MOUNT OLIVE (11/04/06) – The last meeting of the three candidates for mayor this week broke little new ground but confirmed two items: The three candidates have their own ideas about a business administrator and the Budd Lake Beach has a bright future.

The meeting was a live questioning session on Radio Station WRNJ on Thursday. The two reporters doing the questioning were Phil Garber, the managing editor of the Mount Olive Chronicle and Joyce Estey, news director at the station.

Shortly before the program was to start Mayor Richard DeLaRoche sent Estey an e-mail reneging on a previous agreement to participate. That caused a good bit of last minute re-arranging for questioning by the reporters.

"I’m really disappointed," Estey said, "her news reporter instincts that told her with DeLaRoche the program would be more confrontational, but now it would be a friendly "give and take" by the other three candidates….not what reporters hope for.

DeLaRoche has passed before on confronting opponents for his job. Late last month he declined to participate in a Chamber of Commerce Candidates’ Night.

It was a first public appearance at a forum by Independent candidate Walter Lata who presented a third idea concerning a business administrator.

He suggested that if elected, he would stick with the present administrator, Rick Prill, who he said he would immediately sit with to guide him in the changes he would be making in town. If he doesn’t work out by next year it will be time enough to look for a new one, he said.

Republican David Scapicchio and Democrat John Mania stuck with their original proposals: Scapicchio to "hit the ground running" on Wednesday by hiring a former councilman who served 12 years and was a long time involved official in the township who had abroad experience in management in the private sector. He said he was confident his candidate would receive council approval.

Mania said he had talked to several department heads about temporarily filling the job for 60 days as has been done in the past and had gotten more than one positive response. He said the individual would serve while his administration conducted a search for a professional business administrator with a public administration education and experience.

He said he would put together a bi-partisan committee to assist in the search, the committee being made up of Scapicchio, the council president and other officials and business men with recruiting experience in the township.

"I have absolutely nothing against the candidate you’re suggesting," he said to Scapicchio, and I would hope he would put himself forward as a candidate but I would want to explore many candidates to find the most qualified one," he said

Scapicchio insisted a highly qualified candidate is not going to apply for the job particularly because there’s only a 13 month guarantee.

In response to a question concerning "the police department being a bit stretched" the three candidates agreed they would confer with Police Chief Ed Katona and give a priority to the public safety needs in the township.

Scapicchio pointed out that he was a member of the Town Council and was supportive of hiring the two resource police officers who, in September, were assigned to the township schools.

Lata agreed and added he also would be concerned about the volunteer fire departments and EMS squads "because there are issues there."

All agreed as they have throughout the campaign on the need to acquire "good" ratables, that is commercial, business and "adult residential" and the revision of zoning in some areas to make development more attractive to developers. Scapicchio and Mania say they are determined to lead the township in being "pro active" in attracting new ratables and thereby bring taxes under control.

All agreed that the Budd Lake beach would get a significant makeover. Scapicchio said when the new Department of Public Works building is complete the equipment presently being stored at a building near the beach would be moved to the new building.

He even suggested that the building presently holding that equipment was steel and he would explore moving the whole building to the municipal complex to provide additional space there.

Mania agreed that an innovative plan should be developed to make the site an area of real beauty, perhaps a good restaurant and/or a concession stand, picnic tables, swings and children’s play equipment, grills and fireplaces for a real family picnic area.

Lata agreed but added he had concerns about the water quality to which Scapicchio responded that the township has always been concerned about the water quality and since the sewer systems were installed the quality of the water improves daily.

Scapicchio touted the 2,000 acres the township has acquired for open space while he was a member of the Council. "I was instrumental in all of that," he said, pointing out that for every dollar the town put up for that land it had received four and even five dollars in federal, state and other land conservation grants. And now he has proposed exploring the use of some of that money to build recreation sites on some of the land areas.

Mania reminded that he started the effort that eventually became the International Trade Center. He said when he moved to the township 48 years ago there was talk that Palisades Amusement Park in Bergen County was making moves to bring the amusement park there. He started the committee that worked tirelessly to petition for a referendum that eventually banned the amusement park. After that as a member of the Planning Board he worked with the developers to create the trade zone, he said.

The three candidates also agreed on the need to explore sharing services within the township with the board of education and with neighboring towns.

Lata, who worked in the Department of Public Works for 18 years said he is convinced the township can save a lot of money by sharing services with other towns and within the township, especially with the Board of Education. "There’s a lot of duplication and waste," he said, "I saw it and I know how to correct it."

In their closing summaries Lata conceded he had no political background and has never held office but he has been a volunteer fireman, an EMS voluntee and that his family had always been political. He pointed out that his grandparents and an uncle had been active in politics and that his grandfather had helped start the Democratic Party in Mount Olive.

Besides that experience he said, he "had common sense, good ethics and wanted to help people. I care about the town and I want to be part of making it better," he said.

Both Scapicchio and Mania reviewed the many years they had served on local government boards and their business experience, Scapicchio running a family owned construction business and Mania working in construction sales management for 40 years.