Anyone can buy votes with other people's money. Not everyone can govern.

In 2007, Bruce Masopust spent a whopping $142,504.09 to get elected to a council seat in Lodi, NJ.  Not one penny was his own.  Nothing good can come from that type of outside money.  

Bruce continues to award all NO BID contracts to those that bought his votes.  The Lodi taxpayers are overpaying hundreds of thousands of dollars each year because of it.

Sensing that the people of Lodi are not happy with this administration and the job they have done, Bruce entered panic mode this week.  He is about to unleash the money again in a desperate attempt to keep any INDEPENDENTS from joining the council.


Bruce Masopust does not want anyone watching his administration.  Bruce Masopust is not open to any new ideas. 

Bruce Masopust spends the majority of the council meetings naming the pancake breakfasts he attended.  He doesn't want that to be overshadowed by INDEPENDENTS speaking about reforms.


Tell Bruce to stop buying votes with other people's money.  Tell Bruce to agree to a debate.

Patty Licata brought her home to work with her…

The following took place AFTER Patty Licata joined the council four years ago:

Patty Licata’s son, Patrick, was hired FULL-TIME in the DPW.  The position was never advertised.  The hiring was never mentioned at any council meeting.  It never appeared on any meeting minutes.

Patty Licata voted to create a new “Building and Grounds” department.  Then she made her son its first employee.  Tony Luna said that Pat Licata handles the whole department.

Patty Licata supported the layoffs of two DPW employees that each had four years of seniority over her son.

Patty Licata voted “YES” on the new Building and Grounds contract where her son signed his name as the “Shop Steward”.

Patty Licata allowed her son to take the town’s Ford Expedition home, taking away another parking spot on North Woodside.  

Records showed that Patty’s son was the only “Building and Grounds” employee having his i-phone paid for by the taxpayers of Lodi.

Patty’s son, Joseph (the president of the Lodi Board of Education), has been paid thousands of dollars in “consulting fees” with Lodi Drug Alliance money.  During the last four years, Patty has been unable to explain what he has actually done for that money. She refused to produce any of his supposed work even after it was requested through the Open Public Records Act.   She gets angry and argumentative when questioned.

After Patty Licata began paying the Lodi Boys Club $60,000 a year with Lodi tax dollars, her son Joseph received a substantial pay increase at the club.  Patty refused to disclose her son’s compensation at the club as she was voting “YES” on the payments.  Employees of the club were laid off as Joe Licata received his substantial pay increase.

After Patty Licata began paying the Lodi Boys Club $60,000 a year with Lodi tax dollars, her daughter began working at the club.

Patty Licata voted “Yes” on all of  the appointments to the Lodi Housing Authority where a third son is employed.

Patty voted “YES” on numerous bills for a business that employed two of her sons.

Patty Licata received a new position in the Lodi schools.  She was chosen over teachers with more education and more years of service.

In the last four years, Patty Licata has not offered one idea at any council meeting. Why is she running again?

Patti Licata will not debate me.

As I continue to lay out specific reforms regarding ethics, transparency, and tax relief, the Licata family continues talking about goats.

It's time to turn the page on the Licatas and the their viciousness.

Platform: Ethics

Ethics Reform:

1)      Pay-to-Play Ordinance:  I plan on introducing the State’s toughest pay-to-play ordinance. The Borough will not purchase any goods or services from anyone that made any campaign contribution for that term.  Vendors currently doing business with the Borough will be prohibited from making any campaign contributions.   There will be no exceptions.  The “fair and open” loophole currently used by Lodi will be eliminated.

2)      Anti-Nepotism Ordinance:  No immediate family member of the mayor or council can be hired or promoted by the Borough during their term.   No immediate family member can do any business with the Borough.  No immediate family member can appear on the monthly bills for “consulting fees” or a professional service.

3)      Ordinance Barring Health Benefits for Part-Time Elected Officials: This administration has refused to pass an ordinance prohibiting health benefits for part-time elected officials.  Lodi currently uses the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP).  This program allows part-time elected officials to be grand-fathered in for taxpayer funded health benefits.  Even if someone is not grandfathered-in and is receiving benefits, SHBP looks the other way.  Lodi needs its own ordinance to end this practice once and for all.

4)      Ordinance Prohibiting any Council Person from Receiving a Borough Job or Contract within a Year of Leaving the Council:  Council members will no longer be able to resign or not run again and immediately receive a job or contract.  They would have to wait at least a year after leaving office.

5)      Establish a Borough Code of Ethics:  Members of this current administration have been voting “YES” on resolutions that benefit themselves financially.  They have been voting “YES” on labor agreements for immediate family members. They have received food and gifts from those doing business with the Borough. All of this must stop. 

Borough Manager accepts 14 karat gold gift.

"I am an Italian American. I will not be told that my contribution is any less nor my role not as worthy as any other American,"–Tony Luna

Who ever said that Tony Luna’s “contribution” is less and not as worthy because he is an Italian American?  Many would say his “contribution” is less and not as worthy because of how he abused his power in Lodi, at Passaic Valley, and every other public entity he has been part of. 

Bruce Masopust’s comments are just over the top. 

Don’t let this Community News article get you sick:

http://www.northjersey.com/community-news/borough-manager-honored-as-man-of-the-year-1.1295704

From Lodi to Bloomsburg...

Council members Masopust, Licata, and Cima  put Lodi in more debt to pay for the borough manager's top of line Ford Explorer.

Council members Masopust, Licata, and Cima gave the borough manager a contract that allowed him to drive anywhere with anyone.  All costs for personal use were billed to the Lodi taxpayers.

Council members Masopust, Licata, and Cima allowed the borough manager to drive the town vehicle to his summer home in Pennsylvania.

It is time to put an end to these excesses, an end to these perks.


Elect independents that care about the taxpayers because the career politicians only care about the permanent entitlement class.


Cut the excesses, cut the middle.

Luna, Masopust, and A Long History of Shenanigans in the Assessor's Office...

LODI MAYOR ASSAILS EX-ASSESSOR

The Record (Bergen County, NJ)

January 9, 1993 | CHRISTOPHER MUMMA, Record Staff Writer

CHRISTOPHER MUMMA, Record Staff Writer

LODI -- In a four-year period, former tax assessor James Comeleo lopped $68 million from Lodi's tax rolls, including $21 million in June alone, when Comeleo knew he was out of a job, Mayor Philip V. Toronto said Friday.

Borough officials have wrapped up a five-month investigation that
cost $40,000 and began when Comeleo took home 1,362 tax-assessment cards as his term expired. Toronto said he believed the former assessor
"intentionally sabotaged the town's tax records."

Toronto said he didn't know why Comeleo lowered the tax assessments
of at least 2,000 of the borough's 5,000 properties, most without a
hearing in county court. The original assessments have been reinstated,
he said.

The mayor said he would like to meet with Comeleo before deciding
whether to pursue the matter with Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy. Toronto, who fired Comeleo in June, said he is particularly outraged that Comeleo lowered 530 assessments between May 27 and June 30, after he knew he was out of a job.

Many of the tax cards indicate the assessments were lowered because
of a judgment in county tax court, where the appeals are heard. But
Toronto said investigations by Borough Attorney Paul Barbire revealed
that the majority of these cases are pending.

"We want him to explain these discrepancies," Toronto said. "We
want to give him an opportunity to explain why he devalued the town by
$68 million with no apparent documentation or justification."

Comeleo said Friday that the answer to Toronto's question is a
simple one: The town's 1987 revaluation left the borough with 5,000
properties valued at about $1 billion -- but in today's bottomed-out
real estate market, the real value of borough properties is $800
million. And as tax appeals poured in at the rate of nearly 500 each
year since 1988, Comeleo said, his office was swamped with work.

"The prior administration said, `We know there is a problem with
the assessments. Do what you need to do,'"
 
Comeleo said. "All of my work left the numbers closer to the market
value than they had been."

Concerning the 530 assessments changed in his last month, Comeleo
said, "I had to catch up on paperwork in the last month, but those
assessments were being worked on for the past year."

Former Mayor Anthony Luna was not available for comment Friday. But Comeleo said the borough's unwillingness to fight commercial and
industrial tax appeals in court is proof that Lodi is drastically
overvalued.

"The town of Lodi has never even tried to defend a commercial or
industrial appeal," Comeleo said. "A commercial or industrial property
owner who doesn't appeal their assessment is out of their mind. And
quite frankly, every residential property owner in Lodi should file an
appeal, too."

Is "procedurally wrong" something like "not in compliance"?

On February 17, 2015, Mayor Masopust signed  Resolution 15-43.  Mayor Masopust knew that Lodi was not in compliance at the time.  On the date he signed, there were no members appointed to the committee by the Mayor and Council, no Resolution establishing the committee within the last 25 years(a Resolution is required each year), no meeting minutes, no public notices, etc.  So what "administrative compliance" did he have in mind when he signed his name?

At the next work session, this administration will acknowledge that they are not in compliance.  They will downplay their actions as "procedurally wrong", just like they do for everything else once they get caught.  And they will make their acknowledgment in Tony Luna's office, behind the public's back (or with their backs turned to the public).  They will find a way to not have the story printed in the local newspaper.

The public has to realize that this is not a minor oversight.  This a serious abuse of power, an abuse of public office.  Thousands of dollars that could have been spent on beneficial youth programs were instead placed in the pocket of the Deputy Mayor's son, who also happens to be the President of the Board of Education. 

The Borough of Lodi violated the Open Public Record Act by denying access to any reports completed by Joe Licata.  Those reports would show how Joe Licata and those connected him have used alliance funding as their personal piggy banks.   There are many other questionable expenditures besides the consulting fees for Joe Licata.

Here is the whole Resolution just passed last month:

(to view larger, left click on the image below, open link, and magnify)