Two Point Boro Council Members and Fire Officials Start New Terms

Council members Toni DePaola and Bill Borowsky were sworn in to three-year terms at Sunday's organization meeting at Borough Hall.

Jerry Dasti was reappointed municipal attorney with the lone no vote cast by Council member Chris Goss.

Goss was also the lone no vote when votes were taken for a number of other appointments including: Council member Robert Sabosik as council president and as a planning board member; Hutchins, Farrell, Meyer and Allison to be reappointed municipal auditor; Jan L. Wauters of Bathgate, Wegener and Wolf to be bond counsel and appointment of T & M Associates as municipal conflict engineer.

Goss was the only council member during the meeting to ask Borough Business Administrator David Maffei to reduce his council stipend from the annual amount of $3,200 to $1. Mayor William Schroeder receives an annual stipend of $4,200.

Council member Chris Leitner, following his past practice, does not accept the stipend.

In the past, other governing body members, including Council member Robert Sabosik, have forsaken the stipend or donated it to charity.

Regarding the appointment of municipal prosecutor, DePaola said she wanted to keep Joseph Coronato as municipal prosecutor. He was appointed to the position by council on Feb. 7, 2012.

The agenda called for Steven Zabarsky of the law firm of Citta and Holzapfel to be appointed as municipal prosecutor.

DePaola said that although Coronato has been nominated by Gov. Christie to be Ocean County Prosecutor, he has not yet been sworn into that position, so she would like to keep him in his current municipal position.

Democrats Goss and Chris Leitner voted for Zabarsky, with all four Republican council members, DePaola, Borowsky, Sabosik and John Wisniewski, voting against the appointment, so the motion failed.

After the meeting, DePaola said she believes that when Coronato is sworn in as county prosecutor, she expects council to appoint Zabarsky as municipal prosecutor.

There was unanimous support for many other appointments including: Randall L. Tranger of Mallon and Tranger as public defender; the reappointment of Maryanne O'Rourke as deputy municipal clerk; Sean Gertner as conflict public defender; Jeffrey R. Surenian as special counsel for affordable housing; re-appointment of Zabarsky as conflict prosecutor; the reappointment of school traffic guards and five special police officers. (See agenda as attached PDF for other appointments.)

New Borough Emergency Management Coordinator

There were also mayoral appointments including a three-year term to Borough resident William Ippolito as Office of Emergency Management Coordinator. Council does not vote on appointments made by the mayor.

Ippolito is a full-time Point Pleasant Beach police sergeant. When asked how he will allocate his time if there is an emergency, such as Irene or Sandy, that impacts the Borough and the Beach, Ippolito said that while his full-time job comes first, he will use his off-duty hours to devote to the OEM position and when he is working in the Beach, he will delegate to OEM Deputy Coordinator Kiel Arnone.

When asked after the meeting about Ippolito's duel duties, Mayor William Schroeder said he is confident that Ippolito will fulfill his new duties when he is not working in his full-time position, and, when necessary, delegate to Arnone, who he is confident can successfully fill in for Ippolito.

Schroeder said the Borough may also ask for a volunteer to serve as a second deputy.

The position of OEM Coordinator was vacated about a week after Sandy struck when Bill Dikun, a longtime member of the volunteer fire department, left the position following what he characterized only as "philosophical differences with the mayor."

Since then, Arnone has filled in and was paid $3,200 for his work responding to post-Sandy emergency calls, establishing, operating and supervising the Borough's emergency relief center and various other duties, Schroeder said.

Now that Ippolito is in the coordinator position, Arnone will no longer be paid unless council decides to expand the Emergency Management budget, Schroeder said.

Ippolito said he and Arnone are neighbors and friends and are looking forward to working together to serve the community.

Ippolito will be paid $3,350 per year for the part-time, civil service position, Maffei said.

The organization meeting opened with a performance by members of the Point Borough High School band.