Mayor Lester Taylor

I have previously expressed several of my opinions about mayoral candidate Lester Taylor in talking about his blocking me from asking questions on his Facebook page after I tried to get him to clarify the vague campaign goals he had posted in March of 2013. The question I asked was also deleted.

Now that he has been elected mayor, it seems that every time I raise a question or concern on the East Orange City's Facebook Page, it gets immediately erased if it seems even slightly critical of the new mayor. I don't know if it is Lester Taylor himself doing the deleting or an over-zealous member of his administration, but in either case, it reflects badly on the new mayor, only 16 days into his one and only (I hope) term of office. His attempt to silence criticism this way will backfire on him, as I intend to now post any criticisms I have (and they are beginning to mount up) on this Web site which is not under his control. I invite any other citizens of East Orange who post criticisms of the mayor or his administration that are deleted or blocked on the city Facebook page to send me copies so I can post them here as well.

My latest criticism, posted and deleted on 1/16/14 was a simple question regarding an incident reported in the Essex Daily News regarding deputy court administrator James Moss who admitted on January 8th that he had given EOPD officers "blanket approval" to use his signature on "minor offenses." In this case, the "minor offense" happened to involve an Irvington traffic violation by Moss's niece by marriage, Brielle Concepcion. I wanted the mayor's opinion on whether this practice of allowing his court administrators to escape the simple duty of signing their own documents by allowing for blanket approvals to their subordinates in the court or police department should be allowed to continue. In this case, Moss shoved PBA President Elaine Settle of the EOPD under the proverbial bus for following what had become a standard procedure of using his signature just because this case happened to involve a relative of his.

1/20/14 - The mayor continues to let the main issue in the above case dangle. My response to the next Essex News Daily article dated 1/19/14 is as follows:

"It seems to me our new mayor is already showing an inability to take a decisive and obvious first step, which is dealing with his court administrator Jame Moss’s practice of getting out of work by passing the buck on making decisions that should be his alone to make. Moss admitted in open court that he allowed EOPD officers to use his signature. That’s what is behind this entire issue, and that should be something the mayor can stop with a word: “NO.” It seems the mayor is a true politician, waiting to see which way the political wind is blowing before doing the right thing, which is to issue a blanket order for this practice to “cease and desist,” not only in the courts but in all departments under his authority. It’s a simple matter of each person on the city’s payroll doing the full and complete job that the city is paying for and not reassigning that job to a subordinate."I have recorded my response here because I am getting used to having my posts deleted both by the mayor and his administration, and by the Essex News Daily, an obvious tool of the Essex County Democratic "machine."

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