February 27, 2024

To Whom It May Concern:

On Monday, February 26th I attended the Manville Borough Council meeting. As usual, the meeting followed its normal flow with a review of ordinances and resolutions and our council members providing status updates from their committees. When it came to the public portion session of the agenda I have never been so disgusted and horrified at the behavior I saw.

Four members of the public spoke; two men first and then two women. When the men spoke, they asked some tough questions and made comments that were critical of the mayor and council. However, when the two women got up to ask tough questions and also shared some critical comments, they were met with hostility and anger that was completely unacceptable from an elected mayor.

Mayor Onderko at times ignored direct questions. He looked bored and during the first woman speaker, he at one point addressed those in the gallery while she was speaking that he has "many times asked the speaker to come see him on these items yet she refuses" which prompted the speaker to indicate she wants her comments and the responses to be on the record. The mayor accused her of grandstanding and then yelled at her to sit down. As the speaker moved back to her seat he again addressed those in the gallery and implied he was "this close" to having police officers remove the speaker.

When the second woman speaker rose to ask about the assessment process the mayor indicated she should go speak with the assessor in his office. Again, the speaker indicated she wanted her questions and his responses on the record. At that point, he continued to argue with her and as she went to take her seat he taunted her with comments about losing school funding and raising taxes. The speaker was a former school board member and the comments made by the mayor were inappropriate and irrelevant to the situation.

Mayor Onderko wanted a third term despite the fact he claims to be a champion of term limits. Now that he has the job again, he feels he can use his position to belittle, demean, and disrespect constituents and residents. His behavior is inexcusable. Part of being an elected official is to take on the hard questions and to work to help residents. The fact that not one elected official tried to reign in his bad behavior is an embarrassment to Manville. We the residents not only expect but demand adult behavior from our elected officials. Shame on them for not doing better.

Roberta G Walters
Manville NJ