May 8, 2008
To the editor:
Although I do not personally know Councilman Murphy, I felt compelled to write and thank him. I have been attending many more town council meetings of late, and have found him to be an honest, ethical, and fiscally responsible advocate. I’m glad I voted for him.
I noticed (in January of 2007), as our town council was about to start discussions regarding the possibility of merging our health department with that of the county, that he did a remarkable, and honorable thing. He read a simple statement into the record, explaining that he was not only an elected official of Sparta, but also a contracted public official in another Sussex County municipality—which had already merged with the County. As such, he recused himself from participating in any discussion, or vote, on the proposed merger in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
In stark contrast to Councilman Murphy’s candid remarks, it appears that Deputy Mayor Brian Brady has seemingly gone in the other direction. As his friends Mayor Spekhardt and Councilman Goldberg have been valiantly trying to get an ordinance in place to cover just his four vending machines in Station Park, Mr. Brady has sat, silent, in the midst of all the turmoil. These non-compliant (read: illegal) machines have been discussed numerous times, on 10/23/07, 11/8/07, 12/11/07, 1/8/08 and 2/26/08 — and yet, Deputy Mayor Brady has not once—to my knowledge—accepted responsibility for these machines. As President of the Babe Ruth Baseball League in Sparta, and as that group’s representative, it is his name and signature on those papers that are filed with Sparta (although not all the permits and board of health certificates have been obtained or filed over the years); it would therefore appear that he is, indeed, the responsible party. Does he not fill those machines up, and reap their rewards? This whole debacle screams of impropriety.
We owe a vote of thanks to Councilman Murphy, for his candor, and for his fiscal restraint on our behalf. I, as many others in Sparta, appreciate the fact that he is trying to keep our expenses down, and our local government transparent and truthful. He can count on my vote this May 13, and those of my friends and family, too.
Anne Simkatis, Sparta
