Judge may need to decide if Parsippany GOP county committee appointments are valid

The fight between Parsippany Mayor James Barberio and Board of Education President Suzy Golderer to serve a Republican municipal chair could be headed to court after thirteen vacancies – perhaps enough to swing the election – were filled without a county committee vote.

Dee dePierro, the current municipal chair and a Barberio supporter, filed thirteen appointments to the county committee with County Clerk Ann Grossi, a move that appears to violate the Parsippany GOP bylaws that require vacancies to be filled by a vote of the entire organization.

But dePierro maintains that she can fill vacancies, something other municipal chairs have done in the past.

“A chairwoman, I have every right to appoint people,” dePierro told the New Jersey Globe.  “I reached out to Mayor Barberio, to my husband, Mike, the vice president of the council, and to Loretta Gragnani, the council president.  I asked them who they wanted.  We wanted new people.  I’m trying to bring the party together.”

No meeting was held; dePierro still needs to schedule the election.  Grossi, either inadvertently or on purpose, certified the appointments.

Election Day resulted in 65 of Parsippany’s 78 county committee seats being filled, including several contested races and a few successful write-in candidates.

Gragnani lost re-election to her 23rd district seat by ten votes, 46-36, to Nancy Snyder, a former TV traffic reporter and now the New Jersey Transit communications director.  Instead, Gragnani was appointed to fill an open seat in the 26th district.

Former Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce was appointed to fill the 2nd district county committee seat no one else had sought.  DeCroce finished third in that district behind incumbents Jay Webber (R-Morris Plains) and Brian Bergen (R-Denville) in her unsuccessful bid to recapture her old Assembly seat.

Anne Marie Ferrara, who lost her county committee bid in the 25th district by three votes, was appointed to the 22nd district seat.

In the 18th district, Joseph Beyroutey defeated John Beehler by ten votes, 57-47.  But Beyroutey has moved to another district, and Beehler was seated instead.

Parsippany Republicans continue to be sharply divided, as they have been since 1965, when two distinct factions went to war after voters switched from a non-partisan township manager form of government to the direct election of a strong mayor in partisan elections.

Barberio backed Morris County Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo (R-Montville) for State Senate against five-term incumbent Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville) and DeCroce against Bergen.  Despite the mayor’s endorsement, Pennacchio and Bergen carried Parsippany by wide margins.

Now Pennacchio and Bergen are backing Golderer for municipal chair.   Webber supports Barberio and had attempted to broker a peace accord to make Golderer the vice chair.

That left dePierro angered by outsiders trying to be involved in the battle to pick her successor.

“I think anyone who doesn’t live in Parsippany shouldn’t be involved,” she said.