We commend Frank McVey for heeding our calls for his resignation. It was the right thing to do and we have nothing but sympathy for him in what must surely be a period of difficult transition.

However, that does not wipe away the damage he has caused to this town.

Character matters. We need to trust our public officials.

We present to you four facts.

“Public office and employment are a public trust;”

“The vitality and stability of representative democracy depend upon the public’s confidence in the integrity of its elected and appointed representatives;”

“Whenever the public perceives a conflict between the private interests and the public duties of a government officer or employee, that confidence is imperiled; and”

“Governments have the duty both to provide their citizens with standards by which they may determine whether public duties are being faithfully performed, and to apprise their officers and employees of the behavior which is expected of them while conducting their public duties.”

These are not our words. These are the words enshrined into law by the Phillipsburg Town Council on March 20th, 2018.It seems clear now that they never meant them, and this resolution was nothing more than a way to bloody the nose of their political opponents.

We need to trust the people who write our laws. And right now, we can’t. When they dodge questions about a conflict of interest, when they downplay a drunk driving arrest as a traffic offense, when they throw their critics out of meetings and when they do their best to hide what’s really going on and everything they can to ensure the truth stays buried all of this makes life more difficult for the law-abiding people of Phillipsburg.

We want the truth. We deserve the truth. We’re not interested in what crimes they pled down to, or what they got away with. We want to know what they did, and what they continue to do in our name.

McVey did not act alone. Robert Fulper and Randy Piazza Jr. were his coconspirators and enablers every step of the way. The fact of the matter is that Frank isn’t resigning because it’s the right thing to do. It’s because he became too much of a liability. Likewise, his cohorts don’t care what Frank did. They care that he got caught.

It’s time to restore integrity to Phillipsburg. And the way we can start is by ensuring these two gentlemen step down as well.

T.Kent Corcoran
Chairman
Phillipsburg Democratic Committee