Our soon to be ex-mayor certainly had a good plan in place. How stupid do you think we are? Personal feelings and politics have driven most of the councils decisions. What exactly did Mahoney do in better planning for a snowstorm? Draw it up on a napkin in the Tavern? Inauguration day can't come quick enough.

Spite. Sour grapes. We need to leave personal feelings out of the business decisions which are for the benefit of our brave citizens. The election results speak for themselves.

Does she really believe we will not see this for exactly what it is, “tit for tat”. Give me a freakin break. Mary got caught with her pant down with no knowledge of what to do or where to go for help and not understanding that a subordinate did not have an effective plan in place. Wouldn’t one expect that if the OEM had a plan that required the assistance of say Police, Fire, DPW and other city and county departments that maybe, just maybe the heads of those departments might have a clue as to what would be expected of them and perhaps the overall plan in a situation such as say A Hurricane. Im also thinking that this is something that say a Mayor might just want to at least be aware of say right before a major weather event. With due respect to the Chief, if he has the skills handling the current storm, what the heck has he been doing for the 8 days prior to the Nor’easter? There may not have been a plan in place by the OEM but waiting 8 days to “change the guard” (aka Nancy vs. Mary spat continues) under the banner of “a new plan” is utterly ridicules.

Amateur time continues!! It makes NO sense to fire anyone who is assisting our community in ANY capacity while this emergency is still going on!!!

Is Paul Malool former Mayer Malool's husband? IMO, I think Scotch Plains get an D- for communication during the outage. As a former Fanwood resident and relatively new Scotch Plains resident, have to say SP has some "splaining" to do. Although I do appreciate the recycling getting picked up last Wed, would be nice to see an action plan communication as to the leaf pick up this year. If last year was any indication of expectations, maybe they get picked up by Memorial Day?!

adios depaola!!!!!!!!!! get her out of here already

Paul Malool was the only one most of us heard from during the storm. So what does the non existant mayor do...fire him. Makes sense to me to fire the only person who cared enough about the residents to keep us informed. DePaola can't leave office soon enough for me.

Just so we get this right.

1. Nancy Malool fires Marty Marks' childhood friend, township attorney Brian Levine
2. Marty then stacks the republican deck and ousts Nancy from the Mayor's job
3. DePaola then throws Nancy under the bus during the debate and blames her for
the towns problems. Even though Mary voted in support of Nancy 99.9% of the
time.
4. Nancy writes a letter to the SP Times questioning Mary's character.
5. Mary loses to Glover by 1500 votes (ouch)
5. Mary who is no where to be found during "Sandy" blames Paul Malool for this and
fires him.

Does this sound about right. Please feel free to add if I am somehow missing something.

As someone who is watching this from sort of the outside, having grown up far far away from Scotch Plains, I totally see this as sour grapes. I personally changed my vote for mayor because of DePaola's PERSONAL response to Hurricane Sandy. Her words, her actions, spoke for themselves. By all accounts, Mr. Malool was not getting a response from DePaola to be able to include her. How exactly is that his fault? It's not. She's pissed off that she wasn't re-elected, and I'm pretty sure since everyone thinks Mr. Malool handled the storm excellently, this is retaliation since he smells like roses, and she, well.. doesn't. I do hope that Mr. Glover sees right through this and hires Mr. Malool back the minute he takes office.

It's clear that there have been mistakes made in Scotch Plains with the handling of Sandy and power outages. Why is it all Mayor DePaola's fault, but not also the OEM's fault? I blame all in positions of leadership (including Mayor-elect Glover) - everyone should have been more on top of this. And the entire purpose of the OEM is to have a plan in place - clearly, the plan was inadequate, so he should be let go. A good move

Paul Malool has done a great job of keeping us informed during this crisis. Mayor DePaola was conspicuously absent. Paul organized a shelter and a warming station, delivered food and arranged transportation for the seniors, in addition to answering fire calls. In the meantime, Mayor DePaola was busy ignoring our emails. Hopefully the new mayor will see that our town needs people like Paul Malool.

We still without power on Front ST in Scotch Plains, where we should go????
We need Heat!!!!

Oscar
908-477-8524

I did not know that Public workers could be fired. I thought that their jobs were "protected" just like postal workers.

This action by Mayor DePaola is disgusting and heinous. I have know Paul Malool for over 15 years and he has always been very professional and handled any position he has held to the highest standard. During hurricane Sandy, Mr. Malool worked around the clock answering fire calls, helping to make sure there were warming shelters and charging stations available, made sure anyone who was looking for a hot meal was fed, etc. I have not seen Mayor DePaola at all before, during, or even after both storms that have occurred. Many people have been wondering where she has been. The fact that she fired Mr. Malool of his duties as OEM coordinator just shows how low some people can be. I can't wait until she is out of office, she is a disgrace to Scotch Plains.

the whole situation is a joke and the town needs to explain, just a side note $12,000.00 in taxes and my leaves haven't gotten picked up yet? What the heck is the DPW doing (prior to the storm) Fanwood is picked up Clark is picked up!!!!!!!

Does the Chief get a second full-time salary and pension for this? How does this work exactly?

When our power came on Saturday afternoon, I had a natural gas smell and had the fire dept over to check it out. Paul Malool was one of 4 other guys who showed up. They were all great but he was the one that kept me cool and calm and laughing.

Whatever the political or other nefarious forces at play here, this guy was wonderful to me and the kids...such a shame.

As another outsider I'm chiming in as well. It apears to me the only comments on the entire government section of the SPF Patch is filled with the two polictical parties hacks posting against each other. Mainly disgruntled democrats. You people are disgusting. You won the election and yet you can't see how a person who is the head of OEM can lose his job for the issues you all have complained about over the last 10 day??? Talk about disingenuous. Do you think people with an open mind really don't understand that people in positions of power during a crisis can lose their jobs f handled incorrectly? The Mayor has and the OEM head has, as he should. This is an obvious decision except to those blinded by a party mantra.

As a "lame duck" mayor, is she allowed to fire anybody? When is her last day in the office?

Ex-mayor DePaola, the buck stopped at your desk this time. If you didn't have confidence in your team, then you should have done something before hand.

Republican or Democrat, I don't care who is running the town because, on a day to day basis, there really isn't too much to do. But, when it comes to planning for an emergency and executing on the plan, that better be solid because lives are at stake.

Not being intimately familiar with the "politics/interpersonal" issues involved, I can't speak to those comments. What I can comment on however is how I felt as a 12 year Scotch Plains Resident. IMHO party politics don't belong in local politics. Sure different people are going to have different solutions to local problems, but that should ignite good/sound debate with one overarching goal - What is best for Scotch Plains Residents. It should be the basis for lambasting people in public.

That said, I'll reference a post I made earlier last week. The issue we are talking about is really about planning, preparedness, execution and communication. From my perspective, it would appear that there was some level of planning and preparedness but the execution and communication components fell short. I would hope that a thorough review is conducted and lessons learned are implemented. Part of that review should include identifying best practices across the country that could be implemented here in SP. https://recovers.org/ is a great place to start.

This whole thing smells bad!

Prior to reading this story on The Patch, I had no idea SP even had an Office of Emergency Management much less that Paul Malool - our former mayor's husband - was it's coordinator.
I know some are saying Mr. Malool was great at providing information BUT - and again, I may not have been searching in the right place since I was without power & heat for 7 days - I didn't see or hear any of this information. So...since SP does have an OEM...and 10 days after the storm there are still so many trees/wires down and so many people without power and so little communication - Mr. Malool probably did deserve to be fired.

My only regret is that after being fired herself on Tuesday, Mrs. DePaola still had the power to do this AND appoint his replacement. CRONYISM at it's finest! This is so clearly an act of vengence because of the election results. Again, the intelligence of the residents of SP is being underestimated .

The question above regarding whether Mr. Mahoney will now receive 2 pensions & salaries from the SP taxpayers is a great one. Nicole can you please find out and let us know.

BTW: Mr. Glover...PLEASE don't tell us you had know idea how screwed up SP was prior to becoming mayor and use it as an excuse for not making the much needed changes that our town needs. We ALL pay a lot in property taxes (10K to live on a postage stamp?) and we are NOT receiving the services.

In a disaster, one of the most important things you can do it communicate. But in order to accomplish this you need to plan for as many contingencies as possible. For example with Sandy: Reverse 911, Text Message Alerts only worked if you had a land lines that weren't disrupted and cell service - which most of us did not. My point is what was the contingency for a total blackout. Does every SP resident know where to go to get the information they need to keep themselves/their families and neighbors safe. For me the answer was NO on 10/30...and today it's a maybe. Again IMHO, that is unacceptable. EVERYONE should know the answer to those questions.

So glad we got rid of DePaola. Both Malool And De Paola have proven to be useless for the town.
Hoping the new Mayor will be more prepared for emergency situations and will have a better communication plan in case of emergency.

In an earlier post I mentioned taking advantage of built in communication networks - these are people networks that tend to communicate, check in with each other, stay together throughout the year especially in hard times: PTAs, Sports Associations, PAL, Religious Institutions, Civic Organizations, Scouts, Neighborhood Watch...etc. Bring these groups into the fold...they can help get the message out...they aren't the only way, but A way.

Identify several local places where information will be posted for residents, for example, a daily update will be posted at the Municipal building, A&P, Library, etc. - where possible have a vehicle drive around with a PA system announcing updates. again not the only ways, but other ways.

I'll end by saying, when possible, facebook, twitter, and txt communication should also happen more frequently too...

I know that some of these means of communication were used, but unfortunately in many cases it was days after the fact and with little or no substance. And the fact that some people were communicated to well and other not, is a glaring indication that our plan, preparedness, execution and communication was flawed.

Dear Mayor Mahr and residents of Fanwood,

See what you have to look forward to?

If I'm reading the town's budget right, the OEM position pays $5850. a year (page 24).

http://www.scotchplainsnj.com/budgets/2012_Municipal_Data_Sheet.pdf

Did anyone else feel they got an inadequate response from the Police Dept non-emergency line? - or was it just me? I called 3 times & each time the answers were short & unhelpful. I had called asking about gas stations because I had seen officers at each gas station that had been open, so I assumed that the PD would have a better awareness than anyone else. They were unable to offer any help. I also called to inquire about any 'shelter' in the town where one could go to get light,heat,power etc, and they said that I should go to Starbucks!!

@yeah right - thanks for the kind words. I agree...it should be every individual citizens responsibility to prepare the best they can...the other side of that though is so should the town/county/state/fed.

here is some good info...

From the NJ Office of Emergency Management Mitigation Program - Reducing Risk From Natural Hazards was put together after IRENE...
http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/programs/opb_mitigation.html

What a circus. Would be laughable if not so pathetic. The do-nothing mayor rightly gets kicked out of office and then in her lame duck capacity boots the do-nothing OEM coordinator (maybe a nice guy and helped a few people but the overall lack of preparedness and communication can't be ignored). Then the lame duck mayor appoints the Police Chief to the post...like at this point in time he doesn't have enough on his own plate? And now getting lost in the sauce...there are still citizens WITHOUT POWER on Day 11.

Wow! Former Mayor Marks and DePaolo just won't gracefully resign.

Move on people... You lost... Better yet, put your house up for sale... Have some dignity for your family...

Anyone aware if power was restored on Front Street North of Park Avenue? Library posted it got it's power back this afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

There has been no information from the police department or the mayor's website. I feel that firing someone who is doing there job during an ongoing crisis is shameful. The Police Department are telling people that they can't use NJTranist to get home because they will not help people cross 22. This is a nightmare of management from the police department and from the Mayor. At this point it is better to voice your outrage to the governors office and our senators. Running a town which the main street and businesses don't have power and thousands of people are freezing is hard enough without spending time to fire someone who is actually helping people! This means one less person responding to current emergencies. The clean up is not over. There is a lot of work to do and yet this mayor and Police Department decide to work with less?

This article has been updated to include more background information on Malool's appointment and additional information provided by Malool on preparation done by the SP Office of Emergency Management.

I personally know both Mayor DePaola and former Mayer Malool. I was not involved, and am sure there is more to the issues than we may be privy to, that caused them to cease to be allies and challenge one another. I also know Mayor-Elect Glover, too. I like them all as individuals.

My real concern is that during the recent "Post Tropical Depression" Sandy, neither mayoral candidate was at all visible. That means that neither Mayor DePaola nor Councilman/mayoral candidate (and now mayor elect) Glover was anywhere to be seen! Both of these civic minded people should have been more visible in fighting to help those adversely affected!

If there is a reason to have local government, then shouldn't we expect them to stand up and say or do something when an emergency exists? They both sent out plenty of mailings to get us to vote for them, but when the chips were down, they both disappeared.

Just released on Lance website,

FEMA has opened Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) in Union and Somerset counties. Residents can visit the centers to receive assistance regarding damage and losses from Hurricane Sandy.

IN SOMERSET COUNTY: FEMA’s assistance center is located at Somerset County Human Services located at 27 Warren Street in Somerset.

IN UNION COUNTY: FEMA’s assistance center is located at Chislhom School Community Center located at 100 S. Springfield Avenue in Springfield.

The centers will be open Monday to Sunday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until further notice. Residents are urged to register before visiting a DRC. There are two ways to register – log on to www.disasterassistance.gov or call FEMA’s toll-free number, 1-800-621-FEMA (3362).

At the center, residents can:

Receive information about different types of state and federal disaster assistance.
Get help completing applications for U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) low-interest disaster loans for homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and private nonprofit organizations.
Inquire about the status of applications for federal assistance.
Receive referrals to voluntary organizations to help with immediate unmet needs.
Learn cost-effective measures to reduce the impact of future disaster losses.

Perception is reality and the perception is that the Mayor was nowhere to be seen or heard. And she paid the price. If a Mayor, suspecting sabotage, isn't getting the necessary info from the OEM coordinator (who shouldn't have been in the job in the first place) she needs to work around that. Go directly to the police chief. Go to the school superintendent and principals. Go to the county executive. Get the scoop and report to the town. Make it your business beforehand to evaluate the emergency plan. We knew this storm was coming for more than a week and that it was going to be epic.

However, if it's true that Paul Malool froze her out of the loop to sabotage her election, he deserves what he got too. It's beyond disturbing that Nancy Malool ignored such obvious conflict of interest when appointing him. Her poor judgment sowed the seeds for this mess. It was bound to have unfolded this way, so I doubt that Nancy Malool was fit to have been mayor in the first place (this has nothing to do with her cursing at me from behind the wheel one rainy night because I wasn't driving fast enough on Park Ave).

Nobody looks good here. I'm really glad I voted for Glover. It's long past time to clean house. We deserve better than the vanity-driven, corrupt Republican cesspool that infected Town Hall for too long. Thank God they've nuked themselves into oblivion. And in such spectacular fashion.

To Yeah Right - not "quite bitter" - just reacting to the patronizing know-it-all tone to just about everything you write.

neveragain - agreed. enough said...

So the Mayor's excuse for being incommunicado for five days during a crises was that she had no power and couldn't keep her phone charged. Wow. What a clown show. Memo to Mayor DP: As the leader of a town, you were expected to be resourceful. I'm sure the police dept would have let you charge your phone. Hell, the Westfield diner was open. Maybe you could have gone there. You had more than a week to figure out how you'd keep your phone charged to perform your basic duties. Pedestrian excuses don't cut it. The luckiest man in town is Kevin Glover. The bar for success has been set extremely low.

Can someone explain again why Fanwood would merge anything with Scotch Plains at this point?

Appointing the Police Chief is not very reassuring as the police in this town are nothing to write home about. Example: Last Wednesday, right after the storm, while driving north on Westfield Rd. I noticed a police car in the high school parking lot (They are there about 25%% of the time.) parked at their usual angle for radar detection of speeders. When I got to the busy intersection of Park Ave. and Mountain, which was with out working traffic signals, there was no one directing traffic.
Also,has anyone ever called police dispatch? I'd be curious to hear your experience.

This is truly disgusting. The mayor was no where to be found and gives the poor excuse that her cell phone died!!!

She's lucky no person died.

To make Mr. Malool the fall guy is terrible. Good riddence to you mayor.

And to yeah right, are you a part of the failed campaign? You sure sound like you are.

I believe a state government investigation is necessary once the storm damage has been cleaned. The mayor posted nothing until Friday? Why? It appears communication lines were severed and she gives the excuse of her dying cell phone? Now terminating the OEM manager? Is there just cause? If not, a lawsuit could develop. So she is not only appearing to be incompetent but a legal liability as well.

Two sides of the story, but what is crystal clear is that conflicts of interest created by Nancy Malool and the lingering bad blood between her, her husband and Di Paola compromised the safety of all Scotch Plains residents. It's probably a bit of everything: incompetence by Di Paola, a vendetta by Paul Malool, and astoundingly bad and, yes, corrupt judgement by his wife, who created this whole mess (even if her husband was on the ball, there is reasonable reason for people who don't know him to think he could have rogue in order to sink the woman who stabbed his wife in the back---a totally plausible assumption). I can't believe DP would just flake out so close to the election, so I have to believe she's just an incompetent hack -- drunk on power but not willing to assume ultimate responsibility for what happens in her town.

So Mayor soccer mom has now fired two people - malool and herself. Now we are left with the police chief who had better things to do than attend the preparation meeting before the worst storm in the state's history. Was he eatching the news? He has got to tell his police force to put the radar guns away, get out of their souped up police cruisers and start walking the beat until power is fully restored. We have more police cars sitting in the municipal parking lot than are on the road and that is just lame. The one time we really need them to step up and they act like business as usual. Can I see one of them directing traffic or doing something other than sit in their heated police cars waiting for a fender bender to go down? Please? If not, let's just disband the police and pay fanwood to do it for us.

Colleen Gialanella distributed informational flyers to residents of SP last Saturday - I know because I helped her distribute them. I received storm updates from FANWOOD MAYOR Colleen MAHR 3 times during the past week updating me on the storm. I saw Mayor Mahr riding around Fanwood last Tuesday (the day after the storm) distributing information flyers to the residents of FANWOOD. Couldn't the Mayor of SCOTCH PLAINS have done the same. SHAME ON YOU MAYOR DEPAOLA!! You left the residents of Scotch Plains literally and figuratively IN THE DARK!!

Hi all,

I should clarify that Mayor DePaola told me personally that she had to keep charging her phone due to the amount she was using it. That was not her response to Malool he told me that information following me speaking to DePaola.

The town should have had back up generators at the municipal building so phone charging was not an issue. If she was at the municipal building she could have charged it there. She should have operated out of the big chevy tahoe/suburban the police chief has at his disposal and charged it as she moved around town assessing the damage and talking with residents. They sell car chargers at the dollar store. The fact she brought up the cell phone charging issue is a lane excuse.

Everyone is making comments about what should have been done,who was visible and communication. As I sit writing this, I still have no communication from anyone in reference to power back in the center of Scotch Plains. IS THERE ANY????? I know some of the town did and Front up to Mountain didn't. PLEASE INFORM ME . No matter who you voted for, neither REP or DEM are communicating this info.

Church St. .. or part of it.. is still out.. and no communication here either

I couldn't vote for Do Nothing Paola so I held my nose and voted for Glover.
I hope for the best and fear for the worst.

Something smells rotten in Scotch Plains.

This is the very first time that ScPlns was tested to the fullest for a "Catastrophic" emergency. We have had storms prior that we dealt with, such as Hurricane Floyd in 1999, where outages were able to be address more quickly & resolved.in a matter of a few days. Bear in mind the entire town of ScPlns and all the surrounding towns, Plfd, No & So Plfd,,Westfield, etc were effected.let alone the issued along the coastal areas, There are lessons to be learned from this disaster ..One is the difficulty in communication... for example not everyone knew about the charging station at the Police Dept,, or where to find a possible warming station and I am certain I have left out a few suggestions ...Yes it may have been posted on line, but without power to access how could the majority of us know what was posted. These are all lessons for a future massive disaster recovery that may lurk in years to come.. But "in-fighting" is totally unnecessary and unprofessional... another lesson learned....

People, this is politics. Former Mayor Nancy Malool appointed her own husband, Paul to the OEM position 4 years ago. Was that right? Don't you think Glover is going to put his 'boys' in positions at SP town hall once he is sworn in? I've already heard those rumors.

If you are looking for information about what's going on in Fanwood and Scotch Plains, please join our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/SPFNJ/
It's been up and running throughout this crisis, and it's easily accessible from your smartphone. This is NOT an official source of information, it's a site that was started by the residents for the residents, and it really works! Too bad our elected officials don't read it, they could've found out what's really going on in their towns.

Thanks Molly, but it's not for me.

Quite an honor...SP residents are among the anointed 1% still w/o power in PSEG's franchise territory. Called them this morning and rep asked if there have been any PSEG trucks in my neighborhood, and if we had any trees or wires down. Uh, no...everything's been just great. I asked him since we're down to 1% (pretty finite group), maybe he should be able to provide me with a little more information instead of me answering all his questions.

Great job by Mrs/Mr Mayor and OEM taking care of your constituents. Thanks to Tubby and Mr President for the day-long photo-op...and zero help.