Residents unload on mayor of scandal-plagued town

 By Anthony J. Machcinski/The Jersey Journal 

Showing little patience for clapping critics, North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco

abruptly ended a commissioners meeting this morning.

The North Bergen commissioners' meeting ended prematurely this morning when Mayor Nicholas Sacco decided he had had enough of audience members cheering on speakers who were taking his administration to task for recent scandals.

On Sept. 11, the township's former Department of Public Works superintendent, James Wiley,confessed in court to having employees do work at his house and deploying DPW crews to work on various political campaigns.

The Star-Ledger then broke the news that there were at least three "low- or no-show jobs" in the department.

Although Sacco and DPW Commissioner Frank Gargiulo pledged a reorganization, Gargiulo defended employees cited in the Ledger story, saying some were meant to have a low profile since they his "eyes and ears" in the department.

During the public comment section of this morning's meeting -- which is always the last item of business on the commissioners' meeting agenda -- speaker after speaker criticized Sacco and Gargiulo. And as they spoke, the were loudly applauded by people in the audience.

Sacco warned the crowd that if kept clapping and interrupting the commissioners' responses, he would end the proceedings.

And he did, abruptly cutting off the fifth speaker in mid-sentence.

"I warned them," the mayor said, citing "public decorum" as the reason for bringing the meeting to an early end. 

Asked after the meeting why he stopped the meeting, Sacco, who is also a state senator, said again that he had a problem with the "public decorum."

Phil Swibinski, a spokesman for the township, added about the meeting's strange ending, "Everyone had pretty much spoken already ... We can't allow political opponents to violate our standards like that."