Peter Carton, 63, is the longtime chairman of the Middletown Republican Party. Carton strongly opposes the Town Center project on the grounds that it would bring too much traffic into the area.
Azzolina's nephew, Philip Scaduto, organized a failed attempt in 2002 to unseat Carton as GOP chairman.
Carton is the head of the public finance unit of Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione law firm in Newark and serves as bond counsel for Monmouth County, Middletown and several other local governments His law firm is paid about $20,000 a year by Middletown, and was paid $69,941 by Monmouth County in 2003 for bond work.
Carton's brother, Lawrence, is the attorney for the Middletown Planning Board, which paid him $30,000 last year.
Judith Stanley Coleman, 69, a Republican, has been chairwoman of the Middletown Planning Board since 1981. She opposes the Town Center and accuses Azzolina of making the dispute personal. Stanley Coleman is president of the Monmouth Conservation Foundation, an organization whose mission is to preserve open space.
Although Stanley Coleman voted for the 1993 master plan that recommended the town center zoning, in 2003, she voted to recommend the township rezone the Azzolina property for age-restricted housing. A judge overturned the 2003 master plan in July after he determined that Stanley Coleman and three other Planning Board members had a conflict of interest because they belonged to a neighborhood group that opposed the Town Center.
Azzolina accuses Stanley Coleman of helping to lead the opposition to his project, a charge she denies. The assemblyman and Stanley Coleman have been at odds on and off for 20 years over zoning issues. One dispute even centered over Food Circus' trademark 22-foot-high clown outside the Route 35 store. Azzolina said Stanley Coleman told him once, "Why don't you tear it down; it's ugly."
I told her, "No way everybody loves it," Azzolina said. "She is the only one who has been nasty about it."
Stanley Coleman was a national Republican committeewoman until she lost her seat in June. She said she believes her conservation work cost her the position.
William F. Dowd, 50, is township attorney and was Monmouth County Republican Party chairman until June, when county Republican committee members voted him out of office.
Dowd is paid a salary of $50,000 as attorney. His Red Bank law firm, Dowd & Reilly, was paid $320,962 in legal fees in 2003. Over the last four years, the firm has been paid more than $78,000 to fight the Town Center, according to township records.
Dowd accuses Azzolina of being a "greedy" developer. Azzolina accuses, Dowd of making money off of legal fees in the fight against the project.
Rosemarie D. Peters, 62, is a Republican township committeewoman, and a former mayor. She voted to rezone 85 acres owned by Azzolina and his companies for a town center in 1994,but withdrew her support from the project in 2000 when his family filed an application to build on 137 acres.
Peters said traffic from commercial development in neighboring communities has already clogged township roads. She voted to change the zoning on the Town Center property in April to permit only age-restricted housing. Peters receives a $4,000 stipend and family health benefits for serving as a committeewoman. Azzolina actively campaigned against her ultimately successful re-election effort last year.
Patrick W. Parkinson, 57, is a Republican township committeeman and former mayor who opposes the Town Center, although he supported a smaller concept in 1994. In April, he voted to rezone the land for age-restricted housing. Parkinson receives a $4,000 annual stipend as committeeman, and he is executive director of the Township of Middletown Sewerage Authority, a job that pays $105,000 a year. Parkinson was a committeeman when the authority commissioners hired him in 1997. He also serves on the NJ Transit board of directors.
In 2002, then-Township Clerk Rosa Garcia sued Parkinson, accusing him of sexual harassment, a charge he denied in court papers.
Parkinson's wife, Claire A. Parkinson, is a secretary in the township Parks and Recreation Department, where she is paid $28,126. Both receive government health benefits.
Chantal Bouw, 54, is chairwoman of the Middletown Sewerage Authority, where she receives free health benefits for her family and a $2,116 stipend. She also serves on the zoning Board of Adjustment and proposed the motion that rejected the Town Center following 14 months of hearings.
Cliff Raisch, 49, is vice president of the Middletown Republican Party. He also serves on the township Planning Board and is a commissioner for the Middletown Sewerage Authority, where he receives free family medical benefits and a $1,750 stipend. His wife, Maureen, is the assistant to the mayor and is paid $40,736.
Cliff Raisch voted for the 2003 township master plan, which suggested rezoning the Town Center property to age-restricted housing.
James Hinckley, 64, is president of the Middletown Republican Club and chairman of the zoning board, which rejected an application for the Town Center.
He is also a Middletown Sewerage Authority commissioner, which entitles him to free family health benefits and a $1,750 stipend.
Rosa Garcia, 34, former township clerk, was hired in 1998 and resigned last month. She claimed in her lawsuit against the township that Committeeman Patrick W. Parkinson sexually harassed her, recommending that she host an office picnic wearing a bikini and spend time at his house while his wife was away.
Garcia, who has since married and changed her surname to Crowley, was on unpaid maternity leave from her $66,373-a-year job from September through Aug. 13, when she resigned following settlement of her suit. Middletown Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Caliendo accused the Township Committee of hiding her $90,000 insurance settlement payment from the taxpayers.
Dawn L. Bennett, 47, a township secretary, sued the township and Garcia in 2002, claiming Garcia created a "sexually charged" workplace by bragging of her sexual exploits and by using employees in the clerk's office to run interference in her various relationships. Bennett, who is paid $46,647, claimed that despite her complaints to superiors, the township failed to address Garcia's behavior and instead transferred Bennett to another job. The township settled Bennett's lawsuit in July for $60,000, according to a source.