U.F. deputy mayor wants out of politics
Miscoski will miss town work, but not public scrutiny
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

"It's a sad day for me. I've always had a great passion, a love for Upper Freehold." - Bill Miscoski

UPPER FREEHOLD - After 15 years on the township's governing body, Bill Miscoski is calling it quits.

Miscoski, who is currently serving as the township's deputy mayor and who has filled the mayoral seat several times over the years, did not file to run for the June Republican primary.

"It's a sad day for me," Miscoski said. "I've always had a great passion, a love for Upper Freehold."

Miscoski said he appreciates all the people who have supported him over the years as well as his family, which has sacrificed a lot to allow him to serve on the Township Committee.

While he is saddened by the thought of no longer working for the town, Miscoski said he does not want to experience the "nastiness" anymore that has increasingly become part of the job.

Miscoski said he regrets the past three years he has served on the Township Committee, since new people moving into the town have completely changed his attitude about public service.

"Not all of the new people," he said, alleging that about 10 percent of the newcomers have no clue what the town is about.

"They don't know how hard we worked to get the town the way it is," he said, referring to the municipality's open space and preserved farmland.

Miscoski said two of his longtime opponents, husband and wife Chris Berzinski and Sue Kozel, "are in a class by themselves."

"Their whole lives revolve around getting me," Miscoski alleged.

Together with his wife, Berzinski, who previously ran against Miscoski for a seat on the Township Committee and lost, filed a complaint with the Local Finance Board of the state Department of Community Affairs in 2002, alleging that Miscoski was involved in a conflict of interest when as a Township Committee member he voted affirmatively on a bond ordinance to provide funds to purchase open space, including a 51-acre parcel owned by his mother and a business partner.

Although Miscoski is appealing the decision, the board found him guilty on March 29 of violating a state ethics law.

Miscoski said he did not profit personally from his 2002 vote, because the land involved was not preserved until four years later. The parcel in question, along with the Miscoski family-owned Cream Ridge Golf Club in Upper Freehold, was put into preservation last year.

"[Preservation] is what I've been about and what this town has been about," he said.

The ordinance Miscoski voted on at the meeting in question appropriated $2 million for outdoor recreation and conservation, and authorized the issuance of $950,000 in bonds or notes for the township to finance part of the cost. Four votes

were required to ensure the funding mechanism for the matching grant agreement the township went into with the Green Acres Program for open space and due to a family emergency, then-Mayor David Horsnall unexpectedly left the meeting early.

Kozel's and Berzinski's persistence in pursuing the ethics issue shows Miscoski that they are out to get him, he said.

He alleged that since he's leaving office, the couple will find another public figure to scrutinize.

""Now that I'm taking off, I guarantee they will pick on someone else," he alleged. "That's how they live their lives."

Reflecting on the transformation of the community, Miscoski said Upper Freehold used to be a Republican town where people could work together. He said even if people had a difference of opinion, they "could sit down like gentlemen and discuss it."

While he had a difference of opinion with former Republican Township Committeemen John Mele and David Horsnall, Miscoski said they always "agreed to disagree."

He alleged that attitudes now reflect the saying "It's my way or the highway."

As an example, he used the issue of truck traffic on Sharon Station Road. Miscoski said that since he voted in favor of having Monmouth County look into taking over the road, a citizens organization called CARS sued him. He said the president and the board members of the group are attorneys and that none of them would tell him who hired the attorney to take the case. The lawsuit has since been dropped.

Miscoski also commented on the status of the township's Republican Party. He alleged that the organization's members are at one another's throats. He said some politicians have even gone back and forth between the Democratic and Republican parties, such as current Township Committeeman Robert Faber, who ran as a Democrat for Township Committee in 2004 before being elected as a Republican in 2006.

He also spoke about the current Township Committee. He called the public's perception that Township Committee members dislike one another "sad and inaccurate."

"If people could see what goes on in executive session and ... how well we work together, they'd be surprised," he said. "We don't agree on certain things, but we talk about it."

One thing he won't miss about being on the Township Committee, he said, is the public scrutiny that comes with being an elected official.

"I don't want to pick up the paper and be scrutinized," he said. "I don't want to see kids coming into meetings wearing T-shirts that say I don't care about children."

The latter incident occurred during a meeting concerning the Sharon Station Road truck traffic.

When asked if he would still be involved in township affairs, Miscoski said he will remain active in Friends of Upper Freehold (FUF), a nonprofit organization for recreation.

"We don't discuss politics whatsoever," he said. "We raise money to help parks and children."

Right now, Miscoski said he is "very sour" on everything in Upper Freehold other than the FUF.

"I don't want to work with political people anymore," he said.

Miscoski gave some advice to those who will serve on the Township Committee next year.

"Leave your egos at the door," he said. "Listen to the other side of every story and try to understand where that person is coming from."

Miscoski continued, "Come to a happy medium, and do what is best for everybody in town. Do what is best for Upper Freehold."

Although he won't be on the Township Committee next year, Miscoski said he will still be busy. He will remain the manager of the Cream Ridge Golf Club, and he is also now a part owner of the New Egypt Speedway in Plumsted.