August 7, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Mahwah Council stalemate leaves Spiech’s seat vacant by Frank J. McMahon At its last public meeting, the Mahwah Township Council was unable to reach a decision on appointing someone to fill a vacancy on the governing body. As a result, the seat will remain open until someone is elected in the November general election and is sworn-in to the posi- tion in January. The vacancy was created when former Councilman John Spiech resigned June 27. Three people were nominated, but none of the three received enough votes of the council to be appointed to the position. Planning board member and former council candidate Jonathan Marcus was nominated in writing by Councilman Charles “Chuck” Jandris; former town- ship councilman and freeholder Robert Hermansen was nominated in writing by Councilwoman Lisa DiGiulio and Coun- cilman Steven Sbarra, although DiGiulio later withdrew that nomination; and Robert Lockwood, the secretary of the township’s Republican Club, who was just recently appointed to fill a vacancy on the township’s board of adjustment, was nominated during the meeting by Councilman Roy Larson. Marcus did not receive any positive votes of the council and DiGiulio, Jan- dris, and Council President Harry Wil- liams explained their votes, saying they would prefer to leave the seat open until the upcoming election. The council’s vote on Hermansen ended up in a 3-3 tie with Larson and council- men John Roth and Sbarra voting “yes” and DiGiulio, Jandris, and Williams voting “no.” That tie vote was broken by Mayor William Laforet, who voted against Her- mansen’s appointment. The vote on Lockwood also ended up in a tie, with the same council members voting for and against his appointment. Again, the mayor broke the tie by voting against Lock- wood’s appointment. Laforet said after the meeting that his “no” votes were not intended to be votes against any particular candidate, but were intended to give the voters of Mahwah the opportunity to decide who should fill the vacancy in the general election. The person elected in November will not be sworn in until the January 2014 reor- ganization meeting, and will not become a voting council member until that time. Roth said tie votes were exactly what he wanted to avoid by filling the vacancy and he called the council’s failure to appoint someone to fill the vacancy as the “absolute worst of politics.” He decried what he called the “deal making that went on last week” and he said “personal agendas led to what occurred here tonight and it is shameful.” Larson described the council’s lack of action as a “great disservice” to the com- munity. Referring to Jandris’ nomination of Marcus and DiGiulio’s nomination of Her- mansen, Larson pointed out that those two council members, who voted against the appointments claiming they did not want to fill the vacancy, had submitted nomina- tions for two of the people they voted not to appoint. Regarding DiGiulio’s withdrawal of her nomination of Hermansen, Larson said, “I can only believe that was for personal polit- ical purposes.” During the public portion of the meet- ing, Hermansen criticized the council for not appointing someone to the seat, claim- ing that by ordinance the council must have seven members. He said that two of the council members who voted not to appoint someone to fill the seat had been appointed to fill previous vacancies on the council. Hermansen claimed that DiGiulio origi- nally urged him to seek the nomination. He accused her of backing away from her nomination of him because he refused to commit to supporting Williams for council president at the next reorganization. “The only person who stopped me from being on the council is Lisa DiGiulio,” Her- mansen said. DiGiulio acknowledged that she sub- mitted a nomination of Hermansen on the afternoon of Monday, July 15, but said she withdrew the nomination the day of the council meeting, July 25, after having sev- eral disagreements with Hermansen. She denied, however, that her withdrawal of the nomination had anything to do with Her- mansen’s potential support of Williams for the council president position. She empha- sized that her vote was not based on whether Hermansen would support Williams to be council president. Hermansen indicated that he will seek election to the council in November, saying he will do whatever he can to get the oppor- tunity because he says he is qualified. Both Hermansen and Marcus, along with environmental commission member Gregg Sgambati, picked up nominating petitions at the municipal building in order to seek election to the council in November.