Former zoning board member criticizes mayor’s moves
HAMILTON » The honeymoon is over.
Mayor Jeff Martin has been in office for nearly three weeks, but the Democratic leader is already facing heat for his executive decisions.
“Our mayor is off to a very bad start,” Tony DiStephano Jr., a former Hamilton Township zoning board member, said in a letter to The Trentonian dated Jan. 16.
DiStephano served on the powerful Zoning Board of Adjustment from 2008 through 2019, but he detests how his tenure ended.
Martin refused to reappoint DiStephano, tossing him to the curb in favor of fresh blood that included former GOP councilwoman Ileana Schirmer.
“The mayor has a right to appoint whoever he wants,” DiStephano said in another letter to The Trentonian, “but to boast about diversity and qualifications and not follow your own recommendations tarnishes the integrity of the office and doesn’t do any justice for the people they serve.”
Martin effectively fired DiStephano and David Maher from the zoning board, replacing them with Schirmer and Anthony Angelico, a member of the mayor’s transition team.
At full membership, the zoning board features seven regular members and two alternate members. The board lacked full strength last year, but Martin rectified that problem by appointing Joe Weber back onto the board. Weber previously served as the zoning board chairman under former Democratic Mayor Glen Gilmore.
DiStephano says Weber is “qualified” and welcomes his appointment, but the ousted board member says the new mayor made a mistake by appointing Schirmer and Angelico.
“I would like to know how the other two members are qualified to be on the zoning board or more qualified than previous members who have had more than eight years’ experience?” DiStephano said in his letter. “With me it was a dedicated 12 years and not even considered!”
Schirmer served as a township councilwoman from December 2012 through December 2019 and previously ran a successful staffing firm and preschool. Schirmer says her level of township experience will be “beneficial” to the zoning board, a powerful body that may approve or reject controversial land development applications.
Martin won the mayoral election last November, defeating incumbent Republican Mayor Kelly Yaede. In a letter dated Dec. 5, 2019, DiStephano wrote Martin formally requesting to be reappointed to the zoning board.
“I take the responsibility of serving on the Board very seriously, as I have done for the past twelve years,” DiStephano said in his letter to Martin, “and I welcome the opportunity to serve the citizens of Hamilton and hope that I may continue to do so.”
Martin belatedly responded in a letter dated Jan. 10, saying: “Dear Mr. DiStephano: Thank you for past service on the Hamilton Township Zoning Board of Adjustment. The time and effort that you have previously given to this body is commendable. Once again, thank you for your past service and for caring about our community.”
Unmoved, DiStephano accuses Martin of being “disingenuous” and says the new mayor played games to get Maher removed from the zoning board.
“He placed the entire town in jeopardy to satisfy his selfish intentions,” DiStephano said of Martin’s calculated strategy for ousting Maher. “What was he thinking?”
Martin did not respond to an email or text message seeking comment for this story. The rookie mayor is usually responsive, but the former councilman whose political career began in 2018 is known to ignore the press when the proverbial poop hits the fan.
Political science
Elections have consequences, something DiStephano is all too familiar with.
DiStephano is former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo’s brother-in-law, who first appointed him to the zoning board in 2008 following a change election.
Bencivengo, a Republican who attended Martin’s Jan. 1 swearing-in ceremony, famously refused to reappoint former zoning board member Fred Dumont in 2010. Dumont, a Democrat, currently serves in the Martin administration as cabinet director of Hamilton’s Department of Community Planning and Compliance.
In a January 2010 interview, Bencivengo said he replaced Dumont because Dumont “made poor decisions” as a zoning board member. Thus, Dumont was offed from the board without fanfare when his term ended on Dec. 31, 2009.
DiStephano’s final term ended Dec. 31, 2019. He talks highly of his service, but the record shows he has cast a number of unpopular votes in his 12 years on the zoning board.
For example, DiStephano is the sole zoning board member who voted in favor of a controversial application seeking to build a massive solar-generating facility in a Rural Resource Conservation Zone off CrosswicksHamilton Square Road. The zoning board rejected that application May 22, 2012.
“The solar age coming before us today has a lot of benefits,” he said at the time. “The positives: I see no traffic. I see no noise, no fertilizer, no pesticides, very little disturbance, no greenhouse gasses resulting in cleaner air. There are far too many emissions released into the atmosphere. And if we could take a small piece of land and make a difference, I think it’s a good thing.”
Currently, another developer wants to create a solar farm in the Stream Buffer Conservation Zone off Sweetbriar Avenue. That application is expected to be considered by the zoning board later this year. Given DiStephano’s prior voting history, one may assume he has a predisposition to support any solar energy project.
Zoning board members who vote the quote-unquote ‘wrong way’ reflect poorly upon the mayor who appointed them.
In another controversial decision, DiStephano voted to expand the Route 33 porn shop on Dec. 8, 2009, one of two zoning board members who voted in the affirmative.
Established in 1974, the porn shop said it wanted to morph into an “upscale” business that attracted a diversified clientele of men, women and couples. The shop said it would accomplish that by getting rid of its infamous viewing booths and concentrating on selling lingerie, sex toys and DVDs.
The expansion plan called for Video XPress to demolish its existing 1,400-squarefoot building and construct a new 7,600-square-foot building in its place. Video XPress said it would have operated in a 4,600-square-foot sector.
“The man has a right to be there, the right to do business,” DiStephano said of the applicant who had sought the porn shop expansion, as previously reported by The Trentonian.
Board appointments are something like a quid-proquo: The mayor appoints members to boards and commissions and expects those members to vote in the best interests of Hamilton Township.
If Martin thinks an enlarged porn shop and massive solar farm in a beautiful farm zone are not in the best interests of Hamilton Township, that may partly explain why he did not want to reappoint DiStephano to another four-year term.
“To be a mayor you must lead with the utmost integrity and set a good example,” DiStephano said in his letter. “Our mayor is off to a very bad start!!”