On Jan. 1, the Maplewood Township Committee held its first 2018 meeting, at which Mayor Vic DeLuca and Committeeman Dean Dafis were sworn in; the mayor delivered the State of the Township Address; and committee members were appointed to various boards.
Dafis has the distinction of being Maplewood’s first openly gay committee member. At the meeting, in a show of solidarity, DeLuca and Dafis were sworn in while placing their hands on a stack of three books — a Hebrew Bible, a Christian Bible and a copy of the Quran.
The committee voted unanimously Jan. 1 to reappoint DeLuca as mayor and Frank McGehee became deputy mayor. While this was all par for the course, there had been some question in December as to who would be taking on the role of mayor, which in Maplewood is selected annually by the members of the Township Committee from within their ranks. DeLuca was selected to be mayor for the 13th time, but this was unexpected.
For the past year, especially during DeLuca’s campaign for re-election, there was substantial talk of replacing him as mayor — not due to his record, but because some residents felt it was time for a change, especially as the system was not set up for the township to maintain the same mayor for a decade.
One of the chief proponents of shaking things up with a new mayor was the recently elected Dafis, who on Jan. 1 replaced India Larrier. During his campaign, Dafis said at debates and to the News-Record that he felt Maplewood should welcome a new mayor to stay in line with how the town’s governmental system was intended.
For this reason, it was surprising that Dafis voted at the Dec. 19 meeting to rename DeLuca as mayor, bringing the vote to 3 for DeLuca and 2 for Committeeman Greg Lembrich. Dafis, DeLuca and Committeewoman Nancy Adams voted for DeLuca, while Lembrich and McGehee voted for Lembrich.
At the meeting, Dafis revealed that, although he had initially said he would vote for Lembrich, he had changed his mind prior to the meeting. While Dafis did vote for DeLuca, he also said that he saw this as DeLuca’s “possibly one final year as mayor.”
Dafis spent approximately 10 minutes explaining his reasoning for choosing DeLuca over Lembrich, among them his belief that DeLuca will be able to work well with incoming Gov. Phil Murphy.
“It’s no secret since there has been a lot of talk and speculation and gossip about who I’m going to nominate for mayor,” Dafis said at the Dec. 19 incoming Township Committee meeting. “I had conversations earlier this year about this with Mr. Lembrich and assured him at the time that I was in his camp. I had conversations with Mayor DeLuca as well during that time, before that time, since that time. It’s also no secret that because of my conversations with Mr. Lembrich it made for some uncomfortable events between me and the mayor during our time out there as running mates.”
Dafis added that he not only considered his own opinion when voting, but that of constituents. He stressed that while he had previously said he did not want DeLuca to serve as mayor again and had told some people that he would vote for Lembrich, he had remained conflicted and was displeased that his prior decision to vote for Lembrich had been leaked by those he had taken into his confidence.
“It saddens me that whatever conversations were had earlier in the year as I was deliberating about this went outside of the private moment that I shared with a particular individual. Because it was disrespectful, I think, to do so and highly disrespectful to the deliberations of this body,” Dafis said. “I have considered all of that and thought to myself over and over again, what’s the right choice? Who is the right choice in the best interests of the community?”
Lembrich was naturally disappointed with result of the close vote.
“I would like to just express my complete shock and genuine disappointment at some of what has been said tonight and I am not going to say anything further out of respect for this Township Committee and this township,” Lembrich said after the vote Dec. 19.
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