Hamilton councilman verbally spars with Yaede critic during public meeting
HAMILTON » A councilman once known as “Officer Friendly” got tough last week when he verbally confronted a watchdog-critic who accused the Mayor Kelly Yaede administration of lying about Hamilton Township Animal Shelter euthanasia data.
Councilman Ralph Mastrangelo, a retired Hamilton cop, says the videotaped exchange between him and township resident David Henderson is being “blown out of proportion.”
Henderson, meanwhile, is calling for Mastrangelo’s resignation, saying the blowup was unbecoming of an elected official and proof that Mastrangelo “can’t take the heat when there are controversial issues.”
The controversial issue before Hamilton Council was the township’s animal shelter and adoption center, an embattled facility that has to take corrective action following a state health inspection report that found numerous euthanasia and cleanliness violations.
Passions were elevated during the four-hour council meeting last Tuesday, and township Business Administrator Dave Kenny got heckled when he tried to speak on how Hamilton is addressing the shelter’s highly publicized deficiencies.
The verbal spat between Mastrangelo and Henderson occurred as Kenny was talking about the animal shelter. The business administrator, responding to a public comment, said the township has ended its former quick-kill euthanasia policy.
The township had a longstanding euthanasia practice of accepting sickly owner-surrendered pets and killing them for a modest service fee without waiting seven days. State law requires municipal pound facilities to hold onto animals for at least seven days before euthanizing them, except if the animal is suspected of being rabid.
Kenny at the council meeting explained the township has “ceased our policy of allowing owners to bring their pets to the shelter to be euthanized.” Then he cited shelter statistics, saying over 80 percent of the euthanized pets were both critically ill and owner-surrendered in 2018 and that over 50 percent of the shelter’s euthanized pets have been owner-surrendered in previous years.
Several members of the public made negative comments from their seats as Kenny was speaking, which rubbed Mastrangelo the wrong way at the packed council meeting.
“Can we let the man talk, please?” Mastrangelo said when Kenny was getting jeered.
“Can he not lie?” Henderson shouted.
That is when the exchange occurred between Henderson and Mastrangelo, which is nearly muted in two separate versions of the audio reviewed by The Trentonian.
Mastrangelo appears to say something, but it is not clear what he said. It sounds as if he may have said, “Excuse me?” or something to that effect.
“He doesn’t lie?” Henderson responds.
“Shut up,” someone else says in the audience, a woman.
“You talking to me?” says Henderson.
“Yeah I’m talking to you,” Mastrangelo says, sparking a confrontation.
“Speak up. I can’t hear you,” Henderson responds.
“Any time, buddy,” Mastrangelo says, shaking his head and apparently pointing his finger at Henderson. “Any time.”
“Did he just call me out?” Henderson says seconds later after the confrontation subsided.
The exchange was purely verbal. It occurred when Henderson was seated and videotaping the meeting as the Republican councilman was seated at the dais. The blowup was something of a sideshow, taking place while Kenny was delivering public comments about the animal shelter.
“This is making a mountain out of a molehill,” Mastrangelo said Wednesday in an interview with The Trentonian. “I am in total support of anything we can do to improve the shelter. I have been an animal lover all of my life.”
Mastrangelo did not apologize for his conduct but said he wishes Democratic Council President Anthony Carabelli Jr. “could have done a better job controlling the audience” and accused Henderson of violating Hamilton Township’s broadcast policy.
The township allows authorized members of the public to videotape council meetings using electronic equipment. However, “Under no circumstances shall such use interfere with the conduct of the public meeting, pose a threat to safety or security, disrupt other members of the audience, or compromise the integrity of the meeting,” reads a portion of the township’s broadcast policy.
“You are not supposed to be taping and talking, which is also a violation,” Mastrangelo said.
In terms of his “any time” remark, “It was blown out of proportion,” Mastrangelo said, adding it was an invitation for him and Henderson to “talk” and “discuss” the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter “anytime.” He said he has known Henderson “for many years.”
The councilman cast himself as a good guy — “I am out to help the community,” and, “I have been on council 2.5 years, never was rude to the public” — and he questioned Henderson’s mental health.
“I think he is mentally unstable,” Mastrangelo said of Henderson. “I think he should get checked out.”
The councilman pointed to controversial Facebook comments that Henderson made over the years and mentioned the fact that Henderson in 2018 has bombarded the Hamilton Township Municipal Clerk’s Office with numerous Open Public Records Act requests, known as OPRAs, which Mastrangelo says “is crippling the government.”
Hamilton’s Municipal Clerk Eileen Gore has complained about Henderson’s conduct at previous council meetings, according to Mastrangelo.
Henderson responds
Henderson, a GOP political strategist who has become one of Yaede’s biggest critics, said Mastrangelo should resign from office.
“If I from the audience challenged him to a fight while he was up on the dais, I am sure the police would have been called and I would have been arrested,” Henderson said. “If he thinks I am mentally unstable, I guess I would have jumped up and taken his challenge. I guess it is clear who is more levelheaded between the two of us.”
“If they were more transparent, there would be less OPRAs,” Henderson added. “When they stonewall people of information, we have to use our legal rights and do OPRAs.”
“He admitted that he challenged me, and I think that is good reason for him to resign. I call for his resignation,” Henderson said of Mastrangelo. “I voted for him, and I won’t vote for him again based on the way he acts. He has to conduct himself with a modicum of decorum. As a retired police officer, as a councilman, he needs to set the bar higher.”
Other perspectives
Former Hamilton councilman Dennis Pone, a Republican, attended last Tuesday’s rowdy council meeting and said he understands why Mastrangelo got frustrated.
“The Henderson ‘clan’ are bullies and cowards at the same time,” Pone said Wednesday in a written statement. “They hide behind their computers and spew mean-spirited, hateful, and childish postings against the mayor, her family, and, God forbid, anyone who supports her and her administration. Our families see this libelous garbage and it hurts them. It has no purpose other than being a sick, misguided vendetta.”
“I am sickened by their behavior,” Pone added. “I completely understand Ralph’s frustration. I have had it as well.”
Councilman Rick Tighe, a Democrat, sits next to Mastrangelo on the dais. He heard the retired policeman say “Anytime, anywhere” or something to that effect at last week’s council meeting, he said.
Tighe did not pay attention to the Mastrangelo-Henderson sideshow but was well aware, he said, of the intense environment that filled council chambers that night.
“Things are elevated right now where residents are at a heightened state of awareness,” Tighe said Wednesday in an interview. “They certainly have a lot of justifiable concern with how our government and how our mayor is handling the issues that our government faces and that our community faces. It is important for everyone to keep their composure at a time like this.”
Council meetings have particularly become more boisterous ever since the Democraticled Hamilton Council called for an all-out probe of the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter back in June.
The New Jersey Department of Health conducted a raid-like inspection on the township’s animal shelter in July and released its inspection report earlier this month. Among the most egregious violations cited was how the shelter failed to wait seven days before euthanizing numerous animals at the facility. Township officials say that transgression and other deficiencies have been corrected.
In the meantime, Hamilton Council is proceeding with its subcommittee investigation into the troubled shelter.
“We are interested in making sure the animals are treated humanely, that we increase the adoption rate and that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely,” Tighe said, “and that is our goal as a committee, to make sure all of those things are happening.”
Although last week’s council meeting is best remembered for its raucousness, Tighe said Council President Carabelli “is doing an excellent job” running the council meetings while “having a lot of patience with everyone and allowing everyone to have their input.”
Kenny, the business administrator, is not the only public official who had difficulty speaking at last week’s council meeting.
Mastrangelo also had a difficult time speaking during portions of the meeting. At one point when Mastrangelo was trying to comment, Carabelli struck the gavel, saying: “Please, everyone listen. We can’t hear each other and it is inappropriate for madam clerk because she needs to take good minutes. So if she is not getting the recording it is not going to work. I need you to keep the comments and the noise level down if you would as we go forward. I know that you have a lot of energy in the room and you want to make yourself heard, but that can be done in the public comment portion.”