John Kulish

Hillside Mayor Joe Menza

A Superior Court Judge this afternoon in Elizabeth tossed the Hillside Township Council's request for a court injunction and restraining order against Mayor Joe Menza to prevent him from keeping three key cabinet members on the job and attending council meetings - at least until a court date on Sept. 2nd.

In office a little over a month and at odds early with the Township Council, Menza invoked his duty under the Faulkner Act when he selected a township attorney, acting business administrator and auditor.

The council by a 5-2 vote simultaneously maintained its right to oversee those hires, and moved to restrain Menza from making his appointments.   

"They wanted the judge to declare that my appointments were not valid until the court date, but the judge declined to do that, and my appointments will hold," Menza said.

Menza addressses the crowd.

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.