Atlantic County freeholder candidate accuses Cooper of flip-flop on ACIT
By THOMAS BARLAS
Staff Writer, 609-272-7201
Published: Monday, July 21, 2008
It's the first candidate-to-candidate confrontation in the race for the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and the issue is not small change.Republican Manny Aponte is accusing Democratic Atlantic County Freeholder Alisa Cooper of bowing to union pressure and flip-flopping her vote on a $40 million bond ordinance that will pay to make the Atlantic County Institute of Technology, or ACIT, into a complete full-time high school.On July 1, Cooper was in the minority on voting to put the bond issue to public referendum. Two weeks later, she voted with the majority to introduce the bond ordinance.
"Cooper had an opportunity to put the fate of a tax increase directly in the people's hands via referendum," Aponte said. "But Cooper removed that choice after being approached by the unions and changed her vote."The fundamental right of a taxpayer is paramount, and changing your belief due to outside influence is repulsive. This is politics as usual for her, but for us, it's politics at its worst."Cooper contends that Aponte "doesn't comprehend the issue." With the decision made July 1 for the freeholders to proceed without a public referendum and with ACIT officials saying they'll definitely get $16 million in state funds for the project, Cooper said she voted last week in favor of introducing the bond ordinance because she "supports the merits of building schools for Atlantic County's students.""There were two separate issues," Cooper said of the votes July 1 and 15.On the Democratic side, Cooper and former Port Republic City Councilman James Schroeder are running for at-large seats on the freeholder board, while Gene Maier, a sergeant with the Atlantic City Police Department, is running for a 3rd District freeholder seat. On the Republican side, Aponte and Folsom Mayor Tom Ballistreri are running for at-large seats, while Atlantic County Freeholder Frank Sutton is seeking re-election to the 3rd District seat.At-large seats are contested countywide. The 3rd District includes Linwood, Northfield and parts of Hamilton and Egg Harbor townships.Republicans hold a 7-2 majority on the freeholder board.Aponte and Ballistreri have been the most aggressive of the candidates thus far, but their issues have been broad.Aponte's challenge of Cooper's vote is the first time any of this year's candidates directly challenged each other.The freeholders debated for weeks on how to handle funding of the proposed ACIT expansion.Some freeholders favored putting the issue to a non-binding referendum during the November general election. Other freeholders contend they were elected to make those decisions, and felt that getting the county funding in order quickly is needed so the project doesn't lose any state money.Aponte favors the referendum."Referendum is the most direct way for residents to take an active role in shaping the nature of our county through consensus decision-making and should have been given a chance," Aponte said. "Instead of a lesson on civic accountability we got a lesson in back-door politics."Cooper said while she "strongly believes" in public input, she said that"the project is in the best interest of our community and many, many students will benefit from this project, and I do believe that we should now move forward with the funding."
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