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Recap of Last Night's Council Meeting

Mayor Bill Laforet ignores the town’s attorneys and reads a prepared statement regarding the ongoing litigation.

At last night’s Council meeting, the Council formally introduced a resolution to reverse the ban on out of state residents using Mahwah’s parks. They will also not move forward with adding the word “device” to the town’s current sign ordinance. The Council appears to be working toward settling the lawsuit with the Attorney General. Unfortunately, because the Council followed the instructions of their attorneys, no explanation was given as to why these actions are being taken. We may not all agree with this strategy, but we need to respect the process and have faith in our Council.

During council member reports, Council President Rob Hermansen announced that Councilmember Steve Sbarra will be stepping down due to personal reasons as of December 31, 2017. The Council President commented that the council has 30 days from the resignation date to find a replacement.

The biggest bombshell of the evening was when the Mayor openly and defiantly ignored the advice of the town’s attorneys and read a prepared statement regarding the ongoing litigation. During this part of the meeting, the Mayor walked out after being instructed by Council members and the town’s attorney to not make the statement. The Mayor proceeded to read his statement in the foyer to a small group that included Mahwah residents and non-residents. It’s abundantly clear to the MahwahStrong Board that the Mayor does not have the best interest of Mahwah in mind. His actions last night were deplorable and embarrassing.

The environment that we have witnessed over the last several months needs to change. Council meetings have become circuses. The Mayor and Council President have an obvious personal conflict; the media has placed a target on Mahwah; our elected officials can’t/won’t work together. Something needs to change, and we need to hold our town leaders to the highest level of professionalism possible. It’s time to put the pettiness aside and start working to building Mahwah back to the great community that it was, that it is and that it can be.

MahwahStrong is committed to continuing to advocate for positive changes for our community and will hold the Council and Mayor to those same values. We believe that Mahwah is and has always been an accepting diverse community. We do not support any language by residents or non-residents that demonstrate otherwise.