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GOP Council Candidates Confident In Experience And Leadership
By Keith Hagarty
With a platform focused on generating revenue for Brick while maintaining a high standard of ethics in town hall, the four GOP candidates of the Regular Republican Club of Brick seeking four-year terms on the township council are incumbents Ruthanne Scaturro, Michael Thulen and Anthony Matthews, and newcomer candidate Brian DeLuca.
Thulen, 51, of Linden Avenue, has sat on the council in his present term since 2003. He also served as a councilman from 1993 to 1997. In addition to his former duties as council president, Thulen served as commissioner of the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority (BTMUA) from 1992 to 1994, and worked for the BTMUA as
construction manager and engineering inspector/master-captain.
The biggest difference between the Republican candidates and their Democratic challengers, according to Thulen, comes down to a question of experience and public trust versus the unknown.
"We're ready to do the job, and I'm not so sure the other folks are ready to do the job," said Thulen.
The Republican candidates have pointed to the recent mayoral debate between Democratic incumbent Daniel J. Kelly and Republican challenger Council President Steve Acropolis (see accompanying stories) as a perfect example of the disparity between the two local political parties and their respective slates. The general consensus amongst many of those in attendance at the debate held two weeks ago at the Brick Memorial High School was that Acropolis had the better showing. Kelly himself has even been reported as rating his own performance as disappointing.
"The guy needs guidance," Thulen said of Kelly. "Why pick a guy that needs guidance, when you've got somebody who's ready to get to work?"
Thulen believes it's been the leadership of the Republican-led council which has helped ease Kelly's transition as mayor over the last year.
"We have the opportunity to keep moving forward from where we started," said Thulen. "Right now, the one thing that Dan Kelly has gotten is he's gotten an experienced council; people guiding him through the things he needs to do right now."
Scaturro, 56, of Halsey Drive, has been
council member since 2003. A lifelong Brick resident, Scaturro is a member of the Brick Chamber of Commerce, where she served as president in 1999, a past president and current member of the Brick Rotary Club, charter member of Brick UNICO and League of Women Voters. She has earned the 2002 Good Turn Award from the Boy Scouts of America and is the director of the Brick Hospital Association.
Matthews, 46, of Brushy Neck Court, has also served on the council since 2003, and last year, held the position of council president. Working as an award-winning advertising executive, Matthews has been an active volunteer for 12 years, with the Laurelton Fire Co. Auxiliary Volunteer, as well as coaching Brick B-MAC Softball and Brick Pop Warner, where he was honored as the 2002 Volunteer of the Year.
Currently serving as president of the township board of education, where he has served since 2001, DeLuca, 52, of 17th Avenue, works as an assistant vice president for Merrill Lynch and is the GOP ticket's lone newcomer to municipal elections.
DeLuca has served in two terms on the board from 2001 to 2004, and 2006 to present, and has also held the position of vice president. DeLuca was also appointed as a member of the township zoning board of adjustment last year, and has volunteered with the Brick Mat Rats Recreation Wrestling program and coached in the Brick Recreation Soccer program.
The primary concepts the GOP ticket stand by is "don't buy it, unless it pays for itself" and "don't fund it, unless it will end up funding itself."
"Some of the purchases that you're seeing us talk about and wanting to do are going to turn around and actually pay for themselves, and not affect the taxpayer in the long run," said Thulen. "It may look like we're spending money, but in the long run, our plan is to get out of it as quickly as possible."
One of those potential purchases includes a vacated site on Route 70, most commonly known as the former home of Foodtown. The GOP council members have pushed for a sale of the property to put it back on the municipal tax rolls. The sale would provide an additional source of revenue to help fund a new community recreation center at the former Ocean Ice Palace facility on Chambers Bridge Road.
While Thulen agrees that public servants should represent the greater interests of the people, it's still the job of any elected official to have the conviction to stand by their own beliefs and lead the people.
"Sometimes you just have to sit down and figure out what needs to be done," he said. "What this group (of Republicans on the council) said is, 'look, I think we need a community center, and I think this is good place to start, so let's buy something like the Ocean Ice Palace that actually will pay for the land while you figure out what else you want in your community center.'"
With no previous experience as elected public servants on the Democratic slate of candidates, Thulen is concerned that voting in an entirely new slate of council members, and a mayor with limited experience, would create a leadership vacuum in Brick.
"I'll give you an example of leadership," said Thulen. "(Kelly) wants to have (public) referendum for a new community center, but that's not where it should be. He should either be for it or against it. So if he's for it, great, but what do you want to do once you get there? Or if you're against it, then great, but then what? You can't run a township on referendum, you have to have some leaders."
"Somebody always has to go a step further, and that's what this group does."
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