This letter to the editor was submitted to The Sun from Mt. Laurel resident Brian Sharp:
After 40-plus years of Republican control of the town council in Mt. Laurel, the Republicans felt their stranglehold over the council was in jeopardy.
Instead of creating a plan to make sure the voters in Mt. Laurel knew what they had done to improve Mt. Laurel, they decided to go with confusing the voters.
On Monday, April 8, Mayor Kurt Folcher and Councilman Irwin Edelson directed the township solicitor to create an ordinance to be presented on April 22 for first reading.
This ordinance will put a referendum on the November ballot to change Mt. Laurel’s election from a partisan election held in November to a nonpartisan election held in May.
The solicitor said that if the referendum passed, the council could, without a referendum, move the election back to November.
So, when you look at this, they are saying we want the people of Mt. Laurel to decide if they want a partisan board.
I get it, we all want our board to act in a nonpartisan way.
However, if you look deeper, you see that this is being done to just protect the currently sitting Republicans.
They know that their party is a disgrace at all levels.
Instead of fixing it, they want to abandon it.
You know they will continue to get money for their elections from their Republican sponsors, as they have always done.
You know they will still operate as a single voting unit.
They still want to wear their Red “MAGA” hats – they just don’t want you to know they do that.
I also have to question if the racial make-up of the board is also part of the concern to the sitting members.
In the long history of our town, we never had a councilman of color.
In this last election, we finally broke down that barrier when we the people of Mt. Laurel elected Kareem Pritchett to the council.
Is this just the latest attempt by the Mt. Laurel council to suppress the votes and representation of minorities in our town, from refusing to build affordable housing to now making sure we don’t know the party affiliation of council members?
Brian Sharp
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