arms of Newark on one side and Elizabeth on the other today showed little sign of breaking a four-year standoff between mayor and council as Joe Menza assumed the oath of office several hours before the council's reorganization meeting this evening.

Real estate developer Menza beat the local Democratic Party machine on May 12th when he defeated At-Large Councilman Jerome Jewell, a staunch ally of local party chair Charlotte DeFilippo, who also runs the county party.

DeFillipo allies still controls five seats on the seven-member governing body, but Menza kicked off his mayoralty by letting the crowd of 150 people here know that under the Faulkner Act, it is his responsibility to prepare and submit an annual operating budget and to sign all contracts, and he doesn't intend to abdicate those powers.

On the contrary, "The buck stops right here, you can expect that from me," announced the new mayor, moments after taking the oath at the prompting of substitute Township Judge Geoffrey Gechtman.

Menza steps into an office recently occupied by a chief executive who was muzzled for four years.

He's succceeding Karen McCoy-Oliver, a mostly MIA mayor who broke with DeFilippo in 2005, fought the council hard when she was around, significantly when she refused to sign off on pay raises for township department heads, which sparked one of several protracted legal battles and symbolized a mayor-council meltdown.

Now with Menza coming in as an independent who felled the machine's champion in Jewell, fear is rampant among town employees that the new mayor will turn DeFilippo appointees into town hall collateral and Menza has mentioned that he isn't beyond "cracking some eggs."

In this environment, "I was surprised he didn't approach us and ask for any meetings," outgoing Council President John Kulish said of Menza's activities during the transition process. "I would have thought the mayor would want to get together for appointments. ...We would hope that after four years of being under an absentee mayor, the new mayor will realize that there has to communication." 

But Menza campaign strategist John O'Shea said the council kicked in its heels and resisted overtures by Menza.

Kulish, and incoming Council President Ed Brewer, both insisted the council didn't mean any disrespect when they scheduled their re-organization meeting separate from the mayor's noon swearing-in ceremony.

"John O'Shea came into Town Hall looking for a Bible to swear-in the mayor and saw Ed and me in here and invited us outside for the ceremony, and we told him nobody had asked us," Kulish recalled. "He told us, 'no, I'm asking you.' So we went out there."

"There's no animostiy," said Brewer. "We look forward to working with the mayor."

While in the end there was no appearance by GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie at Menza's swearing-in ceremony as an outright counterweight to Democratic Party power here, upstart independent electeds sat in the chairs reserved for officialdom, including Linden Mayor Richard Gerbounka, Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith, and state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), all veterans who bested more powerful political operations with grassroots organizing. Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark) and Hillside Councilwoman-elect Angela Garretson also attended the outdoor ceremony.

"When you allow people to control your destiny, you're always going to have a problem," said Rice, who ran against the Newark and Irvington machines in 2007, and applauded Menza's ability to build a coalition to win. "Today, this isn't about whether or not you like Mayor Menza. It's time to rally around him."  

When the mayor asked Rice for a blank check from Trenton, Rice laughed him off, though Menza seemed serious a moment later when he said to the crowd, "My door's only open. With your support, we're going to make Hillside one helluva place."

Added O'Shea, "If you're not involved, don't bitch."