What is happening to the individual’s right for their vote to count? It’s getting to the point that whenever a potential election’s outcome doesn’t go a certain party’s way, a court is being left to interpret established laws and determine the rules for that specific election.

First, the Democratic Party didn’t like the outcome of the run for presidency so it went to the Supreme Court to try to make a change in the election to their liking. Then in New Jersey, the Democratic candidate drops out of the Senate race and the Democrats go to court to bend the rules of law.

Now Oceanport has Democratic Councilman Gary Wolfe is sponsoring an ordinance to determine whose turn it is to be Oceanport’s volunteer fire chief in place of having a free election.

What is the deal with the Democrats? If they do not like what the voters choose in an election, the Democratic Party just tries to change or bend the law for things to go their way?

If Councilman Gary Wolfe is so concerned with representation, why doesn’t he propose an ordinance to have the Oceanport Borough Council set up with three Democrats and three Republicans and we rotate between a Democrat and a Republican mayor each year?

Wolfe should get his nose out of the politics of the Oceanport Volunteer Fire Department and do his job, as fire commissioner, by doing something about fire department policy and the public safety issues plaguing the residents of Oceanport, which, in my opinion, he has a unfavorable record of during his tenure as councilman.

Why doesn’t Councilman Wolfe do something about the fire pumper that has been out of service for several months? Why doesn’t Wolfe paint the faded traffic lines on Oceanport’s main artery, Port-au-Peck Avenue, so emergency service personal and residents can see the road in heavy rains and thunderstorm conditions, such as those experienced on Aug. 2 of this year. Why did Wolfe take no action to repair the emergency siren system after it was hit by lightning? Why did Wolfe remove $5,100 for fire hoses from the fire department budget without informing officials at the volunteer fire department?

To this day Wolfe has failed to give an accounting to the fire department as to where those public funds went.

Why did Wolfe cancel the maintenance contract for the emergency power generator at the Port-au-Peck Firehouse, which lead to a catastrophic failure of the diesel engine? This left Oceanport volunteers and residents without an emergency means of power for several years, including during the 1999 brownouts and power outages, hampering the volunteers’ efforts to help Oceanport residents during this prolonged power emergency. The generator has recently been replaced at a cost to the Oceanport taxpayers of $56,000 — money that would have never been spent if the generator had been properly maintained.

Why did Councilman Wolfe allow parts of the Port-au-Peck Firehouse go without heat for several years? Why didn’t the Oceanport Volunteer Fire Department receive one penny of FEMA funds after the 1992 storm to replace and repair equipment damaged and lost during the flood?

Councilman Wolfe, if America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, why don’t you just let the brave Oceanport volunteer firemen have the American freedom to vote and the tools to do their job properly?

Stuart E. Briskey

Ex-chief

Oceanport Volunteer

Fire Department