May 30th - Subject: Grenafege did not advocate cutting Police Force

    In response to Republican candidate for Middletown Committee Anthony Fiore’s recent letter, “Candidate's Proposal Puts Residents at Risk”, his attempts to make it seem that Democratic candidate for Township Committee James Grenafege, suggested that the township could save money by laying off members of the township police department is wrong and completely off base. Quote from the letter -
    "At a recent public hearing held to discuss the 2008 Middletown municipal budget, resident and Democratic candidate for Township Committee James Grenafege urged the Township Committee to explore reducing the size of the Middletown police force."
    Mr. Fiore’s attempt to twist events is just another example of how low the Middletown Republicans will stoop to smear anyone who disagrees with their positions.
    During Mr. Grenafege’s time to speak, he made a number of suggestions such as combining the Library system with the Arts Center in order to save money because similar services are at times provided by both, such as, art and photography shows, music and dance programs. Deputy Mayor Brightbill could not grasp this idea or see that certain services overlap each other, so she dismissed the idea.
    Mr. Grenafege then went on to ask if a productivity study was ever done across the township workforce, to determine if township personnel were being used efficiently and appropriately. If not, then maybe the workforce could be trimmed through layoffs. It was at this point that Mayor Scharfenberger and Township Attorney Bernard Reilly mentioned that the police department was the largest sub-group of employees in the township and began twisting Grenafege’s intentions into the apparent support of the reduction in the number of township police officers. When Police Chief Robert Oches spoke soon afterwards, it wasn’t so much of a condemnation against Mr. Grenafege’s comments, but more against the notion that his leadership was in question.
    It should be stated that Chief Oches does a great job managing the police force. He was correct in stating that Middletown has the “lowest officer – per capita in the surrounding counties”. If anything, Middletown needs more police officers not less.
    It was never the intent of Mr. Grenafege to suggest that the number of Middletown police officers be reduced through layoffs. If people attending the meeting that night came away with that feeling then they were wrong. Jim Grenafege is a thoughtful, passionate an honest resident of Middletown, who only wants the best possible service for it citizens.

Michael Morris
Monmouth County Committeeman
Middletown, NJ