Red Bank Council appointment triggers internecine fight

The appointment earlier this month of Angela Mirandi to a vacant seat on the Red Bank Borough Council has led to a protracted battle among Red Bank Democrats, some of whom are arguing in court that Mirandi’s appointment was illegal.

On January 19, Councilman Erik Yngstrom resigned from the six-member council, which is composed entirely of Democrats. The Red Bank municipal charter decrees that, in the event of a council vacancy, the incumbent party committee must submit a list of three names to mayor, who will then recommend his or her preferred candidate to the council for approval.

According to Councilwoman and Democratic municipal committeeperson Kathy Horgan and Democratic municipal committee secretary Kate Okeson, Democratic municipal chair Edward Zipprich – who also serves on the council – circumvented that process and named Mirandi, Stephen Hecht, and John Jackson for the seat without consulting with the entire municipal committee.

“Zipprich did not afford each of the members of the [Red Bank Democratic Municipal Committee] (RBDMC) with any opportunity to carry out their statutory obligations in addressing the vacancy,” a lawsuit filed by Horgan and Okeson alleges. “Instead, Zipprich claims to have set up a sham ‘ad hoc’ committee comprised of hand-picked loyalists, many of whom are not even elected to the RBDMC, to select the three names, to the exclusion of RBDMC members that he is not politically aligned with.”

Red Bank Mayor Pat Menna chose Hecht, but Hecht’s nomination foundered in the council, which then went on to choose Mirandi in a 3-1-1 vote on February 9. If successful, Horgan and Okeson’s lawsuit, which was filed by Republican attorney Ted Maciag, would nullify Mirandi’s appointment and remove her from the council.

Zippirch filed a response yesterday via his attorney, Daniel Antonelli, insisting that the Democratic committee failed to submit a list of three names within the allotted 15 days. That delay, Zipprich is arguing, meant that the responsibility to fill the vacancy shifted to the council itself, which does not have to obey any restrictions on its appointments other than that the appointee must be of the same political party as the prior councilmember.

“The balance of equities favors maintaining the status quo of permitting Mirandi to remain a member of Council while the litigation is pending,” Antonelli wrote in the letter. “Moreover, without immediate and irreparable harm, and a complete absence of likelihood of success on the merits, the balance of the equities favors the RBDMC and Mirandi who was chosen to fill the vacancy by a majority vote of Council.”

The fight over Mirandi’s seat is a continuation of a prior battle between Zipprich and other Democrats in the borough. Last year, Zipprich backed Jacqueline Sturdivant and Bruce Maida for two seats on the council against incumbent Councilmembers Kate Triggiano and Hazim Yassin; the end result was split, with Triggiano and Sturdivant winning the top two spots in the Democratic primary.

Zipprich, Sturdivant, and Councilman Michael Ballard have formed one faction on the council, with Yngstrom, Horgan, and Triggiano in opposition. The appointment of Mirandi to succeed Yngstrom, then, may tip the balance in favor of Zipprich’s faction.

When he resigned, Yngstrom said that the political tenor of the council had grown unbearable because some members “seem more focused on political gains and people trying to keep their perceived political power.”