Under Mayor Anthony Fanucci’s leadership Vineland has been improving. City voters know it, that’s why Fanucci cruised to re-election and his council slate received opposition from only one candidate.
Fanucci has had a great working relationship with city council. No doubt the council ship has been steered by Council President Paul Spinelli. No one can argue that Spinelli hasn’t done a fantastic job as Council President.
Regular listeners of the Bob & Steve Show heard the bombshell dropped by Bob on last Saturday’s show that Paul Spinelli will not be Council President come the new year.
The obvious question is why.
You don’t hire a new coach for a winning team. Vineland has been winning. So that can’t be it.
There was an argument that tradition calls for the top vote getter to be installed as Council President.
That argument is untrue! Some of us are old enough to remember when Cumberland County Freeholder/Commissioner Doug Albrecht was on Vineland City Council. He was top vote getter and was NOT Council President. Nope! No tradition!
Sources close to the situation tell us there was a meeting between a few stakeholders.
What we were able to get out of our sources is that a Democratic party leader, Todd Edwards, from Bridgeton was at the meeting.
Sources confirmed to us that Edwards was there to lobby for Dr. Elizabeth Arthur becoming Council President. We were informed some stakeholders at the meeting pushed back and they were told it could become problematic if Dr. Arthur is not made Council President. It’s also when the top vote getter lie was floated.
Of course, this leads us to wonder exactly why there could be issues if Dr. Arthur is not installed as Council President. Under current leadership Vineland has been running better than it has in years. Besides, who holds the position of Council President is something the typical city resident pays little, if any, attention to. It’s an inside baseball kind of thing.
We’re also wondering why a resident of Bridgeton had any role in selecting who might become Vineland Council President. Why was Edwards even part of this discussion? Did Dr. Arthur invite him? If not, then who invited him and why? Why not invite a Republican leader to the meeting to balance things out? Why not invite another out-of-towner to make a decision about Vineland’s government?
Why not invite one person each from the unincorporated communities of Vineland, Alabama, Vineland, Colorado and Vineland, Florida? It makes as much sense as having someone living in Bridgeton play a role in who serves as Council President in Vineland.
Vineland has been running better under current leadership than it has in years. Suddenly, someone wants to change course. It makes no sense.
What makes even less sense is that someone who doesn’t live in Vineland is playing a role in the decision to change course in Vineland.
We’re going to keep our eyes on this situation. No doubt there is more to come.
