Politics & Government

Mayor, Councilman Square Off on Harassment Allegation

Public portion of Council meeting sees sharp debate between Barberio, Nelson.

Near the end of a lengthy, animated Parsippany-Troy Hills Town Council meeting Tuesday, politics took full circle.

 

During the meeting at Parsippany Hills High School, the mayor and council responded to a statement from the public about what is equivalent to a gag order being implemented by Mayor James Barberio on councilman and mayoral candidate Jonathan Nelson.

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The statement, from resident Pat Petaccia, questioned why Nelson was “denied access to (municipal) department heads.” Petaccia continued to implore that actions like this be barred from occurring in the future, as it was “an abuse of power.”

Barberio then abruptly steered the conversation elsewhere, saying to Petaccia, “You’re getting political in this matter.

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“You have no clue what happened at Town Hall,” said Barberio. “There was an incident of employee harassment. I had to take action. When there’s official harassment, I have to respond. I’d do it again if I had to. A complaint has been filed, it’s a personnel matter.”

Blatantly agitated, Nelson said, “I have no idea who I harassed.”

The incident stems from earlier allegations where, according to the mayor, Councilman Nelson ‘harassed’ municipal employees. In response, Barberio initiated a directive that forced Nelson to seek permission to speak with department heads through the township’s Business Administrator.

In a July 16 Patch piece, Nelson said, “The council has every right to speak to department heads when it concerns residents of the township. They are under the direct order of the mayor not to speak to council members.”

Nelson went on to claim that in a July staff meeting, Barberio forbade department heads from speaking to all councilmen, not just specifically Nelson.

However, Barberio did not return calls to respond to the claim at the time, nor did he speak about it at the Aug. 6 agenda meeting.

Nelson did claim, however, that the nature of the incident originates from a phone call he received about an overgrown lawn. When the resident complained of an unsatisfactory or no answer from the town, Nelson attempted to converse with the zoning officer, but was “not allowed to speak with her.”

“The administration decided I cannot speak (to her),” said Nelson.

“That’s not the incident that did it,” Barberio said sternly. “This gets serious after a while, it’s an issue.”

Attempting to tackle the matter between swarms of public comments over the Waterview zoning issue, the men went on to dissect the issue, which according to Nelson, also involved a gag order placed on Councilman Paul Carifi Jr. about a year ago.

“Were you not allowed to speak with department heads?” Nelson asked of Carifi. After an affirmative response, Nelson added, “And was there harassment involved?”

Carifi denied any occurrence of the sort, which then provided Nelson with the notion that the issue is boldly political.

The mayor later said that the Carifi ban stemmed from an issue over a Parks and Forestry phone call about trees Carifi canvassed. To stay “up to date” on the matter, the mayor responded to Carifi’s inquiry himself by email.

But Barberio and Nelson, whom are running against one another in November’s mayoral race, were stormily squaring off over the issue.

Barberio maintained that there is no categorical policy in place forbidding dialogue between councilmen and department heads. In the July statement, he said Nelson would be forced to go through the business administrator “if he continues to harass employees.”

Attempting to buffer some of the tension, Councilman Michael dePierro spoke about comparable past occurrences.

“Some individuals in the past (have made similar actions),” said dePierro. “Someone was asking for lots and lots of information and reports; the work was not getting done, and the council stepped in and said ‘Why are you not doing your work?’ So a gag order was put on…”

He said that the enforcement allows the mayor to examine what type of workload the department heads are put under, and how long work may take them.

“But I’m not implying about this issue,” said dePierro.

As more residents stepped to the microphone for the public portion of the meeting, a handful suggested that there are “serious issues” taking place within the Township internally.

As Barberio responded to one resident, “It’s election season.”


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