 October 25, 2019
"On August 7, 2019, an email was sent to Municipal Chairs in Caldwell alerting them of the need to possibly move voting locations due to construction and/or demolition of the parking deck at the Caldwell Community Center. Correspondence from Caldwell’s Deputy Clerk on August 9, 2019 to the Essex County Board of Elections stated, “I have spoken to the Administrator and the Mayor about the parking deck. They anticipate work to begin in September or early October depending on the award of the contract and the scheduling. The parking deck will not be available from mid to late September until mid-November.” However, open bidding for the project was scheduled for October 24th , a month after the administration claimed construction would be starting. The Mayor John Kelley fabricated a false story about construction on the parking to move voting locations. The Mayor was the one who initiated moving voting locations and neither of the two Republicans on Town Council were included in the original email dated July 12, 2019 to the Essex County Board of Elections. This move was apparently made within the vacuum of the Mayor’s office, without alerting all of the Council members to his intention. In his last correspondence to the Board of Elections on September 20, 2019, Mayor John Kelley did not bother to inform the Board that the open bid was taking place on October 24th and there would be no need to move voting locations. A notification was then posted on the website that the project was “cancelled”, but the Mayor and Administrator never alerted the Essex County Board of Elections. If it was not for this campaign alerting the Essex County Board of Elections, they would not have known of the project being cancelled. She had to email the town regarding the status of the parking deck and was told it was “delayed because of how close we are to winter now and what needs to be done on the bottom deck will not be able to be constructed in a timely manner.” We maintain that this move was politically motivated and an ethics complaint is being made to the Department of Community Affairs." Capozzoli and Penna for Council Comments are closed.
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