Committeeman has no reason to slam appointments

As (Manalapan Township Commit-teeman) Joe Locricchio searches for answers as to why he was uninvolved in the Township Committee's selection of professionals, he need look no further than the mirror.

The Township Committee interviewed professionals at a public meeting and Mr. Locricchio chose not to attend. Mr. Locricchio also chose not to reach out to his fellow committee members to solicit their opinions on the professionals whose qualifications were discussed at the meeting. He therefore opted out of the process; he was not excluded from it.

As for Mr. Locricchio's allegations of back-room dealing, it smacks of sour grapes stemming from his own inability to reward his benefactors with lucrative professional appointments. Mr. Locricchio would know a back-room deal if he saw one, having participated in such wheeling and dealing in 2005 when he orchestrated the back-room appointment of Stuart Moskovitz - his campaign attorney - to be the township attorney.

At that time, Mr. Locricchio was happy to have excluded two Democratic committee members from the process. Committee members Michelle Roth and Rick Klauber are to be congratulated on their efforts to ensure that the professional appointment process this year was conducted in a fair, open, transparent and bipartisan process.

Gerard D. Ward

Democratic Municipal Leader

Manalapan