Residents compare Clifton council members fighting over seats to preschoolers

August 8, 2024

CLIFTON ― An ongoing feud between two City Council members devolved into an impasse that lasted almost half an hour on Wednesday night when one demanded that the other’s seat be moved.

The 18-minute impasse around the rectangular table of the council chamber in City Hall lasted 13 minutes longer than the council spent discussing the ongoing police contract negotiations at the same meeting, members said.

The feud has been brewing for a while, but it came to a head in recent weeks when Councilwoman Rosemary Pino wrote a letter to Mayor Ray Grabowski saying she no longer felt comfortable sitting next to Councilwoman Mary Sadrakula.

Pino demanded that the mayor move Sadrakula’s seat.

At the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting, Pino asked the mayor what he planned to do about her request to have Sadrakula’s seat changed. The mayor said he spoke with Sadrakula several times about it, but the councilwoman said she would not move.

The mayor then asked Pino if she would change her seat, but she told him no, because Sadrakula is “the aggressor” in the situation and the one who should move.

So began the impasse…

A longtime observer of New Jersey’s local governments, Marc Pfeiffer, a researcher at Rutgers’ Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said part of the problem can be attributed to the recent member turnover on the City Council, with the exit of James Anzaldi as mayor after more than 30 years and the deaths of members Peter Eagler and Lauren Murphy.

Demographic changes and new generations of residents mean that there are new interests and issues that council members champion. It can make it difficult to agree on priorities.

Also contributing to the problem, Pfeiffer said, is that the council is nonpartisan one. Party leadership and discipline can often keep elected officials in line.

“You also have to avoid putting people into corners,” he said, adding that it is better to keep open ways for people to save face and remember that they are there to do the people’s business.

NorthJersey.com, August 8, 2024

 

Recent Posts

“Work Trends RU” Podcast with WorkingNation’s Jane Oates

This week's guest on the Heldrich Center's Work Trends RU podcast is Jane Oates, Senior Policy Advisor at WorkingNation. She and Dr. Carl Van Horn discuss WorkingNation’s mission, objectives, and accomplishments; the power of digital storytelling; the challenges of...

Zhang et al. Study Street-View Greenspace and Exercise

GPS-based street-view greenspace exposure and wearable assessed physical activity in a prospective cohort of US women Abstract Background Increasing evidence positively links greenspace and physical activity (PA). However, most studies use measures of greenspace, such...

NJSPL: Some College, No Credential Population in NJ

Overview of the Some College, No Credential Population and Educational Outcomes in New Jersey, 2023–2024 New Jersey State Policy Lab Supporting New Jersey residents in returning to college after leaving without a credential has been an increasing focus of the state’s...

Loh and Noland Explore Public Charging Station Disparities

Equal charging for all: Are there income-based disparities in public charging stations? Abstract We compare charging station accessibility for different income groups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using a microsimulation model, we estimate charging station...

Heldrich Center Releases New Work Trends Brief and Website

The Heldrich Center for Workforce Development is pleased to announce the availability of two new research products resulting from its long-running public opinion polling series, Work Trends. To better understand the public’s attitudes about work, employers, and the...