Sussex Council declines to appoint replacement

The Sussex Borough Council did not appoint any of the members the Republican Committee nominated to fill the vacancy on the Borough Council on May 18.

The committee nominated Kevin Marks, Rudolph Smith and Thomas Prout to fill the vacancy left when former Council President Walter Cleary resigned on May 1 to move to Florida for retirement.

The council had 30 days to fill the vacancy, and if it fails to do so in that time, the committee can appoint one of its nominees to fill the vacancy within 15 days of the deadline passing.

A motion was made to appoint Marks, but it did not receive a second, as none of the council members knew any of the nominees.

“I don’t know two of these names,” Councilman Frank Dykstra said. “I am respectfully requesting to see a resume on each of these candidates.”

The council does not have another scheduled meeting until June 1, which would be beyond the 30-day deadline it has to appoint Cleary’s replacement. The council discussed having a special meeting to make the appointment.

“We can reach out to the committee for resumes and if the council wishes to defer to the committee, we wouldn’t have the special meeting,” borough attorney Jonathan Frodello said.

Council President Mario Poggi suggested sending the matter back to the committee and letting them make the choice.

“We don’t know any of these people and wouldn’t want to insult anybody by having to pick one,” he said.