Acting mayor choice inappropriate

On April 21, at 11:38 a.m., Mayor Victor Marotta sent the Town Council and all department heads the following message, �"In my absence, and Mr. Zuckerman's absence, I am appointing Irene Mills as Acting Mayor. She has the full authority to act in that capacity per our Administrative Code upon my appointment. This appointment is effective immediately."�However, our township administrative code does not permit Mr. Marotta to appoint his confidential assistant as an acting mayor as she is not a department head. Neither do our state laws allow it, as noted in NJSA 40:69-40A. It states,�"the Mayor shall designate the Business Administrator, any other department head or the Township Clerk to act as Mayor whenever the Mayor shall be prevented by absence from the Township, disability or other cause from attending to the duties of the Mayor's office. During such time, the person so designated by the Mayor shall possess all of the rights, powers and duties of the Mayor."�

One must assume that as of 11:39 a.m. on Tuesday, April 21, 2015, Mrs. Mills now has the right to perform marriage rites, supervise her husband as Chief of Police, and sign for purchases, except for the fact that all such actions would be contrary to law and nullified by any court as not being authorized by ordinance. When I was acting mayor, the council had to specifically authorize my powers, especially to perform marriages.

It is important that the public understands in this election year, the first mayor they elected in Vernon fails to follow the law. When asked, our township attorney simply said, "That's politics."�Likewise, we were not given any information as to how long Mr. Marotta would be gone or when he would return. In February, he went on vacation for a month.

An appropriate choice for acting mayor would have been Lauren Kirkman, our clerk, Elke Yetter, our CFO, or Randy Mills, our chief of police.

Dan Kadish
Vernon Town Council