In Upper Mount Bethel Township there were four candidates in the primary election, vying for two Board of Supervisor (BOS) seats, two Republicans and two Democrats.
Republican incumbent candidate John Bermingham was the sole voice of reason on the BOS during the runup to the Board of Supervisors essentially granting multiple zoning variances and SALDO waivers, under the thin guise of a zoning amendment (known as the "Text Amendment"). The Text Amendment was authored by developer Lou Pektor, who requested several significant changes to the ordinances that would specifically exempt his kind of business from regulation.
The other Republican candidate was incumbent Anthony DeFranco, who spearheaded with comrade Robert Teel the effort to clear the decks in UMBT for Pektor's development. DeFranco is the driving force behind the township's Economic Development Committee, which has cheerlead for Pektor's development, by holding regular meetings with representatives of Pektor's team. DeFranco and Teel appointed themselves to the township planning commission, to keep the oiled wheels of corruption running smoothly down the track.
On the Democratic side was David Friedman, a 44-year long resident of the township, former member and chairman of the planning commission, and member of a zoning update committee. Mr. Friedman has been active in questioning and challenging the process by which the Text Amendment was passed, and believes it was not in the best interest of the township. He believes in responsible development, and using an accepted public process with citizen input to make well-planned changes to township ordinances. Not the process used to pass the Text Amendment.
The other Democratic candidate was Stavros Barbounis, also a former planning commission member, who does IT work for the township and is the chairman of the parks and recreation department. He has been a resident for 6 years. In an interview by the Morning Call, Mr. Barbounis said he was concerned about "procedural problems" in following regulations, but apparently he was not sufficiently concerned about the Text Amendment to speak against it. Rather, he said that he felt the previous zoning was "too restrictive" for Pektor's kind of development. That doesn't justify side dealing with a developer to grant several variances and waivers, by ramming a zoning amendment that the developer himself authored through approval - against multiple the recommendations of the township engineer.
Bermingham and Friedman asked voters in their respective parties to write-in Friedman and Bermingham, in lieu of voting for DeFranco and Barbounis - a bold but not improper thing to do. In this fashion, if the write-in tallys exceeded the vote totals for DeFranco and Barbounis, they would not be on the ballot in November. A local blogger critiqued and questioned this strategy - you can find his post here, and pointed out the the Slate Belt Republicans Association ex-communicated Bermingham for his actions.
It appears that this maneuver may have succeeded. The unofficial results show that write-in votes significantly exceeded the totals for DeFranco and Barbounis, and Bermingham and Friedman were the top vote recipients. Unless a lot of people wrote in another candidate(s), or errors in spelling were made, Bermingham and Friedman will be the only candidates on the ballot in November. This is democracy in action, folks. Screw me over once, blame on you. Screw me over twice, blame on me. If these results bear out what it appears they may, Bermingham may feel it was worth losing out on receiving the SBRA's annual calendar.
