The following is a letter from Paul Malool, former OEM Coordinator for the township of Scotch Plains.
As reported in this newspaper, as well as others, I was “relieved of my duties” as the Scotch Plains Emergency Management Coordinator last Wednesday, the day after Election Day. Not coincidentally, I was removed by Mary DePaola, who lost the election for Mayor by an historic margin. DePaola cited “poor performance during and after the storm” as her reason to remove me from the position I have held for almost twelve years.
What she neglected to say is that it was her performance that was poor, before, during and after the storm. During my tenure in this position, I have prepared for, and responded to, 4 hurricanes, numerous extreme weather events including excessive heat, snow, nor’easters, and flooding, all without one complaint from anyone.
The difference between this storm and those events was that I had the full cooperation of the sitting Township Manager and Mayor each time. This time, however, they were nowhere to be seen.
The Township Manager, who lives an hour away, could not get into town many days, and the Mayor did not attend all the meetings, or answer phone calls or texts.
These two people are essential in a disaster, because they are the designated “Public Information Officers,” – the people responsible for communicating to the public and the press - as noted in the emergency plans that I have prepared every year which have been approved by the New Jersey State Office of Emergency Management.
I informed the Township Manager of this role on the pre-disaster meeting on the Friday before the storm, which was attended by neither the Mayor nor the Police Chief. I then informed the Mayor of this when I met with her to sign the emergency declaration.
In fact, this is why I continually sent updates to the Mayor so she could include them in her updates to the public. In addition, it is the mayor’s responsibility to interface with PSE&G. Each mayor should have the cell phone number of the regional representative for their town.
As an emergency planner for the past twenty years for the state and federal government,( including State Police and FEMA) and as one of only 1100 worldwide emergency managers certified by the International Association of Emergency Managers, I am confident that my preparation, response, remediation and recovery skills are unmatched.
During this storm, I set up a command post at the Southside Firehouse because it had a full generator and so that I would be able to respond to fire calls, because I am also a Battalion Chief in our volunteer fire department.
If the manager or mayor needed to charge their cell phones so they could communicate better, perhaps they should have come to the command post.
I set up a shelter, acquired a generator (one that I have made requests to purchase for the last five years), set up a warming station, distributed MREs, organized the acquisition, storage and cooking of approximately 200 pounds of food for our senior citizens without power, while participating in numerous conference calls and meetings with the county and state OEMs.
While the mayor is entitled to appoint the emergency management coordinator, she is not entitled to rewrite history. A true leader takes responsibility for their actions – or inaction as the case may be.
But to your point of "A true leader takes responsibility for their actions – or inaction as the case may be", it seems like nobody is taking any responsibilty whatsoever for this epic failure of communication and leadership. At the very least, while everyone is so intent on pointing fingers and throwing one another other under the bus, would it be so hard to say that "Maybe I could have done better? Maybe there are some things that now in hindsight I wish I had done differently"? Would that be so hard to admit? Jeez, talk about lowering the bar....
1. Every year the OEM prepares emergency management plans for the town which are approved by the state. 2. These plans define the Township Manager and Mayor as our Public Information Officers and as our interface with PSE&G. 3. The Friday before Sandy the Manager was informed of his role in a meeting the mayor and police chief didn't attend. 4. The mayor was informed/reminded of her role when she later signed the emergency declaration. 5. Malool set up a warming and charging station, distributed meals, and worked with OEM officials around the state while our Public Information Officers--one of whom was at home in Sparta fer petessake--were MIA and told us next to nothing. 6. Townspeople shivered cluelessly in the dark. 7. The mayor blamed her lack of communication on her inability to get to a charging station her own OEM was running. According to google it's 1.3 miles from the mayor's house to the OEM's charging station. I also know within 48 hours of the storm the road was driveable because I drove it myself. 8. The OEM is fired by the mayor for being unprepared. Of course these facts will be disputed. The mayor's defenders (if there are any left) will probably claim the OEM let her fail to help swing the election. But the bottom line seems to be that the town had a plan in place, the OEM fulfilled his role but got blamed because the mayor and manager failed at theirs.
'NeverAgain' has a very pertinent point regarding the silence of the Town Manager. Residents of the Township deserve answers from the Town Manager as well. A request to Chief Mahoney for a statement or letter to the editor may also be of benefit to residents. Residents have a right to know why everything went to Hell in Township Hall for over two weeks. The people of Scotch Plains have already held their elected officials to account. Now, it is of the utmost importance to inquire as to the role of our non-elected officials in contributing to this debacle. The Township must be prepared for a disaster in the future and asking questions to those in positions of power is an essential step in the investigatory process.
Mrs. DePaola could sure use some cell phone car chargers for Christmas. Mr. Marks thinks that almost 60% of the town is irrational because they didn’t agree with him. Councilman Vastine thinks that Scotch Plains is too big to manage and Fanwood is easier because it’s smaller. Mayor DePaola thinks that SP is a borough and not a township. Mrs. Coronato is a prophet. In her 2nd letter to the “arguably vulgar” HM she offers an “interesting tidbit” about how in 2008 people voted one way at the top of the ticket and another way for the municipal candidate. Well knock me down and call me Sally, she was right again. Only this time the margin was 1,500 votes and went the other way. I’ve heard the expression that elections have consequences, but I always thought it was the winners that did the consequencing. Based on DePaola's statement, the chief of police replaced Mr. Malool because he handled a nor’easter better than Malool did the hurricane…a day before the nor’easter hit. According to the Star-Ledger article from Sunday, Mrs. DePaola has begun re-writing the history of Sandy. Now that Mr. Glover has won, I wait with interest to see what happens with the OEM position. And also what he’s going to do about the poop fee. Just because I loathe the prior regime doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten your words.
2) As for Bo Vastine- get your facts straight. Scotch Plains is 9.6 squ miles, not 12.
Look, Scotch Plains was in a world of hurt. And there's plenty of blame to go around. But you can't tell me that the OEM Coordinator gets NONE of the blame, and DePaola (and now the Township Manager) get all of it. I think everyone gets a little blame - for example, the OEM, knowing that our township manager lives an hour away, should not have made him a "Public Information Officer" since he necessarily can't always get to town. Everyone made mistakes, but that doesn't mean the OEM Coordinator gets none of the blame. Everyone chalks this up to political retribution - what if Glover had done it? Would it be political retribution for losing to Malool's wife last time he ran for Mayor?
I would ask you to look up who decides the people who are named the "public information officers". Is it the OEM? I also like to play "what if". Here's a few to chew on; What if the mayor had been more competent in getting information out to the community like Westfield and Fanwood did? Might she be mayor-elect? What if the boyhood friend of Mr. Marks had an expertise in municipal law and not personal injury law? Might he have not been replaced when Marks left? What if one of the 5 who we elected to council looked at the OEM's plans and said they are lacking before they were approved? Might the community have been better prepared? What if the mayor and chief of police were available for the meeting prior to the storm? Could they have then raised questions about the plan? It is quite clear to many that this firing was political payback. It's ok if you choose not to agree. Luckily I did not need the assistance of the OEM or fire dept, so I didn't come into contact with Mr. Malool. From those who did and wrote on the Patch, it seems he had his act together much more than those we elected. As a side note, I stayed with Herbie and Bygby in Fanwood. I've often admired Bygby's cans from afar. Well let me tell you, those cans came in handy during the storm. We had soup on a gas stove and also lot's of Del Monte veggies. Herbie offered me some meat in the can, but I declined.
Notice I never said that the Mayor did everything right and Malool did everything wrong. And you'll never hear me say this. There were a lot of mistakes made. But I don't think that blaming the mayor and not Malool makes sense - as I said, there's plenty of blame to go around (and I'm glad you blame all 5 elected council members - that's very refreshing coming from you). I will say that I think it's unfair to comment based on one side of the story - for example, Malool says the Mayor didn't come to the meetings, but I believe the Mayor has said she was not told of the meetings. Similarly, Malool has had supporters saying he came around and was very helpful - he was nowhere to be found on my street (14 days without power). So all I'm saying is that not all the blame should be placed on 1 person. Or 2 people. There are plenty of people at fault.
If my memory serves, it is an interesting side note to this broader discussion.
I don't understand why you do not miss our exchanges. I thought you would like an exchange of opinions. Of course you are not able to say the mayor did everything right. Quite the opposite is true. I understand the need to try to spread the blame. I was looking for our exchange when you were defending the urinating UC encroachers but couldn't find it. So I clicked on your name to short cut my search. My oh my, I missed all your comments congratulating Marty, questioning Glover, trashing Dems, etc. etc. I'm glad you found me refreshing, with the power back on a shower will do wonders. I am confused though. You say me saying how I loathe the old regime was the only relevant part of my comment. Like that paints me strictly as a Dem. Yet you come on here postulating on sharing the blame like your some neutral arbiter. I expressed why I loathe, such as the cronyism of questionably qualified appointments, rudeness to citizens, using religious bigotry to stifle questions, etc, etc. Can you help me with your objections to change or defense of the offensives vie mentioned? ( and by the way documented with links along the way)
As stated above, the MaGroins made it safely through the storm, hunkering down in the Hind's bunker. Herbie had a generator and his FIOS was working so I was able to follow all the details from Westfield and Fanwood. I even visited the library to stay informed. Since some do not appreciate my frivolity, I thought it best to remain strictly a reader during the dark period of the last couple of weeks. Besides, there were plenty of comments that were able to capture what I was thinking and they were written better than I am capable of. Plus, seeing what happened to the OEM, and guessing I'm probably non-grata with the ousted regime, it is most likely best I keep my political comments to a minimum until Glover screws something up or DePaola fires someone else prior to January.